Y O S O : M O N O
an accompanied solo by

RAFAEL ALVAREZ

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première LISBON 19 - 20 June 2027

São Luiz Teatro Municipal 

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Touring 2027-28

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Teatro das Figuras, Faro - Algarve

Estúdio 13/Teatro Micaelense, Ponta Delgada - Azores

Casa da Dança/Teatro Municipal Joaquim Benite - Almada

Há Baixa, - Coimbra

FMK International Dance Festival - Laos

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A choreographic folding screen in three acts, a travel notebook, and an invitation to travel. A solo performance by choreographer Rafael Alvarez that brings together dance, photography and video.

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This new creation marks and celebrates 10 years of artistic creation in dialogue with Japan [2017–2027] and 30 years of professional work in dance [1997–2027].

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YOSO:MONO (yoso: elsewhere / another place, mono: person) invites the audience to engage in a silent dialogue of listening and observation, where the aesthetic experience of travel leads to an immersion in a Japan of floating worlds, ambiguities and paradoxes, where less is more.

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From the perspective of an outsider, Rafael Alvarez — an attentive observer and passionate admirer of Japan — allows himself to be guided by multiple references that have nourished his creative process and the different forms his work takes.

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For the Lisbon premiere in June 2027 at Teatro Municipal São Luiz, more than 80 participants aged 55 and over from the regions of Lisbon, Almada and Paris, together with young dance students from the Higher School of Dance will join Rafael Alvarez on stage.

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Alongside other invited artists, regular collaborators of the choreographer — Mariana Tengner Barros, Diana Niepce and Paulo Guerreiro — will take part in the presentation of a choreographic score that forms the epilogue of the performance.

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This outcome emerges from a mediation process developed with the local community and will be replicated in each context of the work’s touring throughout 2027–28 — Almada, Faro, Ponta Delgada, Coimbra, Paris, Tokyo and Vientiane.

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This new accompanied solo traces, on stage and beyond it, the continuation of a creative bridge between Portugal and Japan, revisiting materials, dialogues and relationships — sometimes invisible — that have gradually permeated and guided his choreographic work.

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Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa, Jun’ichirō Tanizaki’s In Praise of Shadows, the technique of kintsugi, the concept of impermanence embodied in mono no aware, Noh theatre, waka poetry, the films of Yasujiro Ozu, the work of Ryuichi Sakamoto and Tōru Takemitsu, the megalopolis of Tokyo, the minimalist concrete architecture of Tadao Ando, Zen gardens (karesansui), the mountains of Koyasan, and Nagasaki Bay all permeate and shape his work. These references are joined by people, sensibilities, geographies and places that, in different ways, nourish these creative processes.

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YOSO:MONO will not be the final act of this investigation into Japan, but it marks a decade of work (2017–2027) devoted to an in-depth artistic research through experiences, journeys, readings and residencies.

This research has given rise to a range of creations, including performances, exhibitions and photography books: NO INTERVALO DE UMA (2017), NA ONDA DA DISTÂNCIA (2018), WAVE (2018), NO SILÊNCIO DA PRIMEIRA ONDA (2018), UN TSUGI (2021), FŪ TSUGI (2021), TSUGI (2023), EKŌ TSUGI (2023) and MONO-NO-AWARE (2024).

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The project also includes the publication of a photography book and a photography exhibition by Rafael Alvarez, edited by Susana Paiva, featuring contributions from other photographers.

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