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 in 2001. Living creatively was always a basic need- to me its the maximum expression of the power within us-, but it was exactly during the mexican journey that this internal life was reawakened taking me into 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 in a public school, 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 in different countries, but gained more consistency in CEM (Lisbon).
Some of the teachers that impacted me most were: Christine Chu Shinae, Ko Morubushi, Marie-Gabrielle Rotie (Butoh); Howard Sonnenklar, Peter Michael Dietz, Dieter Heitkemp (contact- improv); Geo Legorreta, Tarikavalli ( Indian Classical Dance), Ludger Lamers, Amélia Bentes (Contemporary Dance and Partnering); Atul Mulji, Escuela de La Ferriere de la Ciudad de Mexico (Yoga); Master Chang (Tai Ji); Graciela Herrera (Balinese Dance).
When I came back to Portugal I started collaborating with Trupilariante- a circus company-, as a storyteller, with Macapi-a Puppeteering Company-, as movement director, play writer and puppeteer, and also with Amálgama Dance Company as a dancer and co-creator, this one for 5 years. I also experienced the life of a living statue performing every day for two hours in the street and this was - as paradoxically as it may seem-, one of the best studies about movement that I had, specially related with the control of the muscles of the eyes. In 2020/21 II colaborated with Seller Dance Company (Spain/Puerto Rico/Portugal), in "Trilogia de um Transgressor" and in the play "O Bailarino".
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 the force of life, 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, liberation of hidden potentials and complete BEINGNESS..
Travelling in other paralell dimensions...I started creating my own Vibrational Elixirs and studyied plant Alchemy (Spaegyria), with one of the last true alchimists, combining it with my own practicall experience.
When I returned to Mexico (2008), I settled this time by the Caribbean sea -instead of the main city-, and began teaching dance and movement to adults in Mayatulum (best known as a Yoga Center), and children from the local indigenous comunities, while studying at the Holistic Maya Institute different “Traditional Medicines”.
It was this mayan land that gave birth to POETRY OF MOVEMENT within me: uniting my experience with the dance company and my somatic studies as two complementary pedagogies.
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 limitlessness.
I have been teaching independently and also in dancing meeting points like the Arrabida Gathering ("Inner Movement and Awareness of the Whole"), or EcstaticDance Sintra and Lisbon.
Since 2023 I am diving into an aquatic adventure: adapting this work into the water element.
