This text was written by Aura, as a part of the Live Art Writers Network, taking place at Festival Dias da Dança, in April-May 2025. To view the other commissioned texts in response to the festival and its performances, as well as an introduction to the project, see here. Texts available in English and Portuguese. This letter is the public edition of a series of letters handwritten by Aura, and shared directly to a selection of artists who presented work at DDD, in response to their performances.

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Listen to the text read by Aura here: 

Dear DDD team and audience,

Eight years ago, I participated in a festival programme called “Freaks of Dance” mediated by Magda Henriques and with the participation of several people, from young students and artists, to the more or less regular audience, and even neighbors of the theatre.

Now, I participate through the programme “LAWN – Live Art Writers Network”, organised by performingborders, in which I was invited to weave critical thinking, having chosen to write letters to each artist/company that I watched, with the objective of exchanging reflections and thoughts in private, as well as writing this open letter addressed to all of you.

This notion of the letter arises from a place of affection, care, and radical tenderness that is not always possible to observe in the face of a press obsessed with covering the snapshot, and a political context led by hate speech and populism.

Some say that criticism is dead. I agree. There are those who want to rescue it just as it was. I disagree. I strongly believe that we need thought, reflection, discussion – even though there are debates, about whether I and so many other programmed artists can or cannot exist, which are non-negotiable. We exist, period.

Maybe you watched me taking notes during the shows. Maybe not. I confess that it was difficult for me to move from a descriptive place to a critical one. Not really knowing yet what it would be. The one with the boring compliments? No. To give my opinion as I would have done? No. The one of destructive criticism and value judgment? Much less. The responsibility is big, but the key was to find a balance within a rational but also emotional space.

As a love letter, I write from my place of speech – as a spectator, but also as an artist – about each event I experienced. Eighteen shows and one party across two weeks. The number is not relevant. But the effort of having seen almost all of them, yes. It was intense, but it was worth it, I promise.

We moved through different dance styles, but also of performance, from kuduru to post-structuralism, passing through the so-called “contemporary dance” and somatic techniques, as well as humour, abstraction, and representativity. Porto went to Matosinhos and Gaia, but also to its margins in Campanhã, and how important that network is!

In LAWN’s conversations and workshops, we debated what kind of critical thinking we want now, as well as about our urgencies, the place of speech, the efficiency or not of a piece, the relevance of failure, the didactic in art, representation vs. imagination that have become fundamental, especially to reflect that nothing I say or write is permanent, but a result of the state and context in which I found myself in a specific space-time, being ephemeral, changeable, and, above all, questionable.

I reflect on the times when the audience did or did not stand up to applaud at the end of the shows, and how easy it is for it to happen in large auditoriums and less in unconventional spaces. From the people I talked to, from the most immediate opinions and from the post-show hugs I gave to artists, especially to friends of mine. I think about who was there – especially a regular artistic circle – and for whom dance still means nothing. I mull on the state of Portuguese culture, which is more focused on football than on dance. And how little the media and education system do to change this. I notice the artists who have managed to obtain passports to present their work here and at similar festivals, and the ones who are murdered by oppressive and genocidal systems. I remember the Liberation March on April 25, which took place simultaneously with the DDD – Days of Dance, in which we protested for a free Palestine. I reflect on the diversity of the festival, but also on how many more could have joined.

I could reflect endlessly on the world, on the precarious arts system, on social injustices, mass extinctions, on each of the pieces or end with a beautiful final analogy, but I end up demanding more love.

With kindness,

Aura

PS. I would like to express my cheesy but heartfelt thanks to Drew and Cristina for the incredible programming, to Alessandra, Anahí and Xavier for the invitation and confidence in what I write, to Cláudia for the reflections, to Odete and Pedro for joining this new way of doing critique or not, and to the incredible team, artists, and audience of DDD, without whom nothing would happen.

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AURA (1997, Porto) is a transdisciplinary artist interested in identity and sustainability issues and co-founder of Asterisco, a space and platform for underrepresented artists. Her work was presented at The Place, Nottingham Contemporary, Centre for Live Art Yorkshire, Stockholm Fringe Festival, Municipal Theatre of Porto, Municipal Galleries of Lisbon, Mala Voadora, Rua das Gaivotas 6, Maia Contemporary Art Biennial, among others. Holds a MA in Performance Making by Goldsmiths and a BA in Fine Arts and Intermedia by ESAP and Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. auradafonseca.com

‘Open letter in a context in which dance and critical thinking intersect affectively’ was commissioned by performingborders and DDD – Festival Dias da Dança, as part of Live Art Writers Network at DDD 2025.