Originally from Cape Verde, Marlene Monteiro Freitas is based in Lisbon. As a dancer and choreographer, she’s known for her electrifying presence and powerful aesthetics – the character she manifests is exquisitely carnivalesque. Freitas’s work revolves around themes of openness, impurity and intensity, giving form to gestures and words that are hard to express, and forcing her audience to look at things differently. Her work explores metamorphosis and deformation and confronts audience members with the paradox of their multiple selves. She has been recognised internationally for her cultural achievements, including receiving a distinction from the government of Cape Verde (2017), the Silver Lion for Dance at the Venice Biennale (2018), the prize for Best International Performance by Les Prémis de la Critica d'Arts Escèniques of Barcelona (2020), and the Evens Arts Prize (2021). In 2020, Freitas began co-curating the project (un)common ground, researching the territorial and artistic anchorage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In 2022, the Festival d'Automne de Paris honoured her with a Portrait Marlene Monteiro Freitas, in which many of her works were highlighted. In 2023 she staged Alban Berg’s Lulu in Vienna, co-produced by Wiener Festwochen and Theater an der Wien, and in March 2024 she recreated Canine Jaunâtre 3 for the Ballet de l'Opéra de Lyon.