In the previous academic year, dancer and choreographer Filipa Francisco worked with some ESMF classes on a project that transformed the school into a veritable creative laboratory, where the body, words and drawing came together to promote expression, sharing and creative thinking.

This year, the project returns with a new inspiring proposal: ‘Beyond fear...rituals of recklessness.’

Based on the question ‘And instead of fear?’ – the central theme of the National Arts Plan (PNA) – students will be invited to reflect on the feeling of fear, to recognise it and to find creative and collective ways to transform it.

The aim is to demystify fears, learn to embrace them and develop strategies to face them through performance, dance, words, sound and drawing.

More than an artistic experience, this project is an experience of personal and collective growth. It helps students to:

• Develop social and emotional skills (self-confidence, empathy, cooperation);

• Stimulate critical and creative thinking;

• Explore new forms of expression and communication.

Thus, the project ‘And instead of fear... Rituals of fearlessness’ is an invitation to face fear head-on — with art, body, words and imagination — and to discover, together, how to transform it into courage, expression and freedom.

Sónia Reis (PCE/PNA coordinator)