Biography
Born in 1956 in São Paulo, Brazil, Lia Rodrigues studied classical ballet and history at the University of São Paulo (USP), where she took part in the city’s contemporary dance movement in the ‘70s. In 1980, she joined Maguy Marin’s company for two years. Once back in Brazil, she founded Lia Rodrigues Companhia de Danças in Rio de Janeiro in 1990, offering a year-round programme of research, creations, classes and rehearsals. In 1992 she established the Panorama festival in Rio and ran it for 14 years. Since 2004, her company has helped to develop outreach and arts actions in the Maré favela in Rio de Janeiro, in conjunction with the NGO Redes de Desenvolvimento da Maré. This partnership gave rise to the Maré arts centre, which opened in 2009; and to the Maré free dance school, open since October 2011. Combining activism and utopias, Rodrigues believes in synergy between art and social processes. In France, she created a piece based on one of La Fontaine’s fables in 2005; a series of short pieces initiated in the same decade, alongside Béatrice Masson and Dominique Hervieu; and Hymnen for the CCN Ballet de Lorraine in 2007. Her works include: Ce dont nous sommes faits (2000), Formas Breves (2002) Incarnat (2005), Chantiers poétiques (2008), Pororoca (2009), Piracema (2011), Pindorama (2013), Para que o Céu nao Caia (2016), Fúria (2018) and Encantado (2021). She has received the medal of the Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters from France; the Prince Claus Award from the Netherlands in 2014; and the Prix Chorégraphie de la SACD in France in 2016. She was named best choreographer of 2019 by Tanz magazine; and received the Prix de la Critique Danse for “dance personality” in 2020. Lia Rodrigues is an associate artist at the Chaillot - Théâtre National de la Danse and the Centquatre-Paris.