Choreographic Laboratory ’25

with Maria Ramos

School year 2025/2026

Wednesday | 19h30-21h30

We work on the relationship of the body with space.

We read our favorite authors to think better about composition, landscape, geography, and architecture.

We invent rules, activate invisible structures, and discover ‘events’. Sometimes we map movement, sometimes movement goes off the map.

We make performances in which we are all, simultaneously, audience, authors, and performers.

Regular classes in dance composition and experimentation, organized into work cycles and accompanied by informal sharing sessions throughout the academic year.

Based on the improvisation-composition practices and methodologies that I have been developing in the context of my choreographic and pedagogical work, we will first form a ‘body’ (individual body and collective body) and, from there, create performative events that explore the relationship between the body and space, sound, objects, images, and texts—in a gradual, plural, and four-dimensional movement.

The aim will be to analyze the ‘rules’ of the ‘game’ (improvisation structure, composition, mapping, score), so that we can then transgress them and discover performative proposals in which we are all, simultaneously, ‘builders’ and interpreters.

Practical note

Each session begins with a physical warm-up that works the body, activates movement, and introduces the practical concepts that we will explore throughout the work. These initial moments also stimulate individual and collective imagination, creating a common starting point for the group experience. In order for us to start together, it is important that participants arrive at the studio a few minutes early.

References & research territories

Key-words

• Movement research
• Body-space relationship
• ‘Choreography as landscape-in-action’
• Practice as research

September – October 2025
Sessions led by Maria Ramos

October – December 2025
Sessions led by Inês Zinho Pinheiro (dancer and researcher) and moss kissing (musician and composer), a duo invited by Maria Ramos.

Sessions led by Inês Zinho Pinheiro and moss kissing:

• October 22
• October 29
• November 5
• November 12
• November 19
• November 26
• December 3

December 2025 – June 2026
Sessions led by Maria Ramos, with the participation of occasional guests, who will contribute to deepening improvisation and composition practices developed throughout the year.
Dates subject to change.

Target Audience
Classes open to professionals and non-professionals interested in deepening their contemporary dance practice, with a focus on exploring movement, interpretation, and improvisation-composition. Clothing / Materials
Wear comfortable clothing that also protects your body when working on the floor (pants and a long-sleeved shirt). Bring a water bottle, notebook, and pen. Some activities may take place outside the studio; in this case, it is recommended to bring a layer of warm clothing and comfortable shoes.
Previous Guests
Joana Pupo (actress/creator), Jaime Mears (actress/creator, AU-PT), Ana Mira (dancer/teacher), Sara Anjo (dancer/creator), Teresa Silva (dancer/creator), Angus Balbernie (choreographer/director, UK), Christy Funsch (dancer/creator, USA), Inês Zinho Pinheiro (dancer/creator), Albert Dean (musician), Miguel Sobral Curado (musician), Noeli Kikuchi (dancer/creator).

Bio

Maria Ramos
Between 1996 and 2009, she lived in the Netherlands, where she studied and developed her professional career as a dancer, working with various independent choreographers in the Netherlands, Germany, England and the USA. Highlights include her work with choreographer/director Angus Balbernie (UK), choreographers Olga Pona (UK), Katja F. M. Wolf (DE) and Janis Claxton (UK-AU). She trained in Dance at the Hogeschool voor de kunsten/ArtEZ (1996-2000) and obtained a Master’s degree in Choreography, ArtEZ Master of Choreography (Moc, 2006-2008), at the ArtEZ Institute of the Arts in Arnhem.

On her return to Portugal, she completed the Research and Creation course at Forum Dança, in Lisbon, in the context of which she began to create her first solo work, 7pm/Rumour, a piece that begins the cycle of works entitled Um Certo Grau de Imobilidade (A Certain Degree of Immobility), supported by DGArtes and the Gulbenkian Foundation. This cycle also includes the pieces Nerves and Something Still Uncaptured, presented in the Netherlands, Portugal and Argentina. He later choreographed the piece Árida, a project supported by DGArtes.

She currently collaborates with actress and creator Joana Pupo (in the project O Corpo Inominável) and with choreographer Madalena Victorino (in various choreographic projects), as a dancer/creator or as a creative assistant. At the same time, she has been teaching at the Escola Superior de Dança (since 2017), at the Escola Superior de Artes e Design das Caldas da Rainha (since 2016) and at Forum Dança (since 2012).

“When people ask me what dance technique I teach and who I studied improvisation, composition and choreography with, I always end up having to talk about my dance background and practices. In my classes, I take my own approach which includes contemporary dance techniques based on the Release technique (learned from Amélia Bentes and Sofia Neuparth and, later, during the course at EDDC/ArtEZ with teachers Eva Karczag, Mary O’Donnell Fulkerson, Gill Clarke and João da Silva); contact-improvisation (Karen Nelson, Steve Paxton); floor work; partner work (David Zambrano, Iñaki Azpillaga/Ultima Vez); fall and recovery; vertical movement and movement through space; improvisation and composition. Developed throughout my dance career with teachers and choreographers from the so-called New Portuguese Dance, such as Sofia Neuparth, Amélia Bentes, Peter Michael Dietz, Clara Andermatt and Francisco Camacho, especially in the context of the five-month Research and Choreographic Creation Course at Forum Dança, as well as in the Netherlands and England, with creators and teachers such as Steve Paxton, Deborah Hay, Yvonne Rainer (from whom I learned the iconic solo “Trio A”) and Karen Nelson/Lisa Nelson, and with dancers and teachers from the companies Trisha Brown and Siobhan Davies, Eva Karczag (who passed on to me notions of ‘full-body movement and the practice of being in the moment’ and with whom I also practiced the martial art T’ai Chi Ch’uan, which Karczag in turn learned from the teacher Gerda Geddes), Lisa Kraus and Gill Clarke.

Also important for me in terms of the performer’s work, composition and improvisation was the work I did as a dancer with choreographer/director Angus Balbernie between 2000-2009, and the workshops with the Goat Island Performance Group, Matthew Goulish and Lin Hixson, Deborah Hay, Peter Pleyer and Jonathan Burrows.”

More info: Choreographic work | Laboratory Notebook | Aulas e Práticas de Dança, Hoje

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