dance / music
Music and dance circulate without limits in Zona Franca. The result of a partnership between gnration, Theatro Circo and Centro Cultural Vila Flor, this new interdisciplinary cycle is the free territory where authorial music and choreographic practice manifest themselves in a continuous and multiform dialog. Throughout 2025, in Braga and Guimarães, Zona Franca will present new collaborations between performers-choreographers and performers-musicians who experiment with different techniques to present different artistic proposals.
piny x xullaji
Piny and xullaji have long established themselves as two key figures in urban and Afro-descendant culture in Portugal. Now, their paths converge to collaborate, for the first time, in the creation of a new show.
Piny began studying Raqs Sharki from Egypt, and almost simultaneously became interested in North American street dance and clubbing culture. She founded the female hip hop group Butterfliesoulflow and the Orchidaceae collective, where she crosses movements and styles from hip hop, clubbing and ballroom culture with traditional North African dances. With Mother Nala Revlon, she co-founded Vogue PT, an initiative that organizes events within the Ballroom community – an underground movement led by African-American, Latino and LGBTQIA+ communities. She has worked as a performer in works by choreographers such as Marco da Silva Ferreira, Victor Hugo Pontes, Cristina Planas Leitão, Tânia Carvalho or Tiago Guedes, and created the pieces Periférico, with the artist Vhils, HIP. a pussy point of view, G RITO and ONYX, which she presents on June 7 at Theatro Circo.
Xullaji is one of the names by which we know Nuno Santos. As Chullage, he released the trilogy Rapresálias (2001), Rapensar (2004) and Rapressão (2012), in which he highlights hip hop as a culture of resistance, rooted in the working class of Africa and its diaspora. His interest in words also led him to spoken word with AKapella47. More recently, he unveiled prétu, an afronaut who fuses African samples and images with the electronic cosmos and pan-Africanist thought. From this project came prétu 1 – Xei di Kor, highlighted by Público as one of the albums of the year. In addition to his work in music, he is co-founder of the community art collective Peles Negras Máscaras Negras – Teatro do escurecimento. He also collaborates with Teatro Griot and has worked with companies such as Formiga Atómica, Companhia de Teatro de Almada, Companhia de Atores and Aurora Negra.
partners centro cultural vila flor, gnration e theatro circo
media partner antena 3
support portuguese republic – culture / directorate-general for the arts. rtcp – network of portuguese theaters and cinemas
