«Which of the ladies is going to introduce Casais to the minister?», asks Madalena Victorino to the group of women, already of some age, who gathered at the old primary school in the village of the municipality of Monchique, waiting for Pedro Adão e Silva, holder of the Culture folder.
«That's for Gonçalinho», replies one of the ladies, pointing to the president of the Parish Council of Monchique, José Gonçalo.
But when the minister arrives, it will be Madalena, then Carolina Sendim, then D. Dorila and many other ladies in the group explaining to the minister what the village is all about, but above all, what this artistic residency in which they themselves participate and which will give rise, from the 12th to the 14th of May, to the show «Casais», integrated in the always creative program of Lavrar o Mar.
At the end of the visit, included in the route dedicated to the “Culture that we are”, which, last Friday, had already taken the Minister of Culture to Castro Verde and São Luís, in the neighboring municipality of Odemira, one of the ladies returned He stopped at Pedro Adão e Silva and said: «It was nice to meet you. You are friendly and approachable, I did not expect that from a minister». Another lady, more daring, shot: «And on top of that he's handsome!». General laughter, including the ruler.
Still on the street, at the door of the old school, the choreographer and director Madalena Victorino explained to the minister, as well as Adriana Nogueira, regional director of Culture in the Algarve, and the executive of the Monchique Chamber – its president Paulo Alves, the vice president Humberto Sério and councilor Helena Martiniano – that the «Couples» project starts out as a six-week artistic residency, in which all those who come from outside are actually living in the village and interacting with its inhabitants, many of them (especially of them) participants in the project that will culminate in the public presentation of the show.
The team – made up mainly of Portuguese musicians and dancers (or nearly so) from Barcelos, Viana do Castelo, Porto to Lisbon, Salvaterra de Magos and Monchique – is artistically coordinated by Madalena Victorino, Alice Duarte, Pedro Salvador and Alexandre Moniz, but also includes Carolina Sendim, Maria Abrantes, Sofia Kafol, Pedro Matias and the inhabitants of Casais.
The village has around 90 inhabitants and only one Portuguese child lives there permanently, Samuel, who also participates in the show. There are other Portuguese kids, but they aren't always there, as well as two babies born to Germans who settled there.
«As soon as we arrived here, we started to meet these people, namely D. Aurora, who is the oldest person, a former whitewasher», aged 90. Incidentally, D. Aurora is also part of the creation that the Lavrar o Mar team is engendering.
«In this residence, we are here every day, including weekends and holidays. It gives us an opportunity to talk to each other. It is from the material of these conversations that the material of our show arises, which runs through the whole village», having as stopping points the chapel, the school, the café and the tank, continues Madalena.
«We start from familiarity, from the things that people know so well, to take them on the journey of the unknown that is contemporary art», he adds.
In the old school, where the President of the Board wants to install a museum pole to tell the story of this building typically from the Estado Novo, as well as a community center, the walls are now covered with leaves with written things. Leaning against each other, there are three large boards, with words from the daily lives of the people of Casais. Banal things like bed, soap, kettle, plengana or terrine, everyday things, like the name of the tasks (dig, fall, run, give, fill...), the fruits and vegetables that the earth gives (lemons, lupine, purslane, turnip greens...), animals (cat, donkey, pig, lizard, sardon...).
«Dance people take words and turn them into movement, because words have movement», says Madalena. And a group of dancers reads and dances, before the minister, the list of animals.
At the end, Pedro Adão e Silva asks: «what is a mongoose?». Everyone, at the same time, tries to explain to him what the hell that animal is. It is not known whether the ruler was enlightened, but it was not for lack of trying.
Carolina Sendim is called upon to explain a text that supports the dance and music of another part of the show. «The text talks about my relationship with the body». He speaks of «old age, forgetfulness, strokes». «I started to write about the complaints of others and about my own», she faces the body. And about «the idea of ruins», of the body and of villages.
