Regular Classes

With Josefa Pereira & Bárbara Faustino

Tuesday & Wednesday | 19h30-21h30

“The Contemporary Dance classes at Forum Dança will be conducted in the 2025/26 academic year through a multifaceted experience proposed by Josefa Pereira, Bárbara Faustino, and guests. The aim of our classes is to create a space for encounter and collectivity, where the alternation between artists encourages the sharing and crossing of different bodily practices, exploring both what they have in common and the particularities that each work proposal will allow them to experience.

Based on this exchange between teachers/artists and students/artists, the aim is to provide a context for experimentation that activates in each participant the availability and readiness necessary for a journey through practices that seek to provide the experience of creative tools through dance and the body in movement.

In our classes, different techniques and training methods are used to achieve a more powerful and self-aware body. Little by little, we cultivate a sensitive, more accessible, and porous body, with better vitality and energy circulation, more resilient and malleable with itself and in relation to its surroundings. Finally, we seek to mobilize a more inventive body that is constantly updating its ways of being and existing.

The classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays are open to anyone interested in dance and movement practices. Therefore, not only dance artists and beginners are welcome, but also people who have no previous experience in physical practices. Curiosity and availability are the only requirements to join us.”

[Josefa Pereira and Bárbara Faustino]

As part of the annual scholarships offered by Forum Dança, we would like to extend an invitation to black, trans, non-binary, and/or immigrant individuals who are unable to afford the classes. If you fall into any of these categories and are interested in joining us, please contact us by email at: forumdança@forumdanca.pt

(the two scholarships available will be awarded in order of application)

Biographies

Josefa Pereira (BR/PT) is a choreographer and performer. She lives in Portugal and collaborates in São Paulo, the city where she grew up and trained artistically. She completed her master’s degree at DAS Choreography – AHK (NL) with a scholarship from the Gulbenkian Foundation. She participated in PACAP and graduated in Dance and Performance at PUC-SP (BR) as a PROUNI program scholarship recipient.

With a strong focus on practice and research, her artistic approach involves engaging with available and readily accessible materials that can emerge as fabulous, enchanted, or monstrous. Her attention focuses on a field of listening and sensitivity in which doing through different frictions becomes capable of enabling other potentials of poetic and aesthetic agency, generating transformations and mutations of forms, states, and perceptions. In this dynamic relationship between materials/collaborators or between human and more-than-human entities, collaborative thinking, cooperative agency, and coexistence implied in each choreographic gesture are prioritized.

In addition to her authorial work and collaborations as a performer and in the field of dramaturgy, she is dedicated to teaching activities, which include classes and workshops.

https://cargocollective.com/josefapereira

Bárbara Faustino (BR/PT) is dedicated to creation and teaching in the areas of contemporary dance and performance. She researches the body as a territory of study where expressive possibilities are infinite and investigates the fertile dialogue between teaching and creation. She graduated from the Municipal Ballet School of the Municipal Theater of São Paulo and also holds a degree in Dance and Movement from Anhembi Morumbi University. She completed the Pre-Primary and Primary Teachers’ Course at the Royal Academy of Dance of London.
Based in Portugal since 2014, she has worked as a dancer, manager, and dance teacher at Musibéria – International Center for Music and Dance of the Iberian World – in Serpa, Alentejo, where she developed her own research in the areas of dance teaching and creation. She currently resides in Lisbon, working as a dance teacher at venues such as Academia Inatel and Fórum Dança, in addition to continuing her artistic research at the intersection of teaching, performance, and creation. She worked with Jérôme Bel on THE SHOW MUST GO ON, founded the HIDRA dance company in partnership with dancer Janice Iandritsky, and is also part of Mosaicollective. She recently received the Pédexumbo New Creations Grant for the project “ATRAVESSAR – the invention of a dance route through the Celeiros neighborhood.”

Pre-registration process

With Gisela Dória

Interdisciplinary movement practices

School year 2025/26

Monday | 19h30-21h00

These classes are for anyone who wants to explore the body in action and discover the pleasure of moving — with or without dance experience.

Inspired by techniques such as contemporary dance, Pilates, Gyrokinesis®, and other somatic practices, Gisela Dória leads a process-oriented work that values the uniqueness of each body, developing physical awareness and sensory perception.

More than simply combining methods, the classes integrate different approaches to expand the pleasure of movement, physical functionality, and vitality. They also create space for continuous self-observation and reflection about our bodies.
These sessions are designed for those who, instead of a traditional gym setting, prefer a creative and welcoming environment.

