Life and work of Vivian choreographer and dancer Olga Roriz in documentary

A documentary about the life and work of Olga Roriz, a dancer and choreographer who is among the most important in contemporary dance, will premiere on April 3, in Lisbon, signed by director Cristina Ferreira Gomes.

Produced by Mares do Sul, directed and written by Cristina Ferreira Gomes, the documentary is written and interviewed by Luiz Antunes, the result of two years of filming that accompanied the process of creating the show “Pas d’Agitation”, and its premiere , in Paris, in 2022, according to the production.

Under the title “Olga Roriz”, the documentary – the result of an “intimate journey through the creative and intense worlds” of the choreographer – will premiere at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, in Lisbon, on April 3, at 6:30 pm, with free entry, in the presence of the creator, and premieres on RTP2 on April 5th.

The long filming period allowed Cristina Ferreira Gomes – who also signed a documentary about the choreographer Vera Maintaino, in 2023, and is due to premiere another this year about Clara Andermatt – to establish a strong proximity with the choreographer, and build an intimate film about the life and work of Olga Roriz, passing through different geographies, such as the Azores, Lisbon, Évora and Paris.

Olga Roriz’s repertoire in the area of ​​dance, theater and video consists of more than 90 works, of which the most recent – ​​“The hour in which we knew nothing about each other” (2023), “Deste Mundo e do Outro” (2022), “My story is not the same as yours”, with interpretation by inmates, “Six months later” (2020), and “Autópsia” -, like most of his production, had presentations across the country.

Roriz created and reassembled pieces for Ballet Gulbenkian, Companhia Nacional de Bailado, Ballet Teatro Guaira (Brazil), Ballets de Monte Carlo, Ballet Nacional de España, English National Ballet, American Reportory Ballet and Alla Scala in Milan (Italy).

In 2015, he marked 20 years of the company in his own name and 40 years of career, with the revisiting of the play “Private Property” (1996), at the Centro Cultural de Belém (CCB), in Lisbon.

Born in Viana do Castelo in 1955, Olga Roriz studied classical ballet and modern dance with Margarida Abreu and Ana Ivanova, joined the Dance School of the National Conservatory of Lisbon and became a prima ballerina at the Gulbenkian Ballet, where she was later invited to choreograph. .

In 1995, he created the Companhia Olga Roriz, currently located in the Palácio Pancas Palha, provided by the Lisbon City Council.

His repertoire in the area of ​​dance also includes, among others, the pieces “Pedro e Inês”, “Inferno”, “Start and Stop Again”, “Propriedade Privada”, “Electra”, “Os Olhos de Gulay Cabbar”, “Nortada”, “Jump-Up-And-Kiss-Me”, “Pets”, “The Rite of Spring”, “Before They Kill the Elephants”, “Syndrome”.

She was distinguished with the insignia of the Order of Infante D. Henrique (2004), the Grand Prize of the Portuguese Society of Authors (2008) and the Latinity Prize (2012), among others.

Contemporary dance has been a regular theme in the documentary work of Cristina Ferreira Gomes and Luiz Antunes, a mutual interest that deepened with the production of the 16-episode documentary series “Portugal que Dança”.

Cristina Ferreira Gomes, director who runs the production company Mares do Sul, made her debut with the documentary “Mulheres ao Mar”, with which she received the Revelation award at the Festival Caminhos do Cinema Português, in 2002. In 2020, with “Os Últimos Dias ”, received the award for best documentary at the FesTin festival.

The dancer, choreographer and researcher Luiz Antunes, trained in dance and music, studied with Anna Mascolo and his career also included the Paris Opera school and the Jacques Lecoq school. He was also an artistic and production intern at Ballet Gulbenkian and assistant to Olga Roriz.

As a choreographer, he has been working since 2000. He was the founder of Heurtebise – Associação Cultural, and published several works and articles in the research area.

In addition to collaborating with Cristina Ferreira Gomes, he conducted interviews and collaborated on the script for the documentary “Um corpo que Dança” about the Gulbenkian Ballet, by director Marco Martins.