Art Happens

Between 2002 and 2010 his focus and lexicons of dance became increasingly diverse and in 2010 he won the television contest So You Think You Can Dance. He debuted as a choreographer with a solo Nevoeiro 21 in 2012 and won prizes the following year with the successor Réplica … éplica … éplica (2013). In a quest for humanity and fraternity, he views his company and his work as an exercise in community. Hu(r)mano (2015) explored this sense of humanity and fraternity further, and has put Ferreira on the map of international dance. He continued this exploration in Brother (2016), which premiered in Teatro Municipal do Porto and was part of Aerowaves Priority Companies (2018) in Sofia and Bisonte (2019), which again premiered in Teatro Municipal do Porto. Between 2018 and 2019 he was an associate artist at Teatro Municipal do Porto and between 2019 and 2021 he was an associate artist at Center chorégraphique national de Caen in Normandie. In 2020 he was invited to build a short piece for the National Ballet Company entitled Corpos de Baille.

In 2021 he collaborated with the Portuguese filmmaker Jorge Jácome for SIRI as part of the Foundation d’entreprise Hérmes – New Setting Program. In 2022 he was invited by the South African dance company Via Katlehong to create Via Injabulo together with choreographer Amala Dijanor. His part of the creation was called førma Inførma. The same year, he also created Fantasie Minor, produced by CND de Caen and inspired by Schubert’s Fantasia in F minor, and C A R C A Ç A.

C A R C A Ç A is a performer piece with a very diverse cast of ten dancers, including Marco and two musicians, that thinks about collective identity, cultural preservation and transformation.

In September 2023 Marco created the new performance-installation Terra Cobre together with musician and sculptor João Pais Filipe. Here, traditional Portuguese symbolism and cowbell art come together with dance and percussion to result in a sonic and sculptural installation that depicts a landscape full of memories.

In 2024 Marco will choreograph – a folia for the Ballet de Lorraine based on the music composition from the old Portugal in the XV century.

As an interpreter he worked, among others, with André Mesquita, Hofesh Shechter, Sylvia Rijmer, Tiago Guedes, Victor Hugo Pontes, Paulo Ribeiro, David Marques.
Marco da Silva Ferreira is Associate Artist at la Maison de la danse and la Biennale de la danse de Lyon.