a Folia

With a Folia, Marco da Silva Ferreira draws on a 15th-century social phenomenon to explore the concepts of ecstasy, euphoria and collective rebellion as driving forces of cultural, political and artistic construction.

La Folia, a cornerstone of Renaissance music, traces its origins to a popular gathering that emerged in Portugal, where shepherds danced in a fast and frenzied manner, carrying on their shoulders men dressed as women. Rural in origin and rooted in fertility rituals, festivities, music and dance, it swiftly made its way into the court celebrations of kingdoms across southern Europe.

In Portuguese, Folia is born from the interweaving of fole — the bellows used to stoke a fire, etymologically close to fôlego — the act of drawing breath, and folga — a day of rest or leisure. The folião/foliona — the person given over to rejoicing, freed from labour — allows themselves to fill their head and lungs with air, and behaves with an apparent madness. This historical web of directions, meanings and metaphors reflects the enduring relevance, and indeed the compulsive pull, of this phenomenon in the past and — in a provocative register — in the present.

From this historical context, the choreographer stages a fictional encounter between the Portuguese festival tradition and contemporary dance forms.