A ritual of the body seeking inspiration from Fernando Pessoa's The Book of Disquiet, translated into a dance of moods where the body itself becomes the ultimate means of communication. This is the hallmark of Rumor de deuses, a performance conceived by the Portuguese choreographer Paulo Ribeiro for his young company founded in 1995 in Lisbon and resident at the city's Teatro CineArte. "In this project," the artist explained, "I aim to embrace that strange feeling of freedom that doesn't rely on words and conventional representation techniques, but develops within us when we decide not to deny its existence: it is what allows us to escape certain tyrannies and to be ourselves, beyond circumstances." He continued: "I aim for a celebration par excellence. An exploration of a subtle physicality that, through accumulation, becomes exuberant in the inner sensations and outer images the body can evoke."
Based on these ideas, Ribeiro has built a sober choreography whose vocabulary, as the international press has noted, does not aim to seduce the audience but to establish a fruitful communicative exchange with them. Born in Lisbon in 1959, Ribeiro belongs to that group of Portuguese creators, like Rui Horta and Clara Andermatt, whose early careers in choreography are tied to the successful promotional activities of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, which has been associated with the prestigious Acarte International Festival since 1987.
However, Ribeiro made a name for himself as a dancer through extensive internships abroad, particularly in France with the National Ballet of the Lyon Opera, the Ballet of the Strasbourg Opera, and the companies of Christine Bastin, Charles Cré-Ange, and Anne Marie Reynaud. His first group, co-founded with other artists, was born in 1984 under the name Stridanse, with which he won second prize at the Volinine Contemporary Choreography Competition in the same year. Ribeiro has since been called upon to manage major public events, such as the celebrations in Nevers for the bicentennial of the French Revolution, the 1992 Seville Expo, and the 1994 events for Lisbon as the European Capital of Culture. Ribeiro has also been commissioned to create works for international companies such as the Ballet de Grand Théâtre de Genève and Nederlands Dans Theater.