[Gisela Dória]

Duration: 1h20
For: adults of all ages, no technical prerequisites

Note: classes begin in October

Biografia

Gisela Dória is a choreographer, researcher, teacher and dancer who graduated from the College of the Royal Academy of Dance in London. She is a collaborator with the Centre for Theatre Studies at the University of Lisbon. She has a post-doctorate from USP’s School of Communications and Arts, a doctorate in Performing Arts from Unicamp’s Institute of Arts and a master’s degree in Performing Arts from USP. She published the book ‘A Poética de Sem Lugar: Por uma Teatralidade na Dança’ in 2013. She founded and directed Duo Escola de Dança in Campo Grande, MS, Brazil for over 24 years. She specialises in Pilates, GYROKINESIS® and Klein Technique® certification.
As a choreographer and performer, she has collaborated with Ginga Cia de Dança, Dançurbana and Coletivo Performa Teatro.

Personal website at www.giseladoria.com

1. Pre-register online using the form provided;
2. Wait for our email with payment instructions;
3. Pay for your registration as indicated in the email sent to you;
4. Send us proof of payment to our email address;
5. Your registration will only be validated once we have received your receipt.

with Josefa Pereira, Bárbara Faustino e Natália Mendonça

School year 2024/25

(2025/26: to be announced)

Tuesday and Thursday | 19h30-21h30

Forum Dança’s Contemporary Dance classes will be conducted through a multiple and collective experience, proposed by Josefa Pereira in partnership with artists Bárbara Faustino and Natália Mendonça. The proposal is to provide a meeting space in which the alternation between the three artists enables a context of sharing and transit so that different bodily practices intersect both in what they have in common and in the specificities that each artist and their work proposals will allow them to experience.
From this exchange between teachers/artists and students/artists, the aim is to provide a context for experimentation that activates in each participant the availability and readiness necessary for a tour of practices that seek, as a common point, to provide the experience of creative tools through dance and the body in movement.
In our classes, the different techniques and training are not an end in themselves, but a resource for a more powerful and self-aware body. From there, we try to activate a sensitive, accessible and porous body, with more vitality and better energy circulation, more resilient and malleable to its surroundings. Finally, we seek to mobilize a more inventive body that is constantly open to new updates in its ways of being.
The Tuesday and Thursday classes are aimed at anyone interested in dance and movement practices. That’s why not only dance artists and beginners are welcome, but also people who have no previous experience of body practices. Curiosity and availability are the only requirements for joining us.

Bios

Josefa Pereira (BR/PT) is a choreographer and performer. She lives in Lisbon, between partnerships in the local scene and collaborations in São Paulo, the city where she lived and grew up. She completed her master’s degree at DAS Choreography – AHK (NL) with a scholarship from the Gulbenkian Foundation and graduated in dance and performance at Comunicação das Artes do Corpo (PUC-SP) with a scholarship from the PROUNI program. She also took part in PACAP I, promoted by Forum Dança (PT).
Her most recent artistic practice is defined by an orbiting field around interests such as monstrosity and fabulation. Recent collaborations include Ruído Rosa by Alina Ruiz Foline; As Canções que Catamos Contra os Muros que Limpamos by Catarina Vieira and Aixa Fagini; Spillovers by Rita Natálio; and dramaturgy for O Elefante no Meio da Sala by Vânia Doutel Vaz; and KDEIRAZ by Natália Mendonça.

Since 2019 she has been a dance teacher at Forum Dança, and also teaches workshops and creative laboratories, making this a space for experimentation and exchange for her practice and artistic research with other artists and interested people. In addition to collaborations and partnerships, she is dedicated to the creation and circulation of her works Hidebehind (2018), Glimpse (2020) and Calor (2022), which are part of the PINK Bestiary trilogy. And in 2023 he will premiere his new group creation Campo Força Chama. Her work has already been shown at the Cumplicidades Festival (PT); Teatro do Bairro Alto (PT); Acker Stadt Palast (DE); Moderna Museet (SE); Bienal SESC de Dança (BR); Festival Internacional de Danza Contemporánea-FIDCU (UR); Museum of Modern Art – MAM-SP (BR); Meteor Theater Festival (NO), among others.

