NAVE - Centro de Creación y Residencia

Cristina Planas Leitão (Porto, 1983). Bachelor of Arts in Dance & Performance in ArtEZ- Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Arnhem (NL)- 2006. From 2006 to 2012 she collaborated with the Italian choreographer based in Germany Gabriella Majorino and Dansmakers Amsterdam (NL) by participating in all their performances during that process both as an interpreter and rehearsal director. In 2013, Planas participated  as a performer in the new staging of Experience #1, a piece by Isabelle Schad (DE) in Serralves Contemporary Art Museum, Porto. During the same year, from September to December, she got involved in the Ballet Contemporâneo do Norte for the creation of the NIL-CITY by Flavio Rodrigues (PT). For the company, she created and coordinated the project of investigation Conquering the studio: a time for research, which got two subsequent editions in collaboration with Companhia Instável, Porto (PT).

She also worked as a rehearsal director with Hofesh Shechter (2012-2014) and with Gregory Maqoma (2015), with Companhia Instável. In 2015, she was selected as an artist to participate to the Porto Sessions – a project developed by Meg Stuart/ Damaged Goods and Mezzannine. She  has been interpreter in REIPOSTO REIMORTO by Catarina Miranda and she is actually participating in the act Brother, from Marco da Silva Ferreira.

In 2011, in Porto, she was one of the promoters of the “encontros desNorte” (2011-2017). In 2016, she created the project Aquecimento Paralelo for the Teatro Municipal do Porto, which she directs and coordinates since then  and, in 2017, she was invited to collaborate with the same institution for the festival dDD as part of the audience mediation team.

In 2010, she was one of the 50 artists selected by David Zambrano to form part of the 50 days of Flying Low and Passing Through in Costa Rica. Because of this, she became part of the only certified group able to teach and reform the existing techniques. Cristina has shared her knowledge about this work and since then she has developed herself internationally, being the pedagogical activity a theme that she maintains parallelly with her creations.

Since 2011, her own choreographic work became her main focus. This work started to be developed in collaboration with Jasmina Krizaj, with the act The very delicious piece, which has been presented internationally in 30 occasions and got nominated for the Gibanica prize, in Slovenia. With this creation, they maintained a continued long-term relation that continued with the creation of The Very Boring Piece.

In 2014, with a piece from her own authorship, she performed for the first time Bear me and, in 2016, she performed FM [featuring mortuum] with an extended national tour. In the same year, together with Jasmina Krizaj and a cast of 8 performers, she was finalist in the Danse Élargie 2016, Théâtre de la Ville, Paris, with a XL version of The Very Delicious Piece.

In 2017, she deepened her work with UM [unimal] which will be performed for the first time in 2018 in a co-production with Culturgest, Lisbon (PT), Teatro Municipal do Porto (PT) and Teatro Aveirense (PT).

Her work has been presented internationally in spaces like Hellerau- Europäisches Zentrum der Künsten, Dresden (DE), The Place, London (UK); Théâtre de la Ville (FR); Triskelion Arts NY (USA); I like to watch Too, Julidans Festival Amsterdam (NL); Malta Festival, Poznan (POL); Plesni Teater Ljubljana (SI); Stara Mestna Elektrarna, Ljubljana (SI); Maribor 2012 European Capital of Culture (SI); No_Body Festival (CY); Teatro Municipal do Porto – Rivoli. Campo Alegre (PT); GUIdance Festival, Guimarães (PT); BoxNova Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisboa (PT); Festival Cumplicidades, Lisboa (PT); Centro de Arte de Ovar; Cine-Teatro Louletanto, Loulé (PT); Teatro Municipal de Faro (PT) among others, and she has been supported by foundations such as Calouste Gulbenkian, GDA Direitos dos Artistasand the Ministerio de Cultura / DGArtes (PT).

She has worked as an artist in the residence in Hellerau- Europäisches Zentrum der Künste (DE); Plesna Izba Maribor (SI); Dansateliers Rotterdam (NL); Dance Ireland (IR); GrandStudio Brussels (BE); MD Kollektiv (DE);  Centro Danza Canal (ES); Bora Bora (DK); NAVE (CI); O Espaço do Tempo (PT); Teatro Municipal do Porto (PT); 23 Milhas / Ílhavo (PT); Devir-Capa, Faro (PT); Teatro Nacional S. João (PT) and Companhia Instável (PT). She is the artistic director of the Bacteria Cultural Association.

Her work was presented in the documental series Portugal que Dança (2017), created by RTP [ep 2 of 17], where each chapter presented the work of the most important Portuguese choreographers at present.

Photographic credits: André Mendes