ANDRÉ UERBA is a Performer, Choreographer and Bodyworker. Born in Lisbon, he grew up in the suburbs with his brother and mother. Using his room or the common attic of the building, in 2006 he started to photograph, creating performative actions staged for the camera. Based in Berlin since 2013, he holds an MA in Arts, Solo/ Dance/ Authorship at HZT Berlin (2015). Alongside working as a performer with various artists, Uerba founded the production house SHORT HOPE, a platform designed to research, create, produce and promote his work. His projects are united by a particular interest in the poetics that emerge within a slower frame of realisation, where the inner layers are revealed at another pace. Since 2018 his research is focused within the potentialities of an encounter, slow and conscious touch and the concept of rehearsing intimacy in a performative and social context.
In 2018 with the support of Senate Department for Culture and Europe, Espaço do Tempo (PT) and PACT Zollverein (DE) he developed the project “Burn Time”, presented in Portugal, Germany, Sweden, Spain & Slovenia. In the same Year "Burn Time" was selected to be presented in the Portuguese Platform for Performing Arts in Montemor-o-Novo. In 2019 he developed “Pool of Emotions”, an event/ gathering that researches the relation between intimacy and performing arts. Between 2019 and beginning of 2020 he developed “Fire Starter”, in the frame of the 1 Year residency at Flutgraben Performances. In 2021 during a 4 weeks residency at Radialsystem, Uerba developed the film “Inviting Moments of Stillness” and later the project “A hole the size of your touch”, presented in the frame of BoCA – Biennial of Contemporary Arts (PT). In 2021 Uerba was part of the Re-Think (Accessibility & Sustainable Mobility) project supported by the Swedish Institute and Norrlandsoperan. In 2022 with the support of NPN-Stepping Out he developed “Æffective Choreography” presented at Radialsystem. In 2023 he got his certification as a Sexological Bodyworker from the Institute for Somatic Learning, Sexuality and Bodywork (ISB Berlin).
Uerba performed among others in projects from: Tino Sehgal (This is so Contemporary), Diego Agulló (Dancing the Problem), Julian Weber (A Long Lasting Plié), Bernardo Chatillon (Reindeer Ager), Antonija Livingstone (Male Breast Feeding), Clément Layes (The Eternal Return), Alexandra Pirici (Aggregate), Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa (The Print of Sleep), Miguel Moreira (Se eu não puder dançar esta não é a minha revolução), Sandra Man & Moritz Majce (Narkosis), Carlota Lagido (Monster) and from 2012 to 2019 worked as artistic collaborator, group coordinator and performer with the duo Ana Borralho & João Galante (Sexy MF, Atlas, Trigger of Happiness).
SHORT HOPE is not an institution or an official entity. SHORT HOPE is primarily a creative hub informed by André Uerba and guests, that looks to re-articulate and re-shape ways of thinking and dynamics of inscription in live works. The name SHORT HOPE emerges in 2018 and echoes his constant and urgent need on reflecting upon the state of society and its bodies - what is urgent now? How do you feel today?
SHORT HOPE emerges from a personal point of view where the focus is positioned in looking inwards and working upon oneself, as in equal to create a frame to be supportive towards other beings - rather than searching in the material world for something to create a happier life. SHORT HOPE is a remembering note written on the mirror: Hope as a state of mind and an ability to operate for something because it feels vulnerable.