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Gab B Lo
The Square of the Republic is a hub of cultural and communal spirit for the city of Tomar, Portugal. Community members chat, children feed the pigeons, and the elderly play chess against a historical backdrop that speaks to the city’s majestic past. A terrace of black and white tiles lead to the golden Palace of Tomar, constructed in the 16th century as a home for Portuguese King Manuel I. The grand building in typical “Manuelino” architectural style now houses the city council of Tomar and serves as a monument to what is known as the city’s golden period.
Gab B Lo
On March 28th, a warm evening in late March, individuals converged to celebrate dance anywhere® and animate the square with song and dance. Guided by Shirin Stave-Matias and Fausto Matias of Soradi Dance Company, locals recreated a sense of the golden splendor of King Manuel’s time through, what Shirin described as “a community- based freestyle dance experience”. Community members danced and sang along to traditional Portuguese music while enlivening the square with a wide variety of dance styles from traditional Portuguese dance to hip-hop and contemporary performance. As dancers of all ages moved to the same rhythm in their own dance language, golden lights from the palace glimmered across the space, casting shadows and highlighting dancers at distinct moments.
The warm evening on which the dancers performed was a far cry from the previous year, when Soradi dance and the Tomar community performed with umbrellas in the rain. Despite the dismal weather conditions that year, more than 1000 people joined the dance and trekked across an ancient bridge on the Nabao River. Worried about the possibility of rain, 2014 press for the Tomar dance anywhere® event read, “Rain or Shine we will dance! A small rain can be a scenic prop, a beautiful effect. With creativity we can turn a rainy day into a sizzling world of community art”.
Soradi Dance, 2013
Each year dance anywhere® sparks Shirin’s creative spirit. “We were impressed with the spirit of young and old alike in our community to come together and dance for sheer joy”.
Soradi Dance continues their dedication to community- based performance in their company programming. Soradi Dance recently concluded their project, ‘Footnotes from Troika and the Kali Yuga’, which was created/ directed by Shirin Stave- Matias and performed by six locals, aged 18-53, only one of whom was a professional dancer. The piece united community members of different backgrounds and identities, through movement, site-specific improvisation and story telling.
From ‘Footnotes from Troika & the Kali Yuga’, Soradi Dance, 2014
The community-based nature of dance anywhere® exhilarates Shirin. “We think it is a great idea to extend an invitation to communities around the world to dance together!”
Gab B Lo
For more information on Shirin Stave- Matias and Soradi Dance visit their website or dance anywhere® page.
