Academic and Artistic Research Centers
Dance, performance and visual arts organizations
Laboratory, workshop and seminar participants
Ana Mira, a researcher, artist, professor, and writer in dance, art, and philosophy, has cultivated her expertise through international study and research. Her journey has taken her to Europe and the United States, where she studied embodied practices, contemporary dance, and Chi Kung independently. Her academic achievements include a PhD in Philosophy (Aesthetics) from the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, NOVA University Lisbon (2014), under the guidance of the philosopher José Gil. During her doctoral studies, she was a visiting scholar at CRMEP – Center for Research in Modern European Philosophy /Kingston University (UK) and a research fellow of the FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology (http://run.unl.pt/handle/10362/14026).
Ana Mira’s research projects in dance and philosophy have garnered significant support and recognition. Her work was funded by institutions such as the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (2009/2013), the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (2007), the Portuguese Ministry of Culture (2002/2003), and the Portuguese Institute of Sport and Youth (1997). These fellowships have not only facilitated her studies at renowned institutions such as 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) but also underscored the significance of her research in the academic and artistic communities.
Ana Mira’s choreographic work includes “At Once”, an adaptation of Deborah Hay’s SPCP/2009 (Teatro Maria Matos, 2010), “Três Estudos para Shihtao” (Teatro Camões, 2007), “Dueto” (Festival Alkantara, 2006). As a dance researcher and performer, she has had the privilege of collaborating with artists such as Pauline de Groot (2001/2003), Russell Dumas (2003/2005), and Rosemary Butcher (2011/2015), enriching her artistic journey and expanding her creative horizons.
Ana Mira has taught internationally embodied practices, improvisation, composition, dance studies, dance and philosophy laboratories, and aesthetics at various performing arts and visual arts universities and educational programs. As part of Baldio | Estudos de Performance, Cultural Association, she created and developed Taking Position, the political and place–experimental course in performance studies (2016). Between 2020 and 2022, Ana Mira curated Coalesce, in the space of the body in thought, a continuous seminar of drawing, dance and philosophy, together with Porta33. She teaches at Lisbon Theater and Film School—Polytechnic Institute of Lisbon and Ar.Co Center for Art and Visual Communication.
Her latest dance, art and philosophy essays include: Do silêncio do corpo, na dança e filosofia (Cegraf UFG, 2023); Corpo e cidade: um estudo sobre o comum e os undercommons nas Acções de Eleonora Fabião (Húmus, 2023); The feet understand: O filme ABCDEFG, de Russell Dumas (1994) (Arte da Cena, 2020); Para una presencia del ritmo en la escritura de Nijinski (Rhuthmos, 2020); Caminha a tua vida: a autobiografia como acto crítico em Still/Here de Bill T. Jones (1994) (Vendaval, 2019); Poema-acontecimento, um encontro entre a palavra e o corpo (Nuisis Zobop e Instituto de Filosofia da Universidade do Porto, 2019); Contornos de inexistência: uma leitura da peça coreográfica I AM HERE, de João Fiadeiro (2003) (Teatro Municipal do Porto /INCM, 2018).
She is a member of Nova Institute of Philosophy, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, NOVA University Lisbon, where she participates in CultureLab’s research group Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art.