Sofia Ferreira
My first degree was in Art History. I worked for art galleries before investing all my energy in a research (with a Gulbenkian scholarship), about Mexican Muralism that made me move to that country a year after. Living creatively was something that I always felt like a spiritual need- the maximum expression of the power within us-, but it was exactly during this journey that this internal life was reawakened and I took the conscious decision of having a more active role in the continuous process of human creative evolution.
So, in 2002 I decided to abandon what I was doing in Mexico and, after traveling in Central and North America for some more months, I returned to Portugal and started directing Movement workshops for children while diving in other transformative learnings.The base of these workshops was body consciousness, something that I had been experiencing for some time with different teachers from all over the world in CEM (Lisbon): Butoh (Christine Chu, Ko Morubushi, Marie-Gabrielle Rotie), Contact-improvisation (Howard Sonnenklar, Peter Michael Dietz, Dieter Heitkemp), Indian dance (Geo Legorreta, Tarikavalli), Contemporary Dance and partnering (Ludger Lamers, Amélia Bentes), and most of all Yoga (Escuela de La Ferriere del D.F., Atul Mulji), and Tai Chi (Master Chang), besides Performance and other parallel practices.
It was then that I also started collaborating with a circus company as a storyteller, with a Puppeteer Company as movement director and writer, and also with Amálgama Dance Company as a dancer and co-creator, with whom I was creating projects untill 2017. I also experienced the life of a living statue performing every day for two hours in the street and this was paradoxically one of the best studies about movement that I had!
While in Portugal I certified in Perceptive Pedagogy of Movement and Action (Universidade Moderna), and in Fasciatherapy and Somathology (Escola de Estudos Avançados de Naturologia) - both Danis Bois Method. This French osteopath and kinesiologist, understanding the internal movement of the body as our force of self-healing, created a unique method of having access to this flow and expressing it, offering not only health at all levels but also empathy, communication, sensitivity, freedom and unity to our beings.
Also in Portugal, I started creating my own Vibrational Elixirs and studyied plant Alchemy (Spaegyria), with one of the last true alchimists, combining it with my own experience.
Later on (2008), I returned to live in the Mexican Caribbean (Tulum), where I started teaching adults in Mayatulum Center and children from the local indigenous comunities, while I was studying at the Holistic Maya Institute “Traditional Medicines”.
It was then that The POETRY OF MOVEMENT began and it's still my committment.
Since then I have been working with all kinds of ages, conditions and experiences, enjoying the uniqueness of each case and the constant surprise that allows me to challenge myself and adapt the work, aknowledging at the same time its limitless.
So, in 2002 I decided to abandon what I was doing in Mexico and, after traveling in Central and North America for some more months, I returned to Portugal and started directing Movement workshops for children while diving in other transformative learnings.The base of these workshops was body consciousness, something that I had been experiencing for some time with different teachers from all over the world in CEM (Lisbon): Butoh (Christine Chu, Ko Morubushi, Marie-Gabrielle Rotie), Contact-improvisation (Howard Sonnenklar, Peter Michael Dietz, Dieter Heitkemp), Indian dance (Geo Legorreta, Tarikavalli), Contemporary Dance and partnering (Ludger Lamers, Amélia Bentes), and most of all Yoga (Escuela de La Ferriere del D.F., Atul Mulji), and Tai Chi (Master Chang), besides Performance and other parallel practices.
It was then that I also started collaborating with a circus company as a storyteller, with a Puppeteer Company as movement director and writer, and also with Amálgama Dance Company as a dancer and co-creator, with whom I was creating projects untill 2017. I also experienced the life of a living statue performing every day for two hours in the street and this was paradoxically one of the best studies about movement that I had!
While in Portugal I certified in Perceptive Pedagogy of Movement and Action (Universidade Moderna), and in Fasciatherapy and Somathology (Escola de Estudos Avançados de Naturologia) - both Danis Bois Method. This French osteopath and kinesiologist, understanding the internal movement of the body as our force of self-healing, created a unique method of having access to this flow and expressing it, offering not only health at all levels but also empathy, communication, sensitivity, freedom and unity to our beings.
Also in Portugal, I started creating my own Vibrational Elixirs and studyied plant Alchemy (Spaegyria), with one of the last true alchimists, combining it with my own experience.
Later on (2008), I returned to live in the Mexican Caribbean (Tulum), where I started teaching adults in Mayatulum Center and children from the local indigenous comunities, while I was studying at the Holistic Maya Institute “Traditional Medicines”.
It was then that The POETRY OF MOVEMENT began and it's still my committment.
Since then I have been working with all kinds of ages, conditions and experiences, enjoying the uniqueness of each case and the constant surprise that allows me to challenge myself and adapt the work, aknowledging at the same time its limitless.
“All moving is from the mover. Every pull draws us to the Ocean. Let the beauty we love keep turning into action, transmuting to another another. Anything you grab hold of on the bank breaks with the river’s pressure. When you do things from your soul, the river itself moves through you.”
*Rumi
*Rumi