A presentation of the structure RE.AL, directed by João Fiadeiro, its philosophies, activities strategies to support the arts.
RE.AL is a body that spends part of its time working on productions by João Fiadeiro and other young Portuguese choreographers, and the other part organising community events. Created in 1990 in response to an invitation by Europalia91, sixteen years later our main reason for existing remains the same – to develop a territory that stimulates reflection, experimentation and investigation in relation to contemporary issues.
In our case, the reflection starts from, or takes place through, dance, although the participants and the results are often barely recognizable as what we would usually call dance. We firmly believe that the most complete and satisfying answers to some of the questions posed by contemporary man and woman can be found in the area currently filled by dance. We provide an exceptionally favourable space, where truly innovative issues and initiatives can coexist and draw together many kinds of people who don't necessarily want to identify with a limited area, and work with them in a very direct way.
Because we are aware that this reflection works on different levels in relation to artists, audiences and co-producers, we try to promote and respect the platforms where interventions take place and organise projects that share similar ideas and complement each other.
One of our most notable regular projects is LAB- Proyectos en Movimiento. Organised 12 times since 1993, it has provided investigation time and space to more than 200 artists and presented over 150 experience fragments, seminars and public debates. RE.AL has also organised several workshops on composition, improvisation and stage craft techniques for contemporary dance and theatre, with Portuguese and foreign professionals. Their one-off projects include co-organising the Skite project, the initiative 31 de Diciembre de 1999 and the festival A dança muda lugares. In 2000, RE.AL organised the event Dez Mais Dez in collaboration with Forum Dança and the French-Portuguese Institute, resulting in a publication that compares the current situation of contemporary dance in Portugal with the way it evolved in the 90s.
In 2003, the choreographers Tiago Guedes and Claudia Dias accepted the invitation to become associate choreographers at RE.AL, giving them access to the logistical and financial conditions required to produce their work and RE.AL's support in planning their artistic and communications strategies. Their participation marked the beginning of a new phase for RE.AL, which is where we currently find ourselves - developing a project in which a dance company, traditionally linked to a single artist, gives way to a collective structure in which several choreographers develop their projects under a shared 'label': the RE.AL company. This new configuration of RE.AL and the fact that we have a new space in Lisbon – the Atelier Real – created the conditions to found the NIR (RE.AL's research core). Through workshops, weekly courses and coaching sessions, NIR promotes continuing independent research in the arts.