Press Releases

Date: 31 March 2005

Visiting Arts and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation are delighted to announce two new Portuguese Performing Arts Awards for 2005. The awards are open to all UK-based arts organisations wishing to collaborate with Portuguese artists working in the fields of drama, dance, music, physical theatre and performance art. This year will see new collaborations between Scottish Dance Theatre (Dundee) and choreographer Rui Horta, and Keele University (Keele) with electroacoustic composer João Pedro de Oliveira.

Rui Horta will create a new dance work for Scottish Dance Theatre (SDT) during a residency in May and July 2005. The work will premiere in Portugal at the Sintra Festival (15-16 July 2005) and then tour as part of SDT's repertoire throughout the UK and internationally. As part of his residency, Rui will also undertake work with students at the Scottish School of Contemporary Dance.

Rui Horta started to dance at the age of 17 at the Ballet Gulbenkian and later trained in New York. Internationally renowned for his work with his company S.O.A.P., Rui has produced some of the most articulate, visually stylish and inspiring dance of the last decade. As a freelance choreographer he has created work for Cullberg Ballet, Nederlands DansTheater II, Opera de Marseille Dance, Theatre of Ireland, Grand Théâtre de Genève and the Icelandic Ballet among others.
www.colina2004.com

Scottish Dance Theatre is Scotland’s principal contemporary dance company led by Artistic Director Janet Smith. Part of Dundee Repertory Theatre, the company tours a repertoire of work throughout the UK and internationally, offering audiences the best in newly emerging talent alongside original work commissioned from a range of UK and international choreographers. In 2003 the company won the Critics’ Circle National Dance Award for Outstanding Company Repertoire and has just moved into a new National Lottery and Eastern Scotland European Partnership funded dance studio in Dundee.
www.scottishdancetheatre.com

João Pedro de Oliveira will create a new electroacoustic piece for eight channels during a residency at Keele University in April 2005. The work will research concepts including spatial movement in music, the relationship between musical structure and the movement of sounds in space and the creation of new sounds and their application. The new music will be performed at the Sonic Arts Research Centre, Queen's University Belfast during the Sonorities Festival (26 April – 4 May 2005) and then tour nationally throughout the 2005/06 concert season.

João Pedro Paiva de Oliveira studied organ performance and composition at the Gregorian Institute of Lisbon. In 1985 he took up a Fulbright scholarship to complete a Master’s Degree in Theory and a Doctorate in Composition at the University of New York at Stony Brook. He has received several prizes and awards, including the 1st Prize at the Joly Braga Santos Composition Competition in 1992, 1994 and 1995, the 1st Prize at the Bourges Electroacoustic Music Competition 2002, and the Earplay 2003 Prize. Oliveira is Senior Professor at the University of Aveiro where he teaches composition and electroacoustic music and he has published several articles and a book on twentieth century analysis.

The Music Department at Keele was established in 1973 and its activities and specialities are now internationally recognised. At the centre of the department's teaching and research is its commitment to contemporary music of all kinds including the newest developments in electronic and computer music. Areas of special interest include twentieth century European music, music analysis, cultural theory and aesthetics. The department supports the Keele Philharmonic Society, an Orchestra, Concert Band and Big Band and Keele Concerts Society presents an international series of professional concerts throughout the autumn and spring semesters.
www.keele.ac.uk/depts/mu

Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation was established in Lisbon in 1956. The UK branch of the Foundation has a history of initiating and supporting pioneering developments in the fields of arts, education and social welfare. The Anglo-Portuguese Cultural Relations programme aims to help projects that promote contemporary Portuguese culture in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. www.gulbenkian.org.uk

Visiting Arts
Visiting Arts works to strengthen and enrich international awareness and understanding in the UK through arts and cultural exchange. Our activities include advice, information, training, consultancy, publications, special projects and project development. www.visitingarts.org.uk

A limited number of Awards are available for projects taking place in 2005. For further information or a copy of the guidelines please see the Visiting Arts website www.visitingarts.org.uk/funding/portperfAA or contact donna.vose@visitingarts.org.uk

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