Marlene Monteiro Freitas

Marlene Monteiro Freitas (b. Cape Verde, 1979) studied dance at P.A.R.T.S. (Brussels), at ESD, and at Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon). She worked with choreographers such as Loïc Touzé, Emmanuelle Huynh, Tânia Carvalho, and Boris Charmatz. Among others, her creations include “Canine Jaunâtre 3” (2024, for Le Ballet de l’Opéra National de Lyon; 2018, for Batsheva), “LULU” (2023, with Theater an der Wien and Wiener Festwochen), “RI TE” (2022, with Israel Galván), “ÔSS” (2022, for Dançando com a Diferença), the performance “Idiota” and the exhibition “X AND” (2022, around the painting of Alex da Silva), “Pierrot Lunaire” (2021, with Klangforum Wien and Ingo Metzmacher), “Mal-Embriaguez Divina” (2020), the installation “Cattivo” (2019), “Bacchae—Prelude to a Purge” (2017), “Jaguar” (2015), “Of Ivory and Flesh—Statues Also Suffer” (2014), “Paradise—Private Collection” (2012), “(M)imosa” (2011, with Trajal Harrell, François Chaignaud, and Cecilia Bengolea), “Guintche” (2010), “A Seriedade do Animal” (2009), “Uns e Outros” (2008), “A Improbabilidade da Certeza” (2006), “Larvar” (2006), and “Primeira Impressão” (2005).

“NÔT” is her latest creation for the Avignon Festival. The common denominator of these works is openness, hybridism, impurity, and intensity. In 2015, in Lisbon, she co-founded P.OR.K., the company that has since produced her work. In 2017, “Jaguar” was awarded the SPA prize for choreography, and the Cape Verde government distinguished her cultural achievements; in 2018, she was awarded a Silver Lion by the Venice Biennale; in 2020, “Bacchae” was awarded the Prize for the Best International Performance by Les Prémis de la Critica d’Arts Escèniques of Barcelona; and in 2022 she was awarded the Chanel Next Prize and the Evens Arts Prize. Since 2020, she has co-curated the project “(un)common ground” on the artistic and cultural inscription of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Marlene Monteiro Freitas was an Onassis AiR Fellow for 2024/25 through the Dramaturgy Fellowship.