Luísa Saraiva

Agora Baixou o Sol

Now the sun sets

(2026)

Luísa Saraiva

Agora Baixou o Sol ‒ Now the Sun Sets is the name of a traditional song from northwestern Portugal that used to be sung at the end of the working day - a long since forgotten tradition, in which working hours were ended with song and gestures as a kind of sunset liturgy.

Luísa Saraiva takes the song as a starting point for exploring states of vulnerability in her vocal choreography “Agora Baixou o Sol ‒ Now the Sun Sets”. In this way, she combines the physicality of call and response songs, interjections, and imitative sounds with social and folk dance forms. In her solo performance, the choreographer and dancer explores the relationship between loss, time and age - and the possibilities for regeneration and community through dance as a means of belonging, resistance, and joy.

“Agora Baixou o Sol” is a work located at the intersection between dance, sound composition and concert. It is the final part of Luísa Saraiva’s choreographic-compositional trilogy, based on Portuguese folk music and oral tradition. (“Tirana”, 2022; “Bocarra”, 2024, und “Agora Baixou o Sol”, 2026).

Since the 12th and 13th centuries, the women of Portugal have carried on a tradition whose antiquity and origin are impossible to assess [...] foreign travelers noted that in the Northwest of the Peninsula, unlike in other countries, women sang more than men [...] with their shrill, high-pitched, nasal voices, unbearable indoors, but suitable for the open air, where the voice must carry far, they sing endless verses.

Rodney Gallop in Cantares do Povo Português (1937)

Choreography, Artistic Direction Luísa Saraiva

Sound Design Francisco Antão

Light Design Letícia Sckrycky

Light Technician on tour Ska Batista

Choreographic Assistance and Research Connor Scott

Instruments Inês Tartaruga Água

Costumes Isabelle Lange

Dramaturgy Bibi Dória

Outside Eye Alice Heyward

Production Management Nadine Freisleben, Teresa Camarinha/Bactéria

Acknowledgements John Cussans, Arnaldo Saraiva, Grupo Académico de Danças Ribatejanas, Lendl Barcelos, Vicente Mateus

Haptic tour, audio description text and editing Emmilou Rössling

A production by Bactéria and parasite projects. Co-production Festival Dias da Dança/Teatro Municipal do Porto Rivoli.Campo Alegre; PACT Zollverein, Teatro do Bairro Alto. Supported by NATIONALE PERFORMANCE NETZ Coproduction Dance, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. Funded by the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion of the State of Berlin, the Kunststiftung NRW, and the Portuguese Republic - Culture / Direcção-Geral das Artes. With the support of NEXT STEP - Parasita, Winter Garden - Studio Rudolfo Quintas, Schloss Mentin, CAMPUS Paulo Cunha e Silva, CRL Central Eléctrica, and Diorama Berlin.

Pre-Premiere April 10 and 11, 2026

Festival Dias da Dança, Porto

Premiere April 30, May 1, 2 and 3, 2026

Radialsystem Berlin

The research and preparation of this work was made possible through the research grant of Kunststiftung NRW