What If Mónica

E SE A MÓNICA

Theatre 12,5€

Wednesday 14 October · until 1 Nov

A theatre-dance piece revisiting the life, work and legacy of Mónica Lapa, a key figure in Portuguese contemporary dance, through her biography and fictions about what she might have continued to create.

Brief Introduction In 2026, it will be 25 years since Mónica Lapa died. A major driving force in Portuguese contemporary dance, Mónica was also a tap dance teacher, founding member of the Portuguese Association for Dance, and founded with Albino Moura the Danças na Cidade festival, which she directed until her death alongside Mark Deputter. Mónica was an artist with a promising vision, which combined with her urgency for questioning and inclusion through art, impressed a generation in dance in Portugal. A talented dancer who for several years was part of Clara Andermatt's creative path, with whom she also developed production work. Mónica began her career in dance as a tap dancer when she was 16. Later, she established herself in contemporary dance, creating with Francisco Camacho the duet Bimarginário, followed by the solo Despe-te e Nada. After a long interval, she resumed choreographic creation with what would be her last piece, Miss Liberty, which premiered in 1999. As director of Danças na Cidade, after a first contact with the Cape Verdean dance community in 1994, she embarked on a new project, Dançar o que é Nosso. For four years, she developed the project with the aim of stimulating artistic exchange and collaboration between organizations and artists from Europe, Africa and Brazil. This show is the fruit of a desire that has been germinating in recent years in creator Marta Lapa, her sister, about the importance and impact that Mónica had on Portuguese Contemporary Dance in the 1990s. It is also the result of the realization that there are generations of dance performers and creators who do not know who Mónica Lapa was and/or are unaware of her aggregating, energizing and creative power. What if Mónica had not died? The creative process will be subject to narrative experiments based on biography, suppositions and fictions, intending to question the legacy of an artist after their death. Synopsis What if Mónica had not died? Between theatre and dance, this show revisits the life, work and legacy of Mónica Lapa, a decisive figure in Portuguese contemporary dance. Based on her biography, the memories of those who crossed paths with her and the possibilities opened up by fiction, an encounter is built between the artist who existed and the one who could have continued to create. Dancer, choreographer, producer and driving force behind projects that brought artists, geographies and communities together, Mónica made dance a space for questioning, inclusion and transformation. On stage, bodies, words and gestures summon her journey and imagine interrupted futures: what works would she have created, what causes would she have embraced, what paths would she have opened? A creation by Marta Lapa, her sister, which is simultaneously an intimate gesture of memory and a collective interrogation about the permanence of an artist after death. We seek not only to remember who Mónica Lapa was, but to reactivate her aggregating, restless and visionary energy, returning it to new generations and to the present of Portuguese dance. Artistic Team original text Miguel Castro Caldas | staging and scenic space Marta Lapa | co-creation and performance Francisco Camacho and Mélanie Ferreira | original music Carlos Bica and Gonçalo Neto | costumes Vitor Alves da Silva | photography Va