9 Rounds is a performance format composed of a ring, a score, a lighting design, three performers who never cross paths, rehearse alone and perform individually, and me with a gong.
The three performers embody differently constituted forms of expertise and are selected according to distinct relationships between physical capacity, technical knowledge and familiarity with the artistic canon.
One is a professional dancer: physically capable, technically trained and fully situated within the codes and histories of dance and performance art.
The second is a professional athlete: equally defined by physical strength and highly developed technical ability, but without the same familiarity with the artistic conventions through which a gesture can become legible as something charged.
The third is a retired dancer, actor or actress: a performer whose physical and technical capacities have changed over time, but whose body carries extensive knowledge of theatrical or choreographic language, convention and history.
Each of the nine rounds is organised around an image or proposition that tests the power and limits of representation. The written cues move between references drawn from the canon of art history and contemporary visual culture, asking each performer to negotiate the same material through a different body and form of expertise. I strike the gong at every five-minute mark, signalling the transition to the next image. The audience does not have access to the score during the performance; it is made available only the following day.
In this first edition, the performers were Bibi Dória, a dancer that was doing Yvonne Rainer's Trio A at the Turbine Hall the week before, Célio Dias is an Olympian Judo fighter and Isabel Ruth is a retired superstar actress from the Portuguese nouvelle vague that worked with Pasolini, Truffaut and Bertolucci.
Thursday, July 23, from 8:30 pm to 11:15 pm
Isabel Ruth (Tomar, 1940) is an artist with a singular career spanning dance, theatre, cinema, poetry, music, and drawing. She studied at the Royal Ballet School in London and worked with directors such as Paulo Rocha, Manoel de Oliveira, and Pier Paolo Pasolini. In 2018, she was awarded the Ordem do Infante D. Henrique and in 2023, the Medalha de Mérito Cultural.
Bibi Dória (Campo Grande, Brazil, 1995) is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice brings together dance, performance, and cinema. She has lived in Lisbon since 2018 and develops a practice centered on memory, archives, fiction, and imagination, combining authorial projects with international artistic collaborations.
Célio Dias (Almada, 1993) was an Olympic judo athlete at the Rio 2016 Games and represented Portugal at World Championships, European Championships, and on the International Judo Federation circuit. His major achievements include a gold medal at the Budapest Grand Prix (2015), as well as several medals at Grand Slams and Grand Prix events. He currently also works to raise awareness around mental health, publicly sharing his experience and contributing to the fight against the stigma associated with mental illness.
