
This article discusses Filipa Francisco's participatory choreographic project A Viagem (2011-2024), in which the artist and her team develop a working process and a piece for the stage with groups of traditional portuguese music and dance in different regions of Portugal.
As a participatory art project - and therefore clearly committed to the values of democracy - A Viagem comes close to a popular choreographic culture that was, during the Estado Novo period (1933-1974), used as an ideological propaganda tool by the portuguese dictatorial regime. The article looks at the project from the point of view of the tension between certain principles of community artistic practices, and A Viagem in particular, and this repertoire of traditional dances that the collectives transmit, practice and present still today as representations of the past.
Given that I took part in the project for a number of years as a professional dancer, my experience is decisive in the way it is dealt with here. However, the conversations I had with Filipa Francisco and with Telma Martinho and Pedro Farate, two members of traditional dance groups that took part in the project, were crucial, not only for understanding their personal experiences in this context, but also for approaching the objectives, working methodologies and materialization of A Viagem.