Natália Mendonça (BR/PT) is a performer, choreographer and body coach with a degree in Dance from UNICAMP. Based in Lisbon since 2020, she took part in PACAP 4, teaches dance at Forum Dança and develops her own work and collaborations with other choreographers. Since 2021 she has been developing KDEIRAZ, a children’s piece that plays with the creation of choreographic games. With Josefa Pereira she collaborated on the Bestiário PINK trilogy and is a performer in Campo-Força-Chama, with Dinis Machado she is a performer in Cyborg Sunday and with Rita Natálio she was a guest in the Pass The Mic project. In Brazil she is a performer with Clarice Lima and Cristian Duarte and has been part of the cast of Marta Soares, Cia Perversos Polimorfos and Jorge Garcia. In 2016 she premiered Marcela Banguela under the PROAC 1as Obras de Dança program. She was the body coach for Quando Quebra Queima by the Ocupação collective (MEXE-PT/Festival Panorama CND-FR/Battersea-UK) and has performed at Cena Brasil Internacional-RJ/Bienal Sesc de Dança-SP/Festival IC de Teatro-BA/JUNTA Teresina-PI/Festival Aldeia Vale Dançar-PE.

Bárbara Faustino (BR/PT) is dedicated to creating and teaching in the fields of contemporary dance and performance. She researches the body as a territory of study where expressive possibilities are infinite and investigates the fertile dialogue between teaching and creation. She graduated from the Escola Municipal de Bailado do Teatro Municipal de São Paulo and also has a degree in Dance and Movement from Anhembi Morumbi University. She took the Pre-Primary and Primary teachers’ course at the Royal Academy of Dance of London.

Based in Portugal since 2014, she has worked as a dancer, manager and dance teacher at Musibéria – International Centre for Iberian World Music and Dance – in Serpa, Alentejo, where she developed authorial research in the areas of dance teaching and creation. She currently lives in Lisbon, working as a dance teacher at venues such as the Inatel Academy and Fórum Dança, as well as continuing her artistic research at the crossroads between teaching, performance and creation. She worked with Jérôme Bel on THE SHOW MUST GO ON, founded HIDRA cia. de dança in partnership with dancer Janice Iandritsky, and is also part of Mosaicollective. She was recently awarded the Pédexumbo New Creations Grant for her project «ATRAVESSAR – a invenção de um percurso dançado pelo Bairro Celeiros».

Pre-registration process

1. Pre-register online using the form provided;
2. Wait for our email with payment instructions;
3. Pay for your registration as indicated in the email sent to you;
4. Send us proof of payment to our email address;
5. Your registration will only be validated once we have received your receipt.

with Maria Ramos

School year 2025/2026

Wednesday | 19h30-21h30

We work on the relationship of the body with space.

We read our favorite authors to think better about composition, landscape, geography, and architecture.

We invent rules, activate invisible structures, and discover ‘events’. Sometimes we map movement, sometimes movement goes off the map.

We make performances in which we are all, simultaneously, audience, authors, and performers.

Regular classes in dance composition and experimentation, organized into work cycles and accompanied by informal sharing sessions throughout the academic year.

Based on the improvisation-composition practices and methodologies that I have been developing in the context of my choreographic and pedagogical work, we will first form a ‘body’ (individual body and collective body) and, from there, create performative events that explore the relationship between the body and space, sound, objects, images, and texts—in a gradual, plural, and four-dimensional movement.

The aim will be to analyze the ‘rules’ of the ‘game’ (improvisation structure, composition, mapping, score), so that we can then transgress them and discover performative proposals in which we are all, simultaneously, ‘builders’ and interpreters.

Practical note

Each session begins with a physical warm-up that works the body, activates movement, and introduces the practical concepts that we will explore throughout the work. These initial moments also stimulate individual and collective imagination, creating a common starting point for the group experience. In order for us to start together, it is important that participants arrive at the studio a few minutes early.

References & research territories

Key-words

• Movement research
• Body-space relationship
• ‘Choreography as landscape-in-action’
• Practice as research

September – October 2025
Sessions led by Maria Ramos

October – December 2025
Sessions led by Inês Zinho Pinheiro (dancer and researcher) and moss kissing (musician and composer), a duo invited by Maria Ramos.

Sessions led by Inês Zinho Pinheiro and moss kissing:

• October 22
• October 29
• November 5
• November 12
• November 19
• November 26
• December 3

December 2025 – June 2026
Sessions led by Maria Ramos, with the participation of occasional guests, who will contribute to deepening improvisation and composition practices developed throughout the year.
Dates subject to change.

