Artistic Residencies — Travessão #1

Dates: 8–12 June, 10:00 am–4:00 pm

Location: Rectorate Building, NOVA University Lisbon

Artists in Residence: Magalie Lanriot, Roel Q. Seeber and Olga Roriz

Magalie Lanriot is a choreographer and performer specialising in contemporary and vertical dance. She works between France and Portugal. In recent years, Magalie has made a significant contribution to the development of vertical dance in Portugal and internationally. Her work explores a distinctive choreographic language within this field, with particular attention to the physicality of movement and the structure of the body. She establishes an intimate relationship with urban architecture and public spaces, creating encounters between places and their visitors, particularly in contexts where dance has little presence.

Olga Roriz is one of Portugal’s most prominent contemporary choreographers and dancers. Born in 1955 in Viana do Castelo, she began her training in classical dance and established herself as a performer before turning to choreography, developing a distinctive style characterised by emotional intensity and an exploration of human relationships. She was a soloist with Ballet Gulbenkian for several years, a period that played a decisive role in her artistic recognition. In 1995, she founded the Olga Roriz Company, with which she has developed an extensive repertoire presented both in Portugal and internationally. Throughout her career, she has received numerous awards and distinctions, establishing herself as a central figure in Portuguese contemporary dance.

Roel Q. Seeber is a dancer, artist and teacher based in Oakland, with an MFA in Dance from the University of Washington. Since 2008, he has devoted himself to performing, teaching and researching vertical dance, primarily with the vertical dance company Bandaloop, in the Bay Area, as well as as an independent artist. He has performed on buildings, cliffs and other large-scale vertical structures across all five continents. Roel is considered one of the most accomplished dancers of his generation and has developed a distinctive artistic identity, creating a unique approach to falling against the wall, explored through different parts of the body.

Discipline: Dance

This research-based artistic residency proposes a five-day period of work centred on the encounter between contemporary dance and the practice of vertical dance.

The project brings together dancers Magalie Lanriot and Roel Q. Seeber, who will develop a process of physical and choreographic exploration focused on the relationship between body, gravity and space, opening up new possibilities for composition and stage presence. The residency will be accompanied by choreographer Olga Roriz, invited to provide an external perspective throughout the process. Drawing on her extensive experience in choreographic creation and the dramaturgical construction of movement, Olga Roriz will contribute to the development and deepening of the research, creating a space for critical reflection on the material being developed.

Her perspective will support the development of physical and dramaturgical approaches, encouraging a dialogue between the specificities of vertical dance and a broader choreographic reflection on presence, composition and the narrative of the moving body.

Rather than focusing on the production of a final outcome, this residency aims to establish itself as a period of research, experimentation and exchange, allowing the artists to test materials, question processes and explore new directions for future creative development.