Dance Lecture with Guest Artist Marciano Silva dos SantosFebruary 15, 2023 at 10:30–11:30 a.m.
Guest artist Marciano Silva dos Santos is offering a dance masterclass. The session is open to the public.
Marciano Silva dos Santos is a Twin Cities based choreographer who utilizes his background in Afro-Brazilian and Brazilian contemporary dance styles. A Brazilian native, he moved to the United States after gaining critical acclaim as a professional dancer in Brazil. After many years of research, he founded Contempo Physical Dance in 2011 and has choreographed six full-length works. In this presentation, he will share how he became an artist, gained new perspectives after moving from Brazil to the United States and transitioned from being a dancer to a choreographer.
Marciano Silva dos Santos discovered dance during his final year of study in the acting program at FAFI, a technical school of theater, dance and music in Vitoria, Brazil. He played the moon character in Federico Garcia Lorca’s tragic play Blood Wedding. In creating this character, He examined the physicality and expression to fit this character. His solo performance caught the eye of one of the choreographers present — he told Marciano that he should be a dancer. From that moment on he worked to develop his own personal voice through movement. He is constantly exploring intense emotional, physical and spiritual expression, all of which are essential to his artistry.
Dancing with three companies for eight years, he toured throughout Brazil and garnered national critical acclaim and prestige for his work. In 2006 he was recognized by the American Folkloric Society as a Brazilian folk artist of unique and exceptional abilities and merits. In the same year, 2006, he moved to the Twin Cities where he has been sharing his diverse cultural perspectives and professional dance experience for the past eleven years. All of his experiences in Minnesota have given him furthers chance to broaden his artistic voice and development career.
Marciano Silva dos Santos has danced with TU Dance led by Toni Pierce-Sands and Uri Sands, former Alvin Ailey dancers, for five years; in Penumbra Theatre’s Black Nativity for four years; in Stuart Pimsler Dance Theater; and as a guest artist for several performance and dance education engagements.
In 2011 Marciano Silva dos Santos founded his own company called Contempo Physical Dance. Having his own company allows him to weave together all of his unique strengths, combining contemporary dance with an Afrocentric perspective. He has created and performed in several full-length works of his own and hosted an international choreography residency in order to bring the works of acclaimed contemporary choreographers working in the African Diaspora to Minnesota, Including the Senegalese Patrick Acogny and the Brazilian Choreographer from Bale Folkloric of Bahia, Nildinha Fonseca.