Target Audience
Classes open to professionals and non-professionals interested in deepening their contemporary dance practice, with a focus on exploring movement, interpretation, and improvisation-composition. Clothing / Materials
Wear comfortable clothing that also protects your body when working on the floor (pants and a long-sleeved shirt). Bring a water bottle, notebook, and pen. Some activities may take place outside the studio; in this case, it is recommended to bring a layer of warm clothing and comfortable shoes.
Previous Guests
Joana Pupo (actress/creator), Jaime Mears (actress/creator, AU-PT), Ana Mira (dancer/teacher), Sara Anjo (dancer/creator), Teresa Silva (dancer/creator), Angus Balbernie (choreographer/director, UK), Christy Funsch (dancer/creator, USA), Inês Zinho Pinheiro (dancer/creator), Albert Dean (musician), Miguel Sobral Curado (musician), Noeli Kikuchi (dancer/creator).

Bio

Maria Ramos
Between 1996 and 2009, she lived in the Netherlands, where she studied and developed her professional career as a dancer, working with various independent choreographers in the Netherlands, Germany, England and the USA. Highlights include her work with choreographer/director Angus Balbernie (UK), choreographers Olga Pona (UK), Katja F. M. Wolf (DE) and Janis Claxton (UK-AU). She trained in Dance at the Hogeschool voor de kunsten/ArtEZ (1996-2000) and obtained a Master’s degree in Choreography, ArtEZ Master of Choreography (Moc, 2006-2008), at the ArtEZ Institute of the Arts in Arnhem.

On her return to Portugal, she completed the Research and Creation course at Forum Dança, in Lisbon, in the context of which she began to create her first solo work, 7pm/Rumour, a piece that begins the cycle of works entitled Um Certo Grau de Imobilidade (A Certain Degree of Immobility), supported by DGArtes and the Gulbenkian Foundation. This cycle also includes the pieces Nerves and Something Still Uncaptured, presented in the Netherlands, Portugal and Argentina. He later choreographed the piece Árida, a project supported by DGArtes.

She currently collaborates with actress and creator Joana Pupo (in the project O Corpo Inominável) and with choreographer Madalena Victorino (in various choreographic projects), as a dancer/creator or as a creative assistant. At the same time, she has been teaching at the Escola Superior de Dança (since 2017), at the Escola Superior de Artes e Design das Caldas da Rainha (since 2016) and at Forum Dança (since 2012).

“When people ask me what dance technique I teach and who I studied improvisation, composition and choreography with, I always end up having to talk about my dance background and practices. In my classes, I take my own approach which includes contemporary dance techniques based on the Release technique (learned from Amélia Bentes and Sofia Neuparth and, later, during the course at EDDC/ArtEZ with teachers Eva Karczag, Mary O’Donnell Fulkerson, Gill Clarke and João da Silva); contact-improvisation (Karen Nelson, Steve Paxton); floor work; partner work (David Zambrano, Iñaki Azpillaga/Ultima Vez); fall and recovery; vertical movement and movement through space; improvisation and composition. Developed throughout my dance career with teachers and choreographers from the so-called New Portuguese Dance, such as Sofia Neuparth, Amélia Bentes, Peter Michael Dietz, Clara Andermatt and Francisco Camacho, especially in the context of the five-month Research and Choreographic Creation Course at Forum Dança, as well as in the Netherlands and England, with creators and teachers such as Steve Paxton, Deborah Hay, Yvonne Rainer (from whom I learned the iconic solo “Trio A”) and Karen Nelson/Lisa Nelson, and with dancers and teachers from the companies Trisha Brown and Siobhan Davies, Eva Karczag (who passed on to me notions of ‘full-body movement and the practice of being in the moment’ and with whom I also practiced the martial art T’ai Chi Ch’uan, which Karczag in turn learned from the teacher Gerda Geddes), Lisa Kraus and Gill Clarke.

Also important for me in terms of the performer’s work, composition and improvisation was the work I did as a dancer with choreographer/director Angus Balbernie between 2000-2009, and the workshops with the Goat Island Performance Group, Matthew Goulish and Lin Hixson, Deborah Hay, Peter Pleyer and Jonathan Burrows.”

