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Teaching Philosophy & Experience

“What the educator does in teaching isto make it possible

for the students to become themselves.”

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- Paulo Freire, Brazilian philosopher and educator

Teaching Philosophy

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Workshop Dancing in the Kalunga Line at Kilombo Tenondé,  Brazil.

Overall,  I see myself as a facilitator committed to create diverse and inclusive environments conducive to collaborative growth and solidarity. The classroom should be a space where learners share and refine each other’s intellectual wealth with respect. My teaching philosophy is based on the premise that art students often become good at things they care about. As I have learned, people tend to put effort towards ideas and initiatives that moves them, excites their energy, or resonates with their curious selves. Hence, my primary goal in teaching is to develop inspiring tasks and activities that can ignite their desire to learn. At the same time, I am invested in challenging them to participate in the learning process as active thinkers and makers, not as passive consumers. 

In the past decade, I have taught undergraduate and graduate courses in the areas of dance practice and composition, critical dance studies, performance studies, visual culture, and Portuguese language. Whenever the curriculum permitted, I have designed hybrid courses that combine studio and seminar formats, emphasising embodied ways of learning. My current teaching interest includes non-Western movement forms and practices cultivated in Latin America; the intersection of dance, somatic arts and theories of corporeality; and dis/abilities and practices of care across the performing arts.

Extended Teaching Philosophy


[click here]

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Photo with my mentors, Dr. Angela Davis and Dr. Rosangela Araujo, at Chamada de Mulheres, a capoeira event in Brasilia (Brazil, 2010) 

Teaching experience in Higher Education
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  • Universidade Federal da Bahia - Salvador, Brazil (2021/ 2022)

  • University of Roehampton - London, UK (Fall 2016 / now a days)

  • Tufts University - Boston,  USA (Fall 2015 / spring 2016)

  • Reed College - Portland, USA (Fall 2014/ Spring 2015)

  • University of California - Riverside, USA (Fall 2013/ Spring 14)

  • Freie Universitat, Berlin, Germany (Summer/Fall  2013)

  • Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA (Spring  2013/ Spring  2012) 

  • Freie Universitat, Berlin, Germany (Fall  2012)

  • Universidade de Brasilia, Brazil (Fall 2011)

  • CalArts - Los Angeles, USA (Spring 2011) 

  • UCLA - Los Angeles, USA (Teaching Fellow, 2005 - 2010) 

  • UW-Madison - Madison, USA (Teaching Assistant, 2002 - 2003) 

  • CSU, Chico - Chico, CA, USA (Lecturer 1999 - 2001)   

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