Amalgama

The Amalgama Dance Company was founded in 2000 with the aim of developing and promoting dance in combination with other disciplines such as music, text, video and visual arts.

The Company provides a framework for artistic creation and socio-cultural intervention, taking a holistic approach – incorporating creativity, education and health with a new awareness of the role of the arts in our lives.

Amalgama intervenes with its artistic branch, performing at shows and gatherings, and with its educational branch, promoting parallel workshops for the community. The Company has developed the Amalgama Movement method, inspired by its ongoing field experience, which brings people closer to dance and all that aids in the discovery of the liberating experience of the body in a more fluid expression, in-tune with oneself, with others and with the environment.
 

PIA (Portugual)

PIA (Artistic Intervention Projects) was founded in May of 2002 in Pinhal Novo Village (Portugal). The company resulted from a meeting between artists of various disciplines, who developed the project into a cultural platform, open to artistic creation, experimentation and innovation, and capable of hosting a creative team and embracing a diversity of cultural projects.

With a strong focus on the Street Arts Universe, PIA has its roots in the kinetics and feeling of physical theatre, the multiple genres of popular culture, those visual and poetic interventions which adapt a body of creative work to the surrounding architecture and, finally, the street itself, as an unconventional public “stage” providing immediate access to artistic excellence for audiences of all walks of life, regardless of social, racial or religious division.

Tumbala

Tumbala is a sculptural / musical research project aiming to create several instrumental sculptures – individual parts that interact within the context of a drama to accomplish a performance. At a later stage, these will be incorporated into urban performances. Tubes are struck, blown and spun by acrobat-musicians, creating a variety of sounds and sound effects in a Latin funk genre.

Plasticiens Volants

 Les Plasticiens Volants is a dynamic group of creators which has grown in number from two artists at its founding in 1976 to the present-day company of 30. As of 1986 the Company has resided in the Tarn area of Southwest France. They have a wholehearted devotion for all that flies, all that is eager to share an emotion before it dies. At home in meeting spaces, everyday places or transit areas, their desire is to meet, gather and embrace the maximum amount of people in all walks of life.

OSADÍA(Spain)

Osadía is a street theatre company formed in Barcelona in 1996. The company offers an original and provocative exhibition of hair art with active participation from the audience, who are seduced by the theatrical appearance of the performers and the sophisticated, imaginative nature of the show.

Volunteers from the public allow the artists to create daring and evocative makeovers, to the delight and awe of the crowd. Osadía’s transformations include the new way the volunteers act after the performance, for now they are the centre of attention and continue to be so throughout the day, provoking admiration and requests for photos wherever they go.

Jallmay (Peru)

The Peruvian ritual dance of the scissors was inscribed this year by UNESCO on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The scissors dance is a traditional competitive dance from Quechua villages in Peru’s south-central highlands that dates from at least four hundred years ago, Scissors dancers hold scissors blades in their right hand.

The scissors dance is a symbol of cultural identity in the Peruvian Andes. The symbolism of the scissors dance, according to José María Arguedas, relates to an ecological process of life, death and regeneration. Arguedas, one of Peru’s greatest 20th-century writers and intellectuals, traced the dance to traditional Andean concepts of cosmic duality, as well as a clear rebellion against a foreign oppressor.

Fonda La Clinica (Chile)

Headed by Miguel Santana, five Chilean residents created the Latin-American Friendship group Fonda La Clinica in the State of Victoria in Australia. They have 13 years of experience and have been awarded various prizes in recognition of their talent and enthusiasm on stage.

Compagnia “La Giostra” (Italy)

The members of Compagnia “La Giostra” come from diverse musical, theatrical and artistic backgrounds. Their interest and curiosity in medieval and popular Mediterranean music brought them together around this palette of colours to bring life to a multicoloured canvas.

Created in 1998, the Company has affirmed itself on the national and international level within the community of groups working on the research, revival and spread of early music (starting from Medieval times) and Sicilian and Mediterranean ethnic-popular music. The style favoured by the group is that of the story-teller, combining irony with jest.

Characterised by a succession of parodies, sonnets and both vocal and instrumental pieces that invite the public to dance and to interact with the satire, the ensemble has participated in numerous events including historical reenactments and processions, jousts, Medieval and Renaissance fairs and national and international festivals. 

Folk Culture Scheme

The Folk Culture Scheme is a national cultural conservation project being conducted by the People’s Republic of China. It began to be implemented ten years ago in the country’s southwestern regions, where there are significant populations of ethnic minorities. Initiated by renowned lyricist and composer Chen Zhe, the Folk Culture Scheme is a systematic conservation project seeking to rescue and preserve those national cultural resources that are either in danger of extinction or are non-renewable. The initiative explores positive development strategies and encourages the transformation of national cultural resources into national cultural industries. The core tenet of the scheme is to ‘invigorate, inherit and pass down’ national culture. Noted for its success at accelerating the process of socialisation, the scheme has gained increasing public recognition.

With strong support and continuous assistance from relevant authorities, local governments and the general public in China, the scheme has made remarkable achievements and worthy contributions in the preservation and development of the nation’s cultural resources and the cultural and economic build-up of ethnic minority regions.

At present, the Folk Culture Scheme has established a number of bases for the inheritance and transmission of ethnic minority cultures in the Chinese Southwest. The group performing on this tour to Macao includes artists from various ethnic minority groups. Their superb talent is representative of the fascinating allure of their national cultures. 

