creation
LIBERTAÇÃO-LIBERATION

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Maria Ana Diogo performing her solo piece LIBERTAÇÃO – LIBERATION (2025), a contemporary dance creation about purpose, rebirth, and redemption

Maria Ana Diogo performing a dynamic floor sequence in LIBERTAÇÃO – LIBERATION (2025), highlighting rebirth and self-discovery

lose-up of Maria Ana Diogo’s expressive movement in LIBERTAÇÃO – LIBERATION (2025)

LIBERTAÇÃO – LIBERATION (2025) staged with minimal lighting, emphasizing themes of purpose and redemption

Maria Ana Diogo dancing in the premier of her solo piece LIBERTAÇÃO – LIBERATION (2025)

Maria Ana Diogo opening LIBERTAÇÃO – LIBERATION (2025) on stage, introducing themes of rebirth and purpose

Maria Ana Diogo performing a fluid floor sequence in LIBERTAÇÃO – LIBERATION (2025), a piece on rebirth and self-discovery

LIBERTAÇÃO – LIBERATION (2025) with dramatic stage lighting, highlighting Maria Ana Diogo’s presence and intention.

Intimate moment from the premiere of LIBERTAÇÃO – LIBERATION (2025), showcasing Maria Ana Diogo’s focus and embodied research

Maria Ana Diogo concluding LIBERTAÇÃO – LIBERATION (2025) in a powerful moment, emphasizing rebirth and redemption

Photographs of the premiere of LIBERTAÇÃO–LIBERATION (2025) by Marcos Fernandes

Trailer for LIBERTAÇÃO–LIBERATION (2025)

Creative &
Technical Team

Creation & Interpretation Maria Ana Diogo

Support in Process André Pinto

Soundscape Nuno Cruz

Direction & Edit Lucas Sadalla

Light Iolanda Rodrigues / Filipe Quaresma

Music original sound design from "Vissi d'arte“ (Giacomo Puccini), Maria Callas, Orchestra del Teatro Alla Scala; "Anjinho da Guarda", António Variações; "Muda de vida" (raw cassette recording), António Variações; "Muda de vida" (António Variações), Humanos

Duration
11 to 12 min

Premiere
Performances

April 29, 2025 - International Dance Day, Fórum Municipal Luísa Todi, Setúbal (Portugal) — pre-premier

May 3, 2025 - Young Choreographers Showcase 2025, Fórum Municipal Luísa Todi, Setúbal (Portugal)

Venues & Studios
that welcomed the creative process

Academia de Dança Contemporânea de Setúbal (ADCS), Polo Cultural Gaivotas | Boavista, Penhasco Arte Cooperativa, West Side Studio, UDance School, Armazém da Dança - Companhia Portuguesa de Bailado Contemporâneo (CPBC)

About
LIBERTAÇÃO - LIBERATION

For my Mother

“I celebrate myself, and sing myself,

And what I assume you shall assume,

For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you”.

Walt Whitman, Song of Myself

We live in a deafening world. The accumulation of external and self-imposed pressures numbs our ability to discover and follow our essential Self. Each day, we make choices that intimately contradict our soul and slowly drain our will, pushing away what we recognize as our own.

Are we still open to receiving a chance of redemption? To be born from within? To listen, in the silence of ourselves, to our inner vibration?

Insights

Everything about the piece revealed itself very clearly – the aesthetics are stripped down to the necessary elements: a wooden chair, a lamp, spaces outlined by light, and the intimate relationship between light and sound, movement and emotion. Each element with a purpose, carefully positioned and present.

I took a very personal symbolic inspiration from the sculpture “winged victory of Samothrace” carved by an unknown artist and one of the most powerful expressions of overcoming, longing and striving human spirit (top image, photo taken by me). As my creation speaks about the courage it takes to listen to ourselves and to break out from the fear of living according to our purpose, this art piece resonated with me intensively.

The initial movement seed of this piece emerged in Berlin, through inspiring connections and compositional exploration, and was later developed in Lisbon.

LIBERTAÇÃO – LIBERATION trailer

play on Vimeo

Throughout the solo there is an ineffable window into two coexisting universes—internal and external—which unfold along a continuous timeline. The encapsulated story happening on stage contains in itself the transition between the two worlds: looking outside from within and looking inside from beyond— mirroring what are in fact the moments of our innate journey.

This thematic exploration was always present during the creation process, which expanded through the significant collaborations with sound designer Nuno Cruz and video artist & director Lucas Sadalla. Their contributions were essential to the woven message and also gave rise to the video work presented as the creation’s trailer, conceived in a way that intentionally reflects that ineffable window between internal and external universes — as an echo of the piece’s own narrative.

To mirror this duality, both stage and natural landscape were chosen as filming locations. The outdoor scenes were captured in a place deeply meaningful to me: Serra da Arrábida, the Mother Mountain (Serra-Mãe).