In the ambit of Guimarães 2012 - European Capital of Culture, the Centro de Criação para o Teatro e Artes de Rua, a centre for creation in theatre and street arts, based in Guimarães, invited Clara Andermatt to direct a piece with a Folklore group from the collectivity Casa do Povo of Serzedelo, and the rock band Macadame. Serzedelo is a village with around 4000 inhabitants in the North of Portugal.
“Vira como a Vida”, a show for the public space, was part of a parade led by the Catalan troupe La Fura dels Baus.
Working with this collectivity, and the band Macadame – which mixes electronic and traditional instruments such as the “viola braguesa” – Clara Andermatt created a piece where tradition and contemporaneity, the rural and the urban, the past and the present, meet and intersect through sound and movement.
Departing from the repertory of the Serzedelo Folklore group, the performance proposes a new and original approach that combines two choreographic forms, based on a working process built upon the recognition and exchange of distinct knowledges.
The show is a celebration of the unique high-pitched voices, known as “voices of Minho”, and of the local customs and musical instruments, the traditional dances and chants – vira, malhão, chula – and all they impart; the feelings imprinted in a movement that is wholly Portuguese, and that turns round and round, like life.