Brief Introduction: In 2026, it will be 25 years since Mónica Lapa died. A great driving force behind Portuguese contemporary dance, Mónica was also a tap dance teacher, a founding partner of the Portuguese Association for Dance, and founded with Albino Moura the festival Danças na Cidade, which she directed, until the date of 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 was part of Clara Andermatt's creative journey for several years, with whom she also developed production work. Mónica began her career in dance as a tap dancer when she was 16 years old. 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 restarted 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 performance is the fruit of a desire that came to germinate in recent years in the creator Marta Lapa, her sister, reflecting on the importance and impact that Mónica had on Portuguese Contemporary Dance from the 1990s onwards. It is also the fruit of the realization that there are generations of dance performers and creators who do not know who Mónica Lapa was and or are aware of her aggregating, dynamizing, and creative power, being, however, heirs of her legacy.
Synopsis And 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. From her biography, the memories of those who crossed paths with her and the possibilities opened up by fiction, a meeting is constructed between the artist who existed and the one who could have continued creating. Dancer, choreographer, producer and driving force behind projects that brought together artists, geographies and communities, 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 unifying, restless and visionary energy, returning it to the new generations and to the present of Portuguese dance. Artistic Sheet original text Miguel Castro Caldas | direction and stage design Marta Lapa | co-creation and performance Francisco Camacho and Mélanie Ferreira | original music Carlos Bica and Gonçalo Neto | costumes Vitor Alves da Silva | photography Valério Romão | lighting design Paulo Santos | teaser and video recording Eduardo Breda | production direction Ruy Malheiro | executive production and technical operation Hugo Nicholson | production intern Maria Eduarda Carreira | press office Showbuzz M12 81st production Escola de Mulheres with the support of the Portuguese Republic | CULTURE, YOUTH and SPORT; Directorate-General for the Arts and Lisbon City Council production supported by the Cultural Fund of the Portuguese Society of Authors Prices Entrance - €12.50 Discounts >65 and DAY OF THE SPECTATOR P. Show and Resident Partners Arroios