The São Paulo-based Taanteatro Companhia was founded in 1991 by Brazilian choreographer Maura Baiocchi and is internationally respected for its pioneering research in the performing arts and innovative repertoire. The company’s interdisciplinary performance approach, known as “choreographic theater of tensions,” integrates dance, theater, (audio)visual arts, poetry, philosophy, and ecology. Since 2001, the company’s rural headquarters has been located in the Atlantic Forest of São Lourenço da Serra (São Paulo state).
Taanteatro’s uniqueness lies in the refined intertwining of practice and theory. The company explores a performance language grounded in the principle of tension, conceives the human body as an energetic “becoming,” and prioritizes intense physical presence without sacrificing sophisticated discourse. Its performances engage in a dialogue with the ideas, works, and trajectories of iconic artists, philosophers, and poets—such as Frida Kahlo, Friedrich Nietzsche, Antonin Artaud, Gilles Deleuze, and Frantz Fanon.
Described as “radically green theater” by scholar Hans-Thies Lehmann, Taanteatro seeks to materialize a new performative paradigm. Through ecoperformance —a concept coined by Baiocchi—and the exploration of tensions between body, ancestry, memory, and the environment, it aims to transcend the AnthropoScene toward the SymbioScene: in pursuit of the co-presence and mutual interaction of human and non-human scenic agents on the same plane.
For over three decades, Taanteatro Companhia has created a vast repertoire of performances and films, in addition to producing international interdisciplinary projects and, since 2007, sharing its performance research through books published in Portuguese, Spanish, and English—most notably Choreographic Theater of Tensions: Forces & Forms (2020) and Ecoperformance Vol. 1 (2022).
Taanteatro’s “daring and innovative” work is renowned as a “celebration of freedom and creativity” characterized by “rigor and magnetism”, “visual quality”, and “gestural refinement”. The multi-ethnic company has won major Brazilian and international cultural awards and performed across the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Europe. The annual International Ecoperformance Film Festival, inaugurated in 2021 as an artistic response to the eco-political challenges of the 21st century, stands out among the company’s more recent projects.
AWARDS & GRANTS
2026 XIII Denilto Gomes XIII Award – Dance Artist Category – awarded to Mabalane Jorge Ndlozy.
2026 Internacional Award “Il Teatro Nudo” di Teresa Pomodoro – Milan, Italy
2024/25 Municipal Program for Dance in São Paulo
2021 Environmental Dance Award by Company Christoph Winkler
2021 ProAC Aldir Blanc Grant São Lourenço da Serra
2020 ProAC Aldir Blanc Award – History in Dance São Lourenço da Serra
2018 Municipal Program for Dance in São Paulo
2016 Municipal Program for Dance in São Paulo
2014 Municipal Program for Dance in São Paulo
2013 National Foundation of Dance Award Klauss Viana
2013 Dance Critics Award APCA São Paulo
2013 Denilto Gomes Dance Award
2011 Best Dance Performance 2011 – Guia da Folha de S. Paulo
2011 Municipal Program for Dance in São Paulo – Taanteatro 20 Years
2009 Municipal Program for Dance in São Paulo – DAN
2009 National Foundation of Arts Award Klauss Vianna – DAN
2008 National Foundation of Arts Award Klauss Vianna – !Zarathustra!
2006/07 Municipal Program for Dance in São Paulo
2006 National Foundation of Arts Award Klauss Vianna
2004 Contemporary Dance Award São Paulo
2004 São Paulo Critics Award Best Play “Os Sertões” by Teatro Oficina
1997 Theater Festival Sorocaba Best Costumes – Variação para Bola, Shiva e Madalena
1997 Theater Festival Sorocaba – Best Lighting – Variação para Bola, Shiva e Madalena
1991/92 Vitae Foundation Fellowship for Art – Taanteatro: A Research for the Transformation of Dance
1991 Crowne Plaza São Paulo Performance Award – Best Play – Absolutas
1998 Critics Award of the Federal District – Best Play – When the Butterflies get lost
1987 Hinoemata Peformance Festival – Best Foreign Performance – Between the Sword and the Wall