On scene, what defines the quality of presence?

What makes an event exceptional or ordinary, given the variables implicit in the performance of those who embody it?

The concentration and commitment to the quality of presence, which we sometimes call the “delivery” of the protagonists, occurs in the here and now, in a particular, unrepeatable space and time. The importance of the moment imbues the performance with a temporal

intensity that transcends reflective consciousness or intentional thought, and the actor’s [in the sense of one who acts] dedication heightens the audience’s attention and response, in a phenomenon of empathy management.

In this saturation, one sometimes experiences a splitting; on the one hand, one acts, and on the other, one observes, and this duality sometimes leads to what can be described as an altered state of consciousness, a kind of trance, or a distinct existential dimension. This experience is so unique that it is often associated with something indescribable, mysterious, unnameable, or even esoteric.

This cycle aims to empirically explore this mystery.

In “SIMULACRO,” by Carminda Soares and Margarida Montenÿ – which the authors describe as an exercise in intimacy, repetition, and resistance – two bodies in continuous motion explore the limits of their proximity through the degenerative nature of gesture.

A diffuse space is created between the real and the staged, between the public and the private, heightening states of vulnerability, anticipation, and tension. The piece draws on a set of actions and gestures present in the daily lives of the two protagonists, interwoven with fragments of shared memories, in a slow exercise of transforming the bodies and their impulses, and will be presented in two distinct ways: initially “marking,” as the dancers say when referring to a structural passage stripped of any emphasis on the quality of presence, and then, “complete.”