It Was a Chest Full of Promises

Created by Miguel Pereira, this piece emerges from the commemorations of the 500th anniversary of Fernão de Magalhães’s circumnavigation voyage to consider its civilizational consequences and the way they continue to shape the identity of dance today.

The work intersects questions of globalization, universality, authorship, and coloniality, taking as its symbolic axis Magalhães’s death before completing the mission, later extended by Elcano. The piece presents itself as an unfinished drift, crossed by interruptions, shifts in paradigm, and the search for new ways of looking at the past and present of dance.