Luiza Braz Batista
The choreographer, director, curator, producer and performer Luiza Braz Batista was born in Vitória (Brazil) and began her career as a dancer at a young age in the Grupo de Dança Primeiro Ato in Belo Horizonte. At the age of 19, she completed a master's degree in dance at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen. From 2009 to 2015, she worked at the Folkwang Dance Studio, also in Essen. She has been a guest dancer at the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch since 2008 and has worked as a rehearsal director for the Pina Bausch Foundation since 2024. She has performed as a soloist in Susanne Linke's Frauenballett, Pina Bausch's Wind von West, Der zweite Frühling and Orpheus und Eurydike, among others, and has worked with important choreographers and directors such as Suely Machado, David Hernandez, Moya Michael, Emanuel Gat, Hannes Langolf, Thomas Dannemann, Maura Morales, Lucyna Zwolinska and Julio Cesar Iglesias Ungo. From 2015 to 2018, she was a solo dancer with the Susanne Linke Company at the Trier Theatre, and from 2018 to 2022 she worked as an actress, choreographer and director in the acting ensemble at the Trier Theatre. She currently works freelance and creates a cultural bridge between continents. She develops her own works and performs with various dance, theatre and performance companies worldwide. Braz Batista is currently curating, organising and producing the festivals InCorPorAr in Belo Horizonte and ReConexão Africanidades 2024 in Congonhas, Brazil.