Artist statement
My thrust for eclectic experiences and quest for intimate contact are at the core of my artistic approach as a theatre director, acting coach and writer. Deeply connected to my Portuguese origins, I am moved by the transgenerational experience of exile and cultural heritage.
My yearning to learn and expand my horizons initially led me to the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York where I was offered a scholarship, the opportunity to act Off-Broadway and what has become until today a long-lasting partnership with the Studio.
I gained rigor and discipline from Erhard Stiefel, Ariane Mnouchkine, Slava Dolgatchev, Yoshi Oida, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ron Burrus.
Back to my hometown Toulouse and surrounded with close artists, I founded the Theatre Movement company INNOCENTIA INVIOLATA in 2003. Sarah Kane’s Phaedra’s love was our first creation. This bloody outside-the-norms piece made of living tableaux and live music opened the doors to the Théâtre Garonne, Theatre National de Toulouse, Theatre de la Digue and enabled me to explore daring writings of my own such as Of Kings and Men inspired by Shakespeare, Noli me tangere, a solo piece on sexual abuse (published in 2012, editions Cotéindigo) and Murder Ballads.
The partnership with the Stella Adler Studio in 2008, led me to direct the students at the New York University and to import the Stella Adler techniques in France. My original pieces there (Humanhattan and The Rites of Duende) were the premisses of my « pedagogy of emancipation » : creating artistic works rooted on the metamorphosis process.
This is how in 2009 I was asked by the English-speaking theatre company Les Soeurs Fatales (Toulouse Jean Jaurès University) to direct the shows for the foreign-language Festival Universcènes. I took the challenge of building professional shows with non professional actors and means to heart and directed up to 10 shows in English, Portuguese and Sign language. My taste for multicultural and big ensembles that confront existential issues increased. Along these creations I gained rigorous acting coaching skills, great adaptability and inventiveness and a capacity to use all available means to meet my artistic quest: find the adequate entertaining forms to address political, social, cultural issues.
As I became a mother, the urge to develop both an artistic and training career as a means for emancipation grew greater and with realist acting tools, contact danse and yoga, I have aimed for transformational, cathartic, proteiform pieces. An approach that I also put in practice at the Centre Chorégraphique James Carlès in Toulouse where I have been directing dramatic pieces with the last year apprentice dancers since 2015.
Along these experiences with the activist, academic and artistic communities, I have strengthened a phenomenology of the body under crisis which finds its resolution in a visceral, unconventional and transdisciplinary writing, freely rubbing high with popular culture and confronting the audiences with an esthetic of baroque meets metal rock.
The merging of these fields made me develop in 2018 & 2019 with the City of Toulouse, federating events with different communities around shows, conferences, writing & acting workshops. American Theatre Project focused on the manifestation of invisible violences in American living arts while Experience Pa.tri.ar.chy opened the dialogue on violences against women.
My commitment to non-artists and exposed communities has grown unfailing. The company’s Outreach Program aims at guiding vulnerable persons into reconciling with their body, voice and place in society. The 2022 program My body, my territory ! was chosen by the City of Toulouse to prevent sexism and sexual violence against young women and girls.
In 2019, L’Usine CNAREP Tournefeuille offered me the artistic direction of their 7th edition of La Nuit Blue for which I wrote Créatures d’Amour et de Désirs a series of performances confronting spectators to one woman at a time exposing their most intimate challenges.
Le Banquet! is my new piece where I want to explore the very process of creation in times of existential crisis.