RI TE
Marlene Montero Freitas & Israel Galvan
Tickets on sale from 12 pm of December 22, 2024. With Explorer, Insider and Supporter memberships available in advance from December 20.
Running time: 60'
On one side is Cape Verdean choreographer Marlene Monteiro Freitas, whose dance combines extreme precision and freedom, mechanical movements and expressionism. On the other side is Israel Galván, one of the world’s best-known flamenco dancers. RI TE stems from the encounter between two seemingly distant worlds, united by rhythm and the ability to combine tension with fiery expressiveness. On stage, facing each other, they weave a new yet immediate dialogue: a grammar of choreographed steps, snappy gestures, and sudden interruptions, blending defiance and seduction. A moment of pure joy and humor, using only body language, in the surprise of improvisation and mutual discovery.
Marlene Monteiro Freitas, born in Cape Verde in 1979, has worked with choreographers such as Loïc Touzé, Emmanuelle Huynh, Tânia Carvalho, and Boris Charmatz. Her creations include RI-TE (2022, with Israel Galván), the shows Bacchae—Prelude to a purge and Idiota and the exhibition X AND (2022, based on Alex Silva’s painting), Canine Jaunâtre 3 (2018, for Batsheva Dance Company), and (M)imosa (2011, with Trajal Harrell, François Chaignaud and Cecilia Bengolea). In 2015, in Lisbon, she co-founded P.OR.K, which has been producing her work ever since. In 2018, she was awarded the Silver Lion by the Venice Biennale.
Israel Galván was born in Seville into a family of artists: both his father, José Galván, and mother, Eugenia de los Reyes, are dancers. He trained in classical flamenco, but from his first creation, ¡Mira ! / Los zapatos rojos (1998), he paved the way for a manifesto for a new spirit of flamenco dance. He recodes the physical language of flamenco, using not only modes of expression genealogically close to it, such as bullfighting, but also performative aspects of other popular culture rituals, from soccer to activism and crossdressing. Each of his creations is a milestone in his pursuit of a dance that seeks to free itself from certain characteristics inherited from a flamenco set in stone. He has received prestigious awards such as the Premio Nacional de Danza, the Bessie Performance Award, and the National Dance Award for Exceptional Artistry. In 2016 he received the title of Officier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France. In addition, he is among the stars of the Netflix docuseries Move and is an associate artist of the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris.