Biography Marlla Araújo

Marlla Araújo, 27 years old, from Brazil, born in Realengo, a favela in the west side of Rio de Janeiro city. Graduated from Núcleo 2, an intensive and continuous dance training program of the Escola Livre de Dança da Maré (ELDM) at the Centro de Artes da Maré (CAM) directed by the choreographer Lia Rodrigues. She took part in the theater workshop at the NGO Redes da Maré, an extension project run by the theater company Cia Marginal in partnership with Redes da Maré (2014-2015) which after a while this workshop she co-founded and is a former member of the theater group Grupo Atiro. She worked with health promotion in the Rap da Saúde project (Rede de Adolescentes Promotores da Saúde), a partnership with Rio de Janeiro Municipal Health Department (2013-2014). She was a member of the "Teatro em Comunidades" social project (2012-2014). She did an internship with the Ministry of Education's Mais Educação project (2016). Worked with parties doing recreation, animation and live characters (2014-2018)

She also took part in artistic exchanges: Camping in 2016 and 2018 at the Centre National de la Danse in Paris, as well as with the La Manufacture school in Lausanne (2016). She danced a season of Maguy Marin's "May B" (1981) in 6 cities in France as part of the "May B-De Ste Foy -Les-Lyon to Rio de Janeiro: May B à la Maré, Une Fraternité" transmission project in 2018.

Lately, she danced the work "Outrar", a duet with Luyd Carvalho in partnership with the Lia Rodrigues dance company, at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels (2021) and at the 220 Volts festival in Porto in (2021). She danced her new creations, the solo "Rebirth" and the duet "Routes" (with Luyd Carvalho) at the Autumn Festival in Paris (2021). She has a bachelor's degree in dance from P.A.R.T.S. Currently part of the master's program at the same school in Belgium, she is part of the Brussels Ballroom scene.

"I have a deep fascination with the body pedagogy, the exploration of body physicality, and the exploration of queer phenomenology in the social and political context. My art is a form of weapon as real-life performance, an analogy that seeks to create new narratives of fiction - reality and perspectives for the future, not only for me, but also for other bodies who share the same social and political struggles that I face. I believe that through art, we can open doors to a deeper and more inclusive understanding of LGBTQ+ experiences and other voices living on the margins of our society."