Contemporary Dance I mit Melissa Figueiredo

About the class

Through improvisation and composition, participants develop focus, physical awareness, and responsiveness. The workshop explores breath as a way to recognize different rhythms, as well as core activation and gaze as tools for movement, incorporating elements of somatic practice. The session begins with a guided warm-up, tuning the body through breath, stretching, grounding, and core activation. We then explore movement tasks and compositional ideas that create space to challenge habitual patterns, expand physical possibilities, and stimulate choice and creativity. The class concludes by bringing these elements together in a playful yet precise practice that encourages listening, exchange, and a present, responsive performative state.

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About Melissa Figueiredo

Melissa Figueiredo is a Brazilian dance artist based in Germany. She graduated from the FUNCEB Dance School and holds a magisterium degree in Dance from the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), Brazil. Her practice includes movement research, creation, improvisation, video, and writing, with a background in Brazilian traditional dances, Flying Low with David Zambrano, and other improvisation approaches. Since 2021, she has worked as a dancer and workshop tutor with Sasha Waltz & Guests in Berlin, while developing her own artistic and pedagogical practice. She has also collaborated on creative projects with artist Edivaldo Ernesto and co-directs the collective Nii/Colaboratório (Brazil), developing projects that explore physicality, cinematography and dystopian narratives. Her choreographic, audiovisual and pedagogical works have been presented across Brazil, Mexico, France, El Salvador, French Guiana, Costa Rica, Germany, Nicaragua and Paraguay.