O Contemporary Dance and Aikido Workshop

Registration is now open for the Contemporary Dance and Aikido Workshop, with Joana Couto and Leonardo Calvino, in Artistic Residency under the Teatro do Mar's Support Program for Artistic Creation for Public Space.

🗓 August 13th | Free

🕔 18h00 - 20h00 | Target audience: over 17 years old

📍 Teatro do Mar Headquarters - Rua da Reforma Agrária, 2 (Old Primary School)

This workshop is an integral part of the creation process for the show budô by the collective Cerca Trova, to be presented at the m.a.r. Street Arts Exhibition in September 2025.

This workshop consists of introducing participants to practices related to the areas of research involved in the work "Budô" by Joana Couto and Leo Calvino, namely contemporary dance and martial arts. In this context, the creators will offer exercises in partnering / contact improvisation and their relationship with concepts from Aikido, a Japanese martial art that has consolidated the knowledge of various other ancient martial arts into a modern vision. the workshop is open to anyone who is interested in connecting with their body and in dynamics of dialogue with others.

Biography:

Joana Couto attended the Ginasiano Dance School and the ArtEZ arts university in the Netherlands. In 2025, she was nominated by the max(es) Awards in the category of "best female dancer" for her participation in the work "Natural Order of Things" by gnmc. Leonardo Calvino (pseudonym of Iuri Martins) is self-taught by nature and has had a multidisciplinary path, passing through martial arts, music, comic book scripting, circus, and currently dedicating himself to dance and magic as research territory. The two creators began to culminate their artistic visions in 2020, with an interest in blending their different areas of research. Since then they have established partnerships in their personal projects, collective creations and have also worked for other companies as a creative duo. They are venturing into a new partnership with the work "Budô", which marks the official start of their artistic collective Cerca Trova.