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(Lisboa, 1976) Performer, choreographer, professor, researcher and writer in the field of Dance and Philosophy.
Ana Mira studied embodied practices and contemporary dance independently in Europe and the United States. She has been a Chi Kung practitioner since 2001, influenced by Master Lam Kam Chuen (Zhan Zhuang Chi Kung). She holds a PhD in Philosophy (Aesthetics) from the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of Universidade Nova de Lisboa (FCSH-UNL, 2014), under guidance of the philosopher José Gil, with the thesis Silence, potency and gesture: a body in dance, during which she was a visiting scholar at CRMEP – Center for Research in Modern European Philosophy /Kingston University (UK) and a research fellow of Foundation for Science and Technology (http://run.unl.pt/handle/10362/14026).
Ana Mira has been teaching, internationally, practices of the body, movement research, experiential anatomy/physiology, improvisation, composition, dance studies, dance and philosophy laboratories and philosophy /aesthetics at various dance, theater, performing arts and visual art programs (Faculty of Human Motricity, University of Évora, National Conservatory Dance School, Evoé: Escola de Actores, Fórum Dança, Balleteatro (PT), Experiencia Danza (ES), Dans Studio Pauline de Groot (NL), Decoda, Independent Dance/Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance (UK), Universidad Nacional de las Artes (AR) and, currently, Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema, Ar.Co – Centro de Arte e Comunicação Visual and C.E.M. – Centro em Movimento, in Lisbon.
Her choreographic work included “At Once”, adaptation of Deborah Hay’s SPCP/2009 (Teatro Maria Matos, 2010), “Três Estudos para Shihtao” (Teatro Camões, 2007), “Dueto” (Festival Alkantara, 2006). As dance researcher and performer, Ana Mira collaborated with Pauline de Groot (2001/2003), Russell Dumas (2003/2005) and Rosemary Butcher (2011/2015).
Her dance and philosophy writings are: “Sensorial document: an embodied practice in dance and philosophy from collaboration in After Kaprow: The Silent Room by Rosemary Butcher ” (Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices, 2016), “Primitive affective: a study on the potency of the body that dances through the perspective of Nietzsche according to Deleuze” (Nuisis Zobop /Instituto de Filosofia – Universidade do Porto, 2017) and “Contours of inexistence: a reading of the choreographic piece I Am Here, by João Fiadeiro (2003)” (Teatro Municipal do Porto /Imprensa Nacional – Casa da Moeda, 2018).
Her dance and philosophy research projects have been supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (2009/2013), Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (2007), Portuguese Ministry of Culture (2002/2003) and Portuguese Institute of Sport and Youth (1997). These fellowships allowed her to study at CRMEP – Center for Research in Modern European Philosophy /Kingston University and Independent Dance (UK); Performance Studies Department /Tisch School of the Arts – New York University, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Movement Research and Trisha Brown Dance Company (USA); Dans Studio Pauline de Groot (NL) and Dance Exchange /Russell Dumas (FR).
She is a member of IFILNOVA – Nova Institute of Philosophy, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities – Universidade Nova de Lisboa, where she curated the Performance and Philosophy Permanent Seminar and participates in CultureLab’s Art, Critique and Aesthetics Experience research group . She is also a member of baldio | Estudos de Performance, Cultural Association, with whom she develops encounters, courses and publications.