‘Vulnerability as Performative Power’ is a research workshop that explores vulnerability not as a psychological state to be laid bare, but as a condition of presence and a potential for action.
Building on the relationship between the body, speech and inner life, the workshop aims to explore what happens when we enable the body to express what is happening, to imagine what has not yet happened, and to act upon what moves us from within. Speech is understood here as an embodied practice: it is not simply a matter of talking about an experience, but of observing how thoughts, sensations, emotions, needs, memories and images can become the stuff of action and creation.
Through exercises in movement, description, direction, improvisation, listening and interaction, we also explore different theatrical roles (actor, narrator and ‘stage director’) and how these might overlap within the performer’s body.
A central question runs through the workshop: what might happen performatively when we do not attempt to portray our vulnerability, but instead create the conditions to listen to what is alive within us and allow this to influence our actions?
Vulnerability is thus understood as a possibility of choice and agency: it is not about revealing everything, nor about making intimacy public, but about being able to recognise what is going on within us, choosing what we wish to make visible, and taking the relational risk inherent in that choice.
The workshop combines choreographic and performative research, embodied speech practices, T’chi Clown and Empathic Communication, bringing together body and language, inner life and action, desire and relationship, consent and creation.
Credits
Henrique Furtado Vieira
Graduated in energy and environmental engineering, currently a dancer, performer and choreographer, Henrique Furtado Vieira lives in Lisbon. He carried out his artistic training in several French institutions (INSA Lyon, Extensions – CDC Toulouse, Prototype II and Dialogues III – Royaumont abbey). He develops his artistic practice mainly between choreographic creation and collaboration as a performer with various artists such as Bleuène Madelaine, Eric Languet, Aurélien Richard, Céline Cartillier, Tino Sehgal, Salomé Lamas, Ana Renata Polónia, André Uerba, Sofia Dias & Vítor Roriz, Vera Mantero, Boris Charmatz e Tania Soubry. From time to time, he dedicates himself to research, pedagogy and writing in relation to dance, in different contexts and through multiple partnerships (O Rumo do Fumo, Unlock Dancing Plaza, Ballet Contemporâneo do Norte, Colectivo 84, Comédias do Minho, GrETUA...), and more recently he has been involved as a dramaturg in the choreographies of Nicolas Hubert (Compagnie Épiderme) and Giulia Arduca (Compagnie Ke Kosa). He curated the second edition of the MATÉRIA project, together with Catarina Vieira and Josefa Pereira, organizing meetings, open to the community, on a monthly basis, to share artistic practices. His works are often created in synergy with other artists such as Bibi Ha Bibi, with Aloun Marchal, Stand still you ever-moving spheres of heaven, with Chiara Taviani, or To Die for Little Birds, with Lígia Soares. In his shows / performances, the overlapping of styles and genres, the vocal presence in dance and the space(s) of imagination have a prominent place. He has collaborated and presented his work in institutions such as Aerowaves, CDC Toulouse, Göteborg Theater and Dance Festival, Roma Europa Festival, DNA Network, Porto Municipal Theater, Temps d’Image Festival, Espaço do Tempo, CCB, among others.
