Portugal's performing arts festival Alkantara opens in Lisbon

Lisbon's biennial Alkantara Festival is now underway until June 9. Its name means "the bridge" in Arabic and the festival's theme is cross-cultural collaboration.

One of the first shows, called "Tri_K", features three performers with various artistic backgrounds. Their different origins, says actor-choreographer Dick Wong, fed into a piece about shifting identities.

"One aspect is about me being Chinese and then the two others being Japanese. We have a lot of comparison, and we try to put that into different contexts with body movement, with dance, with video," said Wong.

The piece explores how a man finds his place in the world, explains another of the trio, performance artist Takao Kawaguchi.

"There are three men on stage, competing with each other to see who is the best, the most and the strongest," said Kawaguchi.

Monday's European premiere was, appropriately, at Lisbon's Museum of the Orient, which also happens to be in the Alcantara district - named in Moorish times for a now long-vanished bridge. The Alkantara Festival takes place both in Lisbon and Oporto.

Author: Alison Roberts
Editor: Kate Bowen