Amarante Performing Arts Biennial

The Amarante Performing Arts Biennial 2026 was born from the desire to inhabit the common and to imagine ways of being together. In a moment marked by fragmentation, we propose contemporary performing arts as a space for encounter, listening and presence, where the live performance becomes a shared experience and a concrete possibility for connection.

Throughout the Biennial, artistic creation permeates Amarante. From the museum to the park, from the streets and fields to the local markets and festivities, dance, theatre, music, cinema and reading intersect with daily life: in the struggle that transforms into resistance (Segunda-feira: Atenção à Direita!), in the stories that return to inspire new generations (Catarina Eufémia), in the traditions reinvented in community (A Festa), in the bodies that explore intimacy and vulnerability (Simulacro), in the conversations that become works of art (Neither Here Nor There), in the soundscapes that demand attentive listening (Quietude), in the everyday gestures elevated to artistic events (Ensaiar a Relação), in the time that is inscribed on the body (Troca o Passo), and in the places where memory is written and rewritten, between the lived and the imagined (A Casa da Silaba; As Casas da Vida de Agustina).

This program explores different times, languages, and forms of presence, bringing together tradition and contemporaneity, intimacy and the collective, reality and imagination. The Amarante Performing Arts Biennial 2026 invites us to slow down, observe, and be together—to recognize that cultures, in their differences, can constitute a common space, and that art opens paths to encounter, transformation, and the future.

All performances and activities at the Amarante Performing Arts Biennial are free of charge.