NEVER ODD OR EVEͶ

NEVER ODD OR EVEͶ is a collaboration project between two choreographer duos from Turkey and Portugal. The project brings together Filiz Sızanlı and Mustafa Kaplan from Turkey and Sofia Dias and Vítor Roriz from Portugal. These two couples, who have been working almost exclusively with their partners for more than a decade, show that working together for such a long time is also a shared experience of loneliness.

Despite having different creative approaches and experiences, these two couples share the same interest in precision, minimalism, language and abstraction, with a growing interest in the interactions between spoken word, voice, movement and gesture.

In NEVER ODD OR EVEͶ, although the similarity between each duo and each body has a strong appeal, the choreographers are also interested in what differentiates them and how to emphasize these differences in search for a distortion.

But there's still much to do with the collective energy of the quartet so that each one of these duos dislocates itself to “unknown” territory...

NEVER ODD OR EVEͶ

In Turkish and English with surtitles
70mins
Co-direction and performance: Filiz Sızanlı and Mustafa Kaplan, Sofia Dias and Vítor Roriz
Light design and technical Direction: Cárin Geada
Set and costumes design: Ângela Rocha 
Sound: Sofia Dias
Administration and Distribution: Vítor Alves Brotas
Project Manager: Maya Çelem
Production: Agência 25 
Co-production: Théâtre de la Ville, São Luiz Teatro Municipal, Alkantara Festival, La Briqueterie, Teatro Viriato, CCN Nantes, Teatro Municipal do Porto /Festival DDD – Festival Dias da Dança
Support: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Casa-Atelier – Fundação Arpad Szenes – Vieira da Silva, Câmara Municipal de Lisboa, Polo Cultural Gaivotas | Boavista
Thanks to: Leonor Carpinteiro, Sima Can Kaplan

MUSTAFA KAPLAN & FİLİZ SIZANLI / TALDANS

Taldans was founded in 2003 by Mustafa Kaplan and Filiz Sızanlı. Kaplan and Sızanlı's productions are directly related to their academic backgrounds in engineering and architecture. In their choreographies, they explore the relationship of the body with space and mathematics, and deal with scores and series in the relationship between play and performance in cultural and public spaces. Taldans, who uses the concepts of "Energy Dramaturgy", “Unstable Balance", "Play and Improvisation" in their research, has focused on the choreographic reflection of memory and images in the space and sound pattern of the body in its recent works. Istanbul-based Taldans exhibits its repertoire works at national and international festivals, collaborates with artists from different countries, and also develops its own individual projects. In addition to all the performances they produce, the duo organizes dance/movement classes, workshops and artist meetings. Kaplan and Sızanlı created many independent and collaborative projects including but not limited to Dolap (2000), Sek Sek (2002), Solum (2004), Graf (2006), Dokuman (2009), iP/Site (2011), Eskiyeni (2012), We Need to Move Urgently (2014), Taldans Talks About Taldans (2014), 600 Steps (2015), Victory Over the Sun (2017), Ritual for a Sensitive Geography / in collaboration with Julie Nioche (2018), DO KU MAN / remake (2018), Less Than No time (2020), Audio Choreography (2021), NEVERODDOREVEИ / in collaboration with Sofia Dias & Vítor Roriz (2022).

SOFIA DIAS & VÍTOR RORIZ

Sofia Dias & Vítor Roriz are a duo of artists/choreographers collaborating since 2006. The hybrid nature of their research, connected to a strong curiosity and need for experimentation, led them to create several shows, performances, videos, podcasts and installations, crossing different contexts and blurring limits between artistic fields. Their performances conceived for stage, mainly performed by the duo, summon up a particular choreographic language in relation to text and voice and have been presented in over 17 countries. In 2011 they were awarded the Prix Jardin d'Europe for "A gesture that is nothing but a threat". They have been invited to collaborate with different artists such as Catarina Dias, Marco Martins, Clara Andermatt, Mark Tompkins, Felipe Hirsch, Boris Charmatz and more regularly with Tiago Rodrigues. They teach workshops and classes and have been organizing residencies and reflection groups for artists in different contexts. They were invited to make the curatorship for PACAP 2 (2018/2019) and PACAP 6 (2023) - Advanced Program of Creation in Performing Arts, at Fórum Dança, Lisbon. Between 2023 and 2024 they are resident artists at Fundação Champalimaud.