More info: Choreographic work | Laboratory Notebook | Aulas e Práticas de Dança, Hoje

Selecione cada uma das secções abaixo para conhecer as/os convidadas/os do ano letivo 2025/26:

Pre-registration process

1. Pre-register online using the form provided;
2. Wait for our email with payment instructions;
3. Pay for your registration as indicated in the email sent to you;
4. Send us proof of payment to our email address;
5. Your registration will only be validated once we have received your receipt.

with Francisca Pinto

School year 2024/2025

Tuesday and Thursday | 9h00-10h00

YOGA, as a psycho-physical technique, is universally applicable.
In these classes, which are active and dynamic, but also rigorous and methodical, we will try to rebalance muscle chains and become more aware of the body’s alignment.
The classes are demanding but always safe and comfortable, respecting each student’s rhythm and condition, using specific support material for a healthy progression.
We will work deeply on the coordination of movement with Ujjayi breathing (basic Pránáyáma technique), bringing breathing into a conscious process, gradually inducing a state of greater concentration.
Between the techniques of Ásana (yoga postures), Pránáyáma (breathing techniques) and Yoganidra (relaxation techniques), I will share varied and progressive classes, in a peaceful and caring environment, but also one of joy and well-being, recognizing the importance and pleasure that being in connection with our body gives us.

As a dancer for over ten years, HATHA YOGA has been a fundamental practical philosophy of life in the continuous discovery and deepening of the infinite possibilities of the body.
It is always highly structuring and deeply rooted, while simultaneously opening up spaces for greater physical, psychic and emotional availability.
It’s a complete practice in caring for the body and activating its energy, as the main vehicle of our daily existence, which I share here with great pleasure and dedication.

Bio

FRANCISCA PINTO (1998), was born in Lisbon (PT). Dancer, performer, creator and teacher. Graduated from National Conservatory School of Dance of Lisbon in 2006 and from Lisbon Superior Dance School in 2009. Studied in the Study, Research and Choreographic Creation Program of Fórum Dança in 2013/14. As a dancer as been working with Martine Pisani, Clara Andermatt, Lia Rodrigues, Jonas&Lander, Bruno Alexandre, Catarina Miranda, Francisco Thiago Cavalcanti, Sofia Dias&Vitor Roriz, among others. As a guest teacher has worked for different instituitions such as Escola Livre de Dança da Maré (BR), Estúdios Vítor Córdon, Escola Superior de Dança (PT). Has been practicing Yoga since 2010 and is graduated as a Certified Yoga Instructor from Portuguese Yoga Centre – CPYOGA Lisboa.

Pre-registration process

1. Pre-register online using the form provided;
2. Wait for our email with payment instructions;
3. Pay for your registration as indicated in the email sent to you;
4. Send us proof of payment to our email address;
5. Your registration will only be validated once we have received your receipt.

with Gisela Dória

Interdisciplinary Movement Practices

School year 2024/2025

Monday | 19h30-21h00

From Body to Body consists of regular classes based on the practice that Gisela Dória has been developing over many years of pedagogical and artistic experience. The work proposed here dialogues with a variety of techniques, including Dance, Pilates, Gyrokinesis® and various Somatic Education practices, including the Klein Technique™. More than a synthesis of these techniques, the classes promote the integration of various approaches in favor of a sensitivity that takes the uniqueness of each body as its starting point.

The aim is to develop awareness of the physical structure in order to make movement more functional and pleasurable, helping to maintain the body’s vitality. These classes thus open the way to self-observation, providing each person with the necessary resources for the continued (re)education of their movement.

Classes are open to adults of all ages, with no technical or physical prerequisites.

Bio

Gisela Dória is a choreographer, researcher, teacher and dancer who graduated from the College of the Royal Academy of Dance in London. She is a collaborator with the Centre for Theatre Studies at the University of Lisbon. She has a post-doctorate from USP’s School of Communications and Arts, a doctorate in Performing Arts from Unicamp’s Institute of Arts and a master’s degree in Performing Arts from USP. She published the book ‘A Poética de Sem Lugar: Por uma Teatralidade na Dança’ in 2013. She founded and directed Duo Escola de Dança in Campo Grande, MS, Brazil for over 24 years. She specialises in Pilates, GYROKINESIS® and Klein Technique® certification.
As a choreographer and performer, she has collaborated with Ginga Cia de Dança, Dançurbana and Coletivo Performa Teatro.

Personal website at www.giseladoria.com

Pre-registration process

1. Pre-register online using the form provided;
2. Wait for our email with payment instructions;
3. Pay for your registration as indicated in the email sent to you;
4. Send us proof of payment to our email address;
5. Your registration will only be validated once we have received your receipt.