I strive for continuity and integration of the community with whom I interact.
I was born in Lisbon, in 1965. My family ancestors are routed both in Portugal and Angola. I am married, I have a son and a daughter. I lived in Hamburg from 1994 to 2017, in Munich from 2017 to 2021 and moved back to Lisbon in December 2021.
I am an independent artist, choreographer, dancer, dance teacher and mentor, producer, activist, Dance Movement Therapist (MA), Relaxation Therapist (Autogenes Training und Progressive Muscle Relaxation) and I own the Basistraining in Moving Cycle, a Body-Centered Psychotherapie. With experience in Somatic Movement and Developmental Movement Therapy, I have initiated Baby Body Mind Dancing™ (BaBoMiDa™), a new branch of BodyMind Dancing™. Graduated from the Dynamic Embodiment – Somatic Movement Therapy Training (DE-SMTT) program, in 2019, under the guidance of Martha Eddy. And I am a Registered Somatic Movement Educator (RSME). I am a doctoral student of the program Post-Colonialisms and Global Citizenship at the Centre for Social Studies-CES, University of Coimbra (2023). With internships at the New York-Presbysterian & The Weill Cornell Department of Psychiatry in New York; at the Clinic for Child and Youth Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics at the Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf; and at the IBL-Institute for Movement and Learning Development. Received further professional training on ‚The Kestenberg Movement Profile in clinical practices’ with Dr. Marianne Eberhard-Kaechele. Workshops and lectures with the neuroscientist Prof. Dr. Lawrence W. Barselou during the 17th Herbstakademie, ‘The implications of embodiment: enactive, clinical, social’, Germany 2012; with Suzi Tortorra, ‘Dancing Dialogue’ during the 18th Herbstakademie, ‘The Circularity of Mind and Body, Heidelberg, 2015. And taught the morning war-up at the 18th Herbstakademie, ‘BodyMind Wake-Up’.
I have worked as a Dance Movement Therapist with children from six to fourteen years old, from Ukraine and Belarus, at the Renate Szlovak Stiftung in Soltau, Germany. This institution was initiated to mainly support children from the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, maintaining its goals until today.
Regarding my artistic work from 1995 to 2002, I was a choreographer in residence at Kampnagel Fabrik in Hamburg, and I have created major works that toured national and internationally. From 2003-2005 she produced her solo works, such as ‘Exposure’, and ‘Memory Play’. And from 2006 to 2008, she was the director of the DFTHH (Dachverband Freier Theaterschaffender Hamburg e.V.).
In 2005, I initiated the festival DanceKiosk-Hamburg and produced the Kiosk.Company, the project DanceKiosk. Goes Island, the dance production “Tracing Dance from Addis Ababa to Nairobi and Hamburg”, the dance education project “dance beyond borders” and the project on surviving strategies among the dance scene “SURVIVING DANCE – Art – Economy – Politics”. Ans was Mentioned as “one of the last independent dance activists” in the Tanz Yearbook of 2011.
From 2013-14, initiated the project “The Live Legacy Project: Correspondences between German Contemporary Dance and Judson Dance Theater Movement”, funded by the German TANZFONDS ERBE – An initiative by the German Federal Cultural Foundation.
In 2015, guest choreographer and performer of the project “The best. The worst. My everything!” initiated by Irmela Kästner at K3-Tanzplan Hamburg. And my film production “The live Legacy Project – film Documentation” had its premiere at Tanzkongress Hannover, 2016. And was performing at the theater production FAUST by Frank Castorf, at the Volksbünhe Berlin, with a premiere on March 3rd, 2017.
I was invited by the Portuguese cultural department (DGArtes), to be part of the evaluation committee for dance in 2017.
Worked as an independent choreographer and teacher, in Munich, since 2019, and initiated a series of Workshops at the Pädagogisches Institut-Zentrum für kommunales Bildungsmanagement-Berufsschule zur Berufsintegration and dance/movement for small children at the children’s house of the Munich VHS. In Munich, I collaborated with Callie Arnold, mentoring for the project “Pulse of Community”: dance performance project for people with experience of depression. And created “WIR”, a film project with young migrants in cooperation with the vocational school for professional integration at Balanstrasse. In 2020, I receive a scholarship from the Munich Department of Culture for my solo installation/performance “Me and My White Skeleton”.
My artistic contributions and collaborations in various contexts have been with e.g. Showcase Beat le Mot, Hajusom, Jochen Roller, Christian Concilio, Irmela Kästner, Callie Arnold,Ira Demina, Victoria Hauke, Philipp van der Heijden, Sven Kacirek, Beat Halberschmidt, Neda Ploskow, Fiona Gordon, Rosiris Garrido, Aloisio Avaz, Cristina Moura, Marc Rees, Adriana Braga Peretcki, Einat Tuchman, Cristina Moura, Nir de Volff, David Kamplani, Jo Stone, Paul Gazzola, Sérgio Pessanha, DuraLux, Miguel pereira, Claude Jansen, Adugna Company, Adam-Lucas Chienjo, Nuria Mohammed and Johnny Lloyd, Peter Pleyer, Karen Schaffman and more.
In Lisbon, I was invited researcher for the project “Dança não dança-arqueologias da nova dança em Portugal”, for the exhibition at the Gulbenkian Foundation from October 30, 2023 – February 25, 2025. Speaker at the conferences: “On comparing the German and Portuguese models in terms of public cultural policies, funding for artistic creation and ways of seeing, understanding and making art”, Espaço do Tempo, at the Goethe-Institut Lisbon (2023); “ENCONTROS PARA O FUTURO V: Dança(s) Contemporanea(s) Diáspora e Afrodescendência no contexto artístico português”, Estúdios Victor Cordon, Lisbon (2023); “Desenterrar memórias da Dança”, conversation with Piny, Angela Guerreiro, Désirée Desmarrattes (InterStruct collective), moderated by Cristina Roldão, part of the exhibition ‘Dance not dance-archaeologies of new dance in Portugal’, Gulbenkian Foundation (2024). Part of the artistic and production team of “Terreiro-Laboratório de Rituais” (2023), a project by UNA-União Negra das Artes, funded by DGArtes, Ministry of Culture and with the support of Espaço Alkantara. Jury for CAMPUS Paulo Cunha e Silva 2024-2025 for the Artist Residencies for local, national and foreign professional artists. Member of the association UNA – União Negra das Artes. And co-founder of ANACA-Associação Natureza Arte Corpo e Alma as President of the Board.
My main goal is to intertwine the artistic expression of dance with the methods of Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) and Somatic Movement aiming towards an embodied physical and emotional expression for each human being regardless of age, gender, cultural background or religion.
My working priorities are, to strive for continuity and integration of the community with whom I interact and to continue to provide exceptional contributions to artists from all art fields and cultural institutions – in dance, theater, music, performance, and visual arts. My choreographic and therapeutic contributions have been on the field of dance creations with migrant, elderly and youth populations both in Europe, Africa and the USA with the vision to empower intercultural relationships, fostering communication among people and peacemaking with a somatic and holistic approach.
