Panorama Contemporary Dance Festival Returns to Rio

By Chesney Hearst, Senior Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Beginning October 30th and running through November 15th, the 24th edition of the Festival Panorama will take place in a dozen locations throughout the city of Rio de Janeiro and will feature eighteen shows celebrating dance and movement, as well as one video installation, four workshops, debates and roundtable discussions.

Having held its first edition in 1992, the Festival Panorama has presented national and international artists performing dances and projects of varying sizes in both traditional and non-theatrical spaces in Rio de Janeiro for over two decades.

This year the performances, which will range in price from free to R$30, will take place in the locations of Oi Futuro Flamengo, Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage, Espaço Cultural Municipal Sérgio Porto, Teatro João Caetano, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Centro de Artes da Maré, Campo de Santana, Cidade das Artes, Oi Futuro, Praia de Ipanema (Ipanema Beach), Cinelândia and two new spaces to the festival this year, Parque Madureira and Sala Cecília Meireles.

In addition to ten artists and performers from the Brazilian states of Rio de Janeiro, Alagoas, São Paulo and Santa Catarina, there will be eleven international attractions from the countries of Italy, Serbia, Croatia, Sweden, Great Britain, Portugal, Germany, Morocco.

The focus of this year’s festival is the relationship of dance with texts and with the passage of time. Performances of note include Portuguese choreographer Marco da Silva Ferreira’s “hu(r)mano” a dance routine with electronic music featuring four performers exploring, through their movements, the experience of living and moving through contemporary urban spaces. This piece will be presented on November 1st and 2nd at the Cultural Municipal Sérgio Porto and entrance fee will be R$30.

Marina Guzzo’s “Navios” (Ships) will be presented, free to the pubic, at Oi Futuro Ipanema on November 7th and 8th at 6PM on both days and will explore the possible end of the world while the Alagoas company. A Companhia dos Pés, will explore cultural differences through a blending of contemporary dance and traditional and folk dances in their piece “dança baixa” (low dance), which will be presented Espaço Cultural Municipal Sérgio Porto on November 6th and 7th at 9:30 PM each night with the entrance fee of R$30.

The duo of Croacitian and Italian dancers and choreographers Barbara Matijević and Guseppe Chico will present their piece, “Forecasting” at Espaço Cultural Municipal Sérgio Porto on November 12th and 13th at 9PM each night with an entrance of R$30. The piece uses YouTube clips, laptops, and performers to explore spatial awareness and temporal placements.

The festival’s installation, “Sensecapesm” is an interactive, multi-sensory experience for children between the ages of three and eighteen months and their familes meant to encourage movement and discovery through visual, tactile and auditory stimulation and will take place in Oi Futuro Flamengo from October 31st through November 1st at 11AM, 2PM and 4PM each day with an entrance fee of R$20.

The two debates of the festival will take place at the Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage on October 31st and November 1st and the two discussions will also take place at the Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage on November 3rd and 9th.

For a complete schedule of events, more information about the performances and performers, and the addresses of the performance spaces, see the Festival Panorama website.

What: Festival Panorama
When: October 30th through November 15th
Where: Various locations.
Entrance: FREE to R$30