Violet Dance Company

Violet Dance Company was established in 1992 by a group of young dance lovers in Macau. It’s aim is to promote the art of dance in Macau and to create local dance works. They have been actively participating in local art events, such as Macao Arts Festival, International Youth Dance Festival and Macau City Fringe Festival. Moreover, they have been to Lisbon of Portugal, Bytom of Poland, Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Guangzhou for performance or cultural exchange.

Choreographer, Stella Ho has received Chinese dance training since the age of six. She has been a member of Violet Dance Company since 1992. In 2000, she was one of the Macao Conservatory Dance School’s representatives at the 6^th Tao Li Bei Competition in Shanghai, participating in the Group Dance Section. In 2008, she was selected to participate in “Dance to New York ―Choreographer Exchange Program” organized by the Macao Cultural Centre, and received intensive training in New York, USA. Major choreographic works of Stella include Mother-Daughter which was a co-choreographic work performed in the program “Modern Dance – A Gala of New Choreographies” of the 15^th Macao Arts Festival, Mask, Along with You, Swinging, Turning and Fluttering  as well as Beauties of Dunhuang.

V R Rockers

V R Rockers is a dance group created by Victor Kumar made up of both local and international talent in Macau who has a passion for dance. This group began in 2008 with the students in Victor’s dance classes where he taught the following Indian dance styles: Bollywood, Bollywood Funk, Indian Fusion and Bhangra. The group has performed for events put on by the local community such as Wedding and Baby Expos, Star World Hotel Performance, the Portuguese community, and international charity organizations as well as for special events sponsored by the V Entertainment Group and the DANCERSIDOL. In addition, they were specially requested for a promotional movie for live theater performances in Macau. Most recently they performed at the VKIA awards.

The Dancer Studio Macao

The Dancer Studio Macao - also known as ‘The Dancer’ - is a dance group established for a group of artistic workers who have a keen passion for dancing. It is dedicated to creating and developing various types of dance art, and cultivating talent interested in the art of dance, using body language to convey the vibrant vitality and energy of young people.

In addition to establishing a bridge for learning and exchange for various dancing enthusiasts, ‘The Dancer’ seeks to promote dancing and conduct exchanges and visits with neighbouring regions in order to enable its dancers to absorb and learn more diversified dancing elements. The choreography and composition of new dance programmes provide not only the general public with an opportunity to appreciate the art of dance but enthusiastic dancers to represent themselves. In addition, it facilitates formal training and transmits the knowledge of dance art, thereby filling the gap in dance performance.

Association of Macau Street Dance (M. S. D)

We would like to thank the artists for participating in this event.
The Association of Macau Street Dance was previously designated incorrectly. We apologise for the lapse.

Marannatha Arts Society

Maranatha Arts Society, otherwise known as MAS is an artistic Company founded in Macau in 2006. Its beginnings were an answer to the lack of artistic-cultural offerings and positive promotion of human values. The purpose of MAS is to communicate and motivate through art different cultural aspects which hope to help exalt human beings to the point of larger solidarity, respect and regard for different persons and their roots.

Directed by Antonio Martinez (Spain), and Maíra Belati (Brazil), they are a couple that have worked as actors, set designers and animators in several social cultural events as well as composers and directors of shows and performances in and around Macau.

Maranatha Arts Society has a large amount of experience in teaching drama at different schools in Macau including; Our Lady of Fatima Girl's School, Macau Portuguese School, Yut Wah Secondary School and Kindergarten D. José da Costa Nunes in several different languages; Cantonese, Mandarin, Portuguese and English.

Alegria Entertainment (Axé Capoeira Macau, Escola de Samba de Macau)
Axe Capoeira Group Macau

The Axe Capoeira Group Macau was founded by Master Marcos Barrão, and is one of the largest capoeira groups in the world, operating in 26 countries. Master Eddy Murphy brought it to Macau in 2008 where it rapidly attracted several followers and supporters due to its expressive work within the community. The aim of Master Eddy is to make available education, art, joy, Brazilian folklore and music to everyone and above all to educate body and soul through capoeira. 

Macao Samba School

Macao Samba School is a Brazilian Percussion group created in 2003 by percussionist Eddy in São Paulo, Brazil. Together with musicians from the great samba schools of São Paulo, they bring together instruments from the different styles of samba such as the strong dancing African drums of Samba Reggae, the joy of Samba de Raíz, the strong beat and contagious and rhythmic Funk and the beauty of African rhythms. A vocalist and dancers may also accompany the group, presenting the culture and diversity of Brazil through famous Brazilian tunes. Macao Samba School seeks to display all the hidden joy echoing from each instrument and the tunes which carry the history of Brazil in its lyrics, and the fusion of the instruments which show a little of what Brazil is. It’s a true Brazilian Batukada!

Macao Portuguese Folk Dance Association “Macao’s Heart”

The Macao Portuguese Folk Dance Association – known as “Macao’s Heart” was registered in 2006 as a charitable non-profit organization.

The Association’s objective is to maintain Sino-Portuguese culture and the continuation and diversification of Portuguese culture in Macao.

“Macao’s Heart” believes that dance has its roots in popular culture. Macao is characterized by its Sino-Portuguese culture and by its own unique history. This Association aims to strengthen Portuguese culture through folk dance both locally and internationally. It hopes to cultivate the way of life, history and customs of the Portuguese by creating a platform for education and development in this region.

The Macao SAR has given us great emphasis and support, and has invited us to participate in different events locally and internationally.

The members of the Association believe that the participation of the Chinese and Macanese in folk dance makes this performance even more vivid and exemplifies the mix of Chinese and Portuguese cultures, which is what makes Macao such a special place with no equal.

Lei Tak Seng