At a certain point in the show, a lady from Mongolia who lives in the village «is going to sing, a guttural song that she learned from her mother», in that distant Asian country. And that will set the tone for other songs, in a «fusion» and multiculturalism that is already a hallmark of Lavrar o Mar productions.
One of these songs is the march that was sung at the dances that made Casais famous. D. Dorila, with almost 80 years of well-lived life, explains to the minister that “it was a march that I made 47 years ago, with 30 boys and girls. It was supposed to be a week, it lasted a year. People come from everywhere. I was the rehearser”.
And, in the room of the old school, the dance starts. Joining the musicians Pedro Salvador, Alexandre Moniz and the drummer, José Maria, husband of D. Dorila, plays…pine cones. That's right: pine cones. Two large maritime pine cones, which rub against each other, marking the rhythm.
D. Dorila adjusts the microphone and sings. The minister and the regional director of Culture, to whom sheets with the lyrics were distributed, accompany the chorus. In the middle of the room, dancing.
Even before going to see another place where the show will take place (the tank), Pedro Adão e Silva asks the people of the village who are actively participating what that artistic residency means to them. Nobody explains much, but it is clear that, for the inhabitants of Casais, the fact of having an artistic company living in the village and preparing a show with their memories, their stories, is important. «We used to go to the café and talk about the weather or that bread is more expensive, rice is more expensive. Now we have other things to do and to talk about», sums up one of the ladies.
The show is called «Couples» because this is, according to Madalena Victorino, «a fusion project: us + the population».
On the Lavrar o Mar website, the project is further explained: «Casais is a laboratory of absorption, creation and transformation that swells and crackles in a night show of music and dance».
«A group of artists stirs in the skeleton of the village closed in on them and raises words, movements and sighs that still bring the warmth of freshly baked bread».
«Time is reversed but does not go back, it advances to another side, suspended and vibrant, which overflows from corners and goes up to the roofs».
«Stories are peeled off in carvings, slipping and mixing inside the bodies. With them, the walls inside the houses stuck in the streets of the village fall down».
«Only the conch tells us whether it is a lie or the truth. Or the two donkeys, vigilantes».
After school, the entourage heads to the tank. There are those who cross D. Dorila's garden and take the opportunity, with the owner's permission, to pick lemons and clementines.
In the tank, two dancers, one with her arm across her chest, writhe in movements that mix with the walls and the water.
the reporter from Sul Informação, who takes the arm of one of the elderly women to help her up the ramp from the tank, asks her: «so what did you think of the dancing here in this place?». The lady stops, takes a deep breath to catch her breath and says: «so many clothes I washed there, so much bad language that went around there... I never thought that the tank was good for anything else, now you can't even wash it there anymore. Look… I really enjoyed watching the dances, really. It's not because we live here in the village, isolated in the mountains, that we don't like these modern things».
In the end, in declarations to the Sul Informação, the Minister of Culture made a «very positive assessment» of his day in the south.
Before arriving in Casais, towards the end of the day, to learn about the Lavrar o Mar project, Pedro Adão e Silva had been to Castro Verde, to Discover “Futurama”, the Cultural and Artistic Ecosystem of Baixo Alentejo, and then in São Luís, where he was introduced to the artistic project “Cultivamos Cultura”.
«These are three very different projects, but they show a community dimension of culture and how culture can help transform the identities of territories», he added, in his statements to our newspaper.
All these projects are promoted by entities supported under the Support Program Sustained by the Directorate-General for Arts (DGARTES), that is, «supported by the Ministry of Culture» and «help transform identities, support self-esteem and have a very important community dimension, involving local communities».
Despite the two hours that the official spent in Casais, he did not get to know all the show that will open in May and that has «many atmospheres».
«Now we are not going to do everything, you have to come and see our show», challenged Madalena Victorino.
«I'm looking forward to the time to come here to sing and dance», concluded Dona Dorila.
Photos and video: Elisabete Rodrigues | Sul Informação
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