Sylvia received her BFA in dance from the Juilliard School (USA), and studied dance at Elmhurst Ballet School (UK), The Netherlands Ballet Academy (NL) and Sumber Cipta Ballet School (Indonesia).
As a performer she has danced with the following dance companies; Companhia Olga Roriz (PT), Tokárt (PT), Stageworks Rui Horta (PT), Ballet Gulbenkian (PT), KOMPANIE Anna Röthlisberger Co. (CH), Marcel Leemann Physical Dance Theatre (CH), Dansity (NL), Bern Ballet (CH), Company Motleni,(CH) Cie. DRIFT (CH), Company Pool (CH), Stadttheater Giessen (DE), and the Juilliard Dance Ensemble (USA). She has danced works by Mauro Bigonzetti, Stijn Célis, Marie Chouinard, Gilles Jobin, Jiří Kylián, Ohad Naharin, Hervé Robbe, Didy Veldman, Örjan Andersson, Félix Dúmeril, Nils Christe, Jacopo Godani, Foofwa DÍmmobiité, David Parsons, Roberto Galván, Philippe Saire, Pierre Wyss, Paul Taylor, Martha Graham, José Limón, Rui Horta, Olga Roriz and Lila York to name a few.
As rehearsal assistant for Olga Roriz, she assisted and taught in the works: Terra, Orfeus e Euridíce and Sagração da Primavera.As a teacher of contemporary dance and classical ballet, Sylvia has taught in Portugal at the Conservatory of Music in Coimbra, Dance School of the National Conservatory, Olga Roriz Dance Company, Forum Dança, Quorum Ballet, Jazzy and during a co-creation of Rui Horta’s Stageworks “Hierarchia das Nuves”. Abroad, Sylvia has taught at Balé Teatro Guaíra (BR) and Matsumoto Performing Arts Center (JP).
Sylvia choreographs her own works and is a founding member of the Feedback Kolectiv, an open mixed-media performance platform for works in progress. Currently, Sylvia is teaching classical ballet and contemporary dance at the Superior School of Dance in Lisbon, Portugal, and is completing the final year of her MA in Dance Teaching.
Master Class - Contemporary Dance Technique
We shall be looking at the interconnected relationship between the body and the mind, and explore the ways in which movements are organised, and can be organised with greater efficiency, coordination and dynamic.
Our aim will be to enhance a conscious use of the musculo-skeletal relationships, as dynamic movement generating initiators, to discover body/mind connections, overall coordination, organicity and sequential movement flow.
Our class will begin with a detailed exploration of floor work to initiate conscious biomechanical and sensory connections. Then we shall explore the body in vertical alignment through technical strengthening and lengthening exercises, and finally generate dynamic flow using choreographic phrases to explore the dancing body in space.