Melissa Figueiredo
Melissa Figueiredo is a Brazilian artist based in Berlin. She graduated from the FUNCEB dance school and holds a degree in contemporary dance education from the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) - Brazil. She went through different technical training in Ballet, Modern Dance, Brazilian Folk dance, Improvisation, and different approaches of Floorwork as Flying low and Passing Through with David Zambrano and Piso Móvil with Vladimir Rodrigues. Melissa has been involved in many projects as a freelance artist and collaborations with many choreographers such as Pietro Marullo (Italy-Belgium), Victor Navarro (Spain), Matias Santiago (Brazil), Dejalmir Melo (Brazil), Vladimir Rodriguez (Colombia), Ania Catharine (EUA), Cie Ladainha (France). Since 2021 she is collaborating on creative projects with the artist Edivaldo Ernesto and working as a guest of the company Sasha Waltz & Guests in Berlin.
She works as a co-director and founding member of the collective Nii/Colaboratório (BR) where she directs creative projects emphasizing physicality, presence, visual narrative, and sci-fi. In your last two works through the Nii/colaboratório, she conceived, scripted, and directed the dance film “Estio_Rito em Lapso” (2021), awarded for “Best Art Direction” according to BRA.DA Jury and "Best Dance Video" according to D'Olhar Festival, and the dance film “Sem chão” created for the Contemporary Dance Group (GDC) from the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA).
Her own choreographic and audiovisual projects have been staged in Brazil, Mexico, France, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Germany, Nicaragua, and Paraguay. As a teacher already taught and choreographed in many schools in different countries the dance workshop "Corpo Disponível" gathered information on the practice of yoga, floorwork, and improvisation. In 2022 she received funds to continue her new research from the Dis-Tanz-Solo 4 program in Berlin.
