EMPURRÃO is an initiative to promote and visibility of contemporary circus artists that seeks to strengthen the presence of the circus in the national and international artistic scene. The activity works as a short and direct presentation platform, where emerging artists or in the process of consolidating new projects have the opportunity to show their work to international and national programmers, structures, festivals and other professionals in the sector in an oral way, through videos and other projections.
Created in 2024 by Erva Daninha, a structure of Porto that is dedicated to the programming, production and promotion of the contemporary circus. He has been organizing the Trengo Circus Festival since 2016, Mostra Estufa since 2018 and manages Clube Erva Daninha since 2023, a residence space dedicated to the creation in circus.
EMPURRÃO #4 | 6th November 2026 | MOSTRA ESTUFA | CED
The artists who present their projects –
Margarida Monteny, Tjaša Dobravec · Fernando Nogueira, Alan Sencades, Vasco Gomes, Uatumã Fattori, Inês Pinho, Pedro Matias, Daniel Seabra, Alvin Young.
After EMPURRÃO #4, the 9th edition of Mostra Estufa on Teatro Campo Alegre.
EMPURRÃO #3 | 13th February 2026 | CED
The artists who present their projects –
Uatumã Fattori, Lucia Merlina, Inês Pinho, Filipa Madeira, David David | Ângulo Crítico, Daniel Seabra, Jessica Lane, Nicolás Bustos Riquelme, Chiara Capparelli.
After EMPURRÃO #3, the CED present one of the FRAGMENTOS of 2026. One night and a stage with different contemporary circus short performances in current cabaret mode.
EMPURRÃO #2 | 27th June 2025 | TRENGO 25 | CED
The artists who present their projects –
Jorge Lix, Margarida Monteny, Fernando Nogueira, Thorsten Gruetjen, Pedro Matias, Mariana Frazão e Catarina Gameiro, Arrel Guevara, Elis Valente, Nacho Flores.
@Susana Chicó
After EMPURRÃO #2, Public Debate “Contemporary Circus: create, finance, circulate”. With Américo Rodrigues (Director Geral das Artes | DGArtes), Cláudia Berkeley (Teatro da Didascália, Festival Vaudeville Rendez-Vous), Julieta Guimarães (Erva Daninha, Trengo) Juliette Beaume (Associação de Profissionais de Circo da Catalunha), Marissa Paituví (Institut Ramon Llull), Maria Mariño (Kandengue Arts), Sandra Arisa (Roca Umbert) among other guests.
EMPURRÃO #1 | 28th june 2024 | TRENGO 24 | CED
The artists who present their projects –
Jorge Lix, Margarida Monteny, Radar 360º, Coração nas Mãos, João Paulo dos Santos, Uatumã Fattori, Cia Absurda, Lucia Merlina, Alvin Yong e Alan Sencades, Daniel Seabra, Cie Del Caravaggio
In addition to several national programmers, we had international representation, namely the ACCC delegation (Barcelona) under the LATITUD(e)S project.