Ana Rocha, choreographer, curator and performer, mediates in Culture & Arts, creating a language of research and artistic action, and socio-politics engaged in the potential development of the process and its context. Ana operates in fields of cultural multiplicity and diversity, co-relating points of reflection and transition, through monitoring and consultancy in institutions, non-profit organizations, artistic collectives and national and international creators. Graduated in Visual Arts and Art History, and PhD student in Human Ecology at Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

Angela Guerreiro, 1965. Afro-descendant, mother, independent artist, choreographer and performer, dance and movement therapist (MA), educator and somatic movement therapist, mentor, curator, producer, researcher and activist. Highlights: SURVIVING DANCE - Art - Economy - Politics (2011) and was called “one of the last independent activists in contemporary dance” in the magazine Tanz Jahrbuch 2011; The Live Legacy Project: Correspondences b/w German Contemporary Dance and Judson Dance Theater Movement, funded by TANZFONDS ERBE (2013-14); Me and My White Skeleton (2021) an installation/performance. PhD student in Post-Colonialisms and Global Citizenship, Center for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, researching the presence/absence of black bodies in contemporary Portuguese dance from 1980-2010.

Born in Lisbon on January 30, 1972, she has been writing about culture in general, and performing arts and dance in particular, for newspapers since 1994. For television, she served as editor for the weekly cultural magazines AGORA and Palcos AGORA. She is the author of fiction books as well as works on dance and/or the arts. She edited and authored the book There is nothing that is beyond your imagination (2015), developed as part of the European network "Imagine 2020 – Art and Climate Change," which brought together 10 European theaters under the leadership of Kaaitheater in Brussels. She has authored numerous texts and delivered lectures in both Portuguese and international contexts.

Cristina Planas Leitão is a performing arts curator, dramaturg, and choreographer. She works as a consultant and curator for foundations, cultural organizations, and companies. Her integrated curatorial practice focuses on developing sustainable creative formats, new narratives, and relationships of care within the performing arts, with a growing interest in experimental practices that are politically and socially engaged. She is particularly interested in the intersections between curatorial, organizational, research, and educational practices. Over the years, Cristina has blurred the boundaries between disciplines, nationalities, and hierarchies, seeing the role of a curator as that of a facilitator. From April 2025 onwards, she is the new Artistic Director of Materiais Diversos (PT). She is part of the artistic team at Something Great Arts Centre (DE), contributing to the new curatorial framework of this contemporary performing arts center, which will reopen to the public between 2026 and 2030. Since 2024, she has coordinated the Artistic Research Module at ArtEZ (NL) – Bachelor in Arts / Dance Artist. Her work as a curator and later as Artistic Director at Teatro Municipal do Porto, DDD – Festival Dias da Dança, and CAMPUS Paulo Cunha e Silva (2018-2024) left a transformative legacy, including the launch of a key residency center in 2021, the expansion of the institution’s international reach, and the promotion of global collaboration.

Francisco Frazão is the artistic director of Teatro do Bairro Alto (TBA), a new city theatre in Lisbon devoted to experimental, emerging, and international work. So far, TBA has presented work by Gob Squad, Tim Crouch, Tania El Khoury, Federico León, Alessandro Sciarroni and nora chipaumire, among others, while co-producing local artists such as Cão Solteiro, David Marques, Welket Bungué and Raquel Castro. From 2004 to 2017 Francisco was a theatre programmer at the arts centre Culturgest. He has worked as a translator and dramaturg (namely for the theatre company Artistas Unidos) and has written and taught classes and seminars on theatre, film, and literature.

Mariana Duarte (PT, 1988) is a journalist at Público / Ípsilon, where she writes about performing arts, music, visual arts, cultural policy, and the ecosystems of arts & culture, intersecting with social, labor and political issues. She was the editor of three editions of MIL Magazine, associated with the MIL - Lisbon International Music Network festival, between 2020 and 2022. Outside the press, she took part in Manuais de Leitura for the Teatro Nacional São João, wrote essays for exhibitions, and coordinated the editorial program for the O Rivoli Já Dança! cycle, and contributed to the book Presentes! Africanos e Afrodescendentes do Porto (2023), by photographer and photojournalist José Sérgio. In 2023, she won the Carlos Porto International Journalism Prize, awarded by the Almada Festival.

Patrícia Portela (1974). Creator of performances and literary works, she lives between Portugal and Belgium. She is nationally and internationally recognized for the uniqueness of her work, which has earned her several awards. She is the author of various novels and novellas. In 2013, she participated in the prestigious 46th International Writers Program in Iowa City and became the first literary grantee in Berlin from the Portuguese Embassy in Germany in 2016. She regularly teaches dramaturgy and image at the Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema, among other cultural institutions. Patrícia served as the artistic director of Teatro Viriato in Viseu from March 2020 to January 2022, keeping the theater active throughout the pandemic.

Pedro Barreiro is an artist who has developed several works as a director, performer, scenic maker, dramaturg, producer, programmer and curator. He has been interested, in recent years and among other things, in thinking about performative acts as poetic generators, in experimenting with the conventions of theatrical forms, and in strategies for dismantling hegemonic systems in contemporary art. Since 2020, he has been continuously creating and presenting the performance titled an artist is always working (www.alwaysworking.art). He was the artistic director of Teatro Sá da Bandeira, in Santarém (2015-2017) and collaborated with Teatro Praga as programmer of Rua das Gaivotas 6 (2019-2022). He is an associated artist of Cão Solteiro, since 2020. Currently he is the artistic director of O Espaço do Tempo.

Pedro Penim (b. 1975, Lisbon) is a director, actor, and playwright. His work also spans programming, lecturing, translation, and teaching, having been featured in festivals and seasons across Portugal and in various countries across Europe, South America, Asia, and the Middle East. In 1995, he co-founded Teatro Praga, a seminal company in contemporary Portuguese theater. In 2013, he founded the cultural space Rua das Gaivotas 6 in Lisbon, a vital project for the city that hosts unconventional creations by emerging artists. In 2021, he was appointed Artistic Director of Teatro Nacional D. Maria II in Lisbon.

Rui Torrinha is currently the Artistic Director of Centro Cultural Vila Flor (CCVF) and Performing Arts programming. He directs international annual festivals like GUIdance, Westway LAB and Gil Vicente covering different art fields such as contemporary dance, music and theatre. He also runs the support plan for the performing arts creation process connected to CCVF and Centro de Criação de Cardoso (CCC) in the form of coproductions and artistic residencies. He has been the main coordinator, on behalf of A Oficina, of several EU projects (ex: INES, ETEP, AEROWAVES) and national networks. In 2012, Torrinha was chosen as one of the members for artistic programming team of Guimarães 2012, European Capital of Culture. He conceived and programmed the contemporary music folder under “Polifonias” name that involved the collaboration of artists like Laurie Anderson, Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, Julia Holter, etc.

Tita Maravilha studied performing arts at the University of Brasília. She describes herself as an “inventor of universes” and claims to bring “the pains and delights of being a dissident body” to her artistic processes. Born in Brazil, she participated in various performances and projects in her home country before moving to Portugal, where she has lived since 2018. A multidisciplinary artist, she created Trypas Corassão and several other works. She is also the programmer of Precárias, a performance festival that, in 2024, took place in Viseu, Montemor-o-Novo, Porto, and Paris. Her work encompasses both the celebration of individuality and the creation of spaces for dialogue and community building. Tita Maravilha explores the boundaries of various artistic practices, combining aesthetic and critical dimensions with humor and activism.