“To create a new piece, first you have to simultaneously occupy a space, create a territory and produce the conditions necessary to survive there."

When the Lia Rodrigues Companhia de Danças decided to go into the Favela da Maré, a vast area of the city of Rio, little visited by contemporary artists, the company was putting itself into an unstable situation. Their activities over the course of four years were a work of resistance. The community of Nova Holanda, an area of the Favela da Maré inhabited by 20,000 people, is the company's new home.

"Adapting, moving, developing strategies, demolition, repair, restoration. Consolidating the ground so that artwork can exist. Getting a construction site off the ground.”

Lia Rodrigues

Updating: December 2010

Born in Brazil, Lia Rodrigues, after training as a classical ballet dancer in São Paulo, founded the Groupo Andança in 1977. Between 1980 and 1982 she resided in France where she joined the Maguy Marin company. On her return to Brazil, she founded her own company, the Lia Rodrigues Companhia de Danças.

In addition to producing all her shows, in 1992 Lia Rodrigues created the contemporary dance Festival, Panorama da Dança, which she directed until 2005. Since 2004 she has developed artistic and didactic actions in the Maré favela, where she created, in partnership with Redes da Maré, the Centro de Artes da Maré in 2009, and in 2012 the Escola livre de Danças da Maré. 

She was awarded by the French government the medal of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 2014, she was awarded the Prize of the Prince Claus Fund followed, in 2016, by the SACD choreographic prize / France.

Her recent creations include Pororoca (2009), Piracema (2011), Pindorama (2013) and Para que o céu não caia (To prevent the sky from falling) (2016).

Since 2001, the National Center for Dance (CND) has been making recordings of its shows and educational programming and has created resources from these filmed performances (interviews, danced conferences, meetings with artists, demonstrations, major lessons, symposia specialized, thematic arrangements, etc.).