This project gathers two contemporary dance communities that are from the westernmost and easternmost points of Europe. The representatives of these communities are choreographer Francisco Camacho and his organization Eira, dancers Leyla Postalcıoğlu and Mihran Tomasyan on behalf of Çıplak Ayaklar Kumpanyası, alongside musician Berke Can Özcan.

The Portuguese leading choreographer from Lisbon has asserted EIRA as a fundamental player in the artistic scene of this capital in the westernmost tip of continental Europe. Çıplak Ayaklar Kumpanyası is an organization of remarkable longevity in Istanbul, the only capital in the world to encompass two continents – Europe and Asia -, and proposes the reunion of two dancers and a musician, all distinguished in their country, besides a strong international presence. Not incidentally, the encounters among these Portuguese and Turkish artists have happened in the context of these international crossroads.

With an artistic team rooted in these two different harbor cities, with a pronounced intersection of diverse traditions and nationalities, and combining highly contrasting socio-cultural realities, it is only natural that the artistic work should partially reflect these characteristics. The performance unfolds through a continuum of actions that evoke travel, nomadism, the creation of conditions for survival and for the maintenance of a model of life already familiar.

Are the things we carry the ones we need? Are they the ones that allow us to survive? Or are they those that allow us to perpetuate a model of life already known without questioning it? Do we repeat inconsequent gestures without realizing their arbitrariness, or do we repeat them because without them we would allow the void to creep in? Are we in full charge of our laboratory of life or are our actions nothing more than ways of postponing the confrontation with an interpellation that could put all our experience into question?

Supported by Portuguese Republic – Ministry of Culture |Directorate-General of Arts; Camões Institute and  Embassy of Portugal in Turkey