Um Corpo Chamado Templo
Dinís Quilavei // Corpo+Cidade 2026
The body, a sacred territory.
The body, a home where memories, silences, voices, and gods dwell.
In A Body Called Temple, gesture becomes prayer, movement becomes liturgy, and each breath raises an invisible architecture—made of flesh, spirit, and inheritance.
Between the divine and the profane, between what endures and what is lost, a dance is born that seeks to rediscover the sacred within the ruins of time.
Inspired by 1 Corinthians 6:19 — “The body is the temple of the Holy Spirit” — this solo departs from the idea that the body is the first temple, the most vulnerable and the most powerful. Through it, Mozambican temples are also evoked—physical, spiritual, and symbolic—many of which have been disrespected, transformed, or forgotten.
A Body Called Temple is both a tribute to tradition and a cry of warning: to dance is to rebuild, to preserve, to make the body the space where culture reunites with the sacred.
----
Dinís Quilavei (Maputo, Mozambique) is a contemporary dancer and multidisciplinary artist, trained in dance at ISARC (Instituto Superior de Artes e Cultura de Maputo). He has developed a singular trajectory marked by achievements across the fields of dance, music, performance, and theatre.
He has taken part in numerous projects, working with renowned national and international figures in the arts and culture sector, including Ídio Chichava (Converge +/Mozambique), Victor Hugo Pontes (Nome Próprio), and Susana Otero (Ballet Contemporâneo do Norte).
Since 2022, he has also been dedicated to his own choreographic research, creating solo works, and teaching contemporary dance and traditional Mozambican dances in schools.
