My path as a dancer began with a moment of enchantment at the Parque Estoril Social Center — a multidisciplinary, philanthropic, and non-profit organization that offered extracurricular classes in my hometown in Brazil. It was there that I studied with teacher Angela Faria de Araújo. In 1995, we participated in a competition organized by the Infantíades project in Rio Preto — a festival that brought together public and private schools through sports and the arts. During the dance competition, we presented our choreography, and that night I was named “first ballerina.” As recognition, I was invited to join the city’s dance company as an apprentice.
There, I met maestro Juan José Soares, who gave me the opportunity to dive deeply into the study of classical ballet- and, at the same time, I learned what it’s like to live the daily life of a dance company. A year later, I joined the main ensemble and began touring throughout Brazil and Latin America with choreographies by Mário Nascimento and Edinaldo Nascimento.
From 2001 to 2007, I was a dancer with Cisne Negro Cia. de Dança in São Paulo, where I performed works by choreographers such as Patrick Delcroix, Itzik Galili, Rui Moreira, Denise Namura & Michael Bugdahn, Dany Bittencourt, Gigi Caciuleanu, among others. I was also part of the annual Nutcracker production presented by the company. With Cisne Negro, we toured across Brazil and took part in international festivals such as the Joyce Theater Summer Dance Festival in New York, the International Dance Festival of Havana in Cuba, and performances in Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina, Germany,South Africa, and Mozambique.
In 2007, I joined the dance-theatre ensemble at the Staatstheater Darmstadt in Germany under the direction of Mei Hong Lin. During my time there, I performed several leading roles, including Marquesa Cibo in Lorenzaccio (a Renaissance drama by Jochen Ulrich), the Mother of the Past in Lin’s Die Brautschminkerin — a production nominated for the Der Faust Prize — and complex roles such as Ulrike Meinhof and young Sylvia Plath by Johann Kresnik. I also danced the title role in Lala auf der Couch, and in 2013, I was named a “Promising Talent” by Jahrbuch Tanz for this performance.
That same year, I moved to Austria to join the newly formed dance ensemble at the Musiktheater Linz. In the revival of Die Brautschminkerin at this theatre — in which I now danced the leading role — I was nominated “Dancer of the Year 2017” by tanznetz.de. In that same year, I also received the Linz Musical Theater Friends’ Award. During my time with Tanz Linz, we toured internationally with productions such as Orpheus and Eurydice in Korea, as well as The Little Mermaid and Die Brautschminkerin (from Mei Hong Lin) in theatres across Taiwan.
My final performance as a company dancer took place on the stage of the Volkstheater in Vienna, at the opening of ImpulsTanz – Vienna International Dance Festival 2019, where I performed the role of Lady Macbeth in Macbeth: Reconstruction by Johann Kresnik, with Tanz Linz.
From that moment on, I began my path as an independent artist — freelance dancer, choreographer, educator, and researcher. One project that stood exactly at this intersection was Doomsday’s Flower / Fleur du Crépuscule, a collaboration with guqin player Li- Yu You and composer Jean- Jacques Lemêtre. This project was part of the DaGuan Festival at Taiwan University of the Arts, where we collaborated across departments of drama, music, and dance. In this project, I performed as dancer, choreographer, pedagogue, and shared stage direction with Jean-Jacques Lemêtre. It was during this time — which coincided with the completion of my master’s degree in arts and dance pedagogy — that I began shaping my trajectory as a choreographer, educator, and researcher, which I will further elaborate in the following pages.
Another freelance project was my collaboration with choreographer Staša Zurovac in LULU, where I had the privilege to shared the stage with Alexander Balanescu, founder of the Balanescu Quartet. We toured through Croatia, performing in festivals like the Dubrovnik Summer Festival, and later performed at Schauspielhaus Landestheater Linz, receiving both public and critical acclaim.
A deeply meaningful experience for me was performing with Christina Pluhar’s ensemble L’Arpeggiata in Combattimento, directed by Christina Pluhar and Julien Girardet, where I also participated as choreographer alongside Bruna Gondoni and Marco Bendoni. I danced the role of Anima d’Euridice on stage with Orfeo (Rolando Villazón), Euridice (Céline Scheen).
Another important freelance work was Alice Verschwindet (2022) — Alice disappears directed and choreographed by Valerie Voigt, I played the role of the mother — a character who spoke through movement — sharing the stage with three incredible actresses: Gunda Schanderer, Lorena Emmi Mayer, and Nataya Sam. It was a rewarding experience in which I discovered new ways of engaging with dance within theatrical performance. I continued exploring this hybrid field through further collaborations, such as with director Sara Ostertag, for whom I signed two choreographies.
Andressa Miyazato 