"The dance class"

by french painter, sculptor Edgar Degas

Shadows of my childhood following my every step, covering all my steps with the original ground I never really left behind.

My classical ballet dance shoes are still, religiously, kept in boxes at home in Portugal.

I carry with me, wherever I go, a little classical ballet shoe and some aromatic herbs one of my best friends gave me many years ago. I also take close to my heart a religious piece my grandmother offered me and a black Madonna my mum brought me from Brazil. What make these objects so special and powerful is the LOVE intentions behind them, the energy of what they simbolize for me, the wish of beloved people in my LIFE to protect me, follow me even from an enormous geographical distance.

From many years of Classical ballet studying, I kept different treasures:

1.Discipline and sense of sacrifice/hard work in order to SERVE my talents and develop them to their best potential.

2. Knowledge of my body, muscles and bones, feelings and soul.

3. The concept that DANCE is a on going work in progress and that a REAL DANCER never is satisfied with the current discoveries but keeps on moving, moving, SEARCHING deeper and higher in order to DISCOVER and RE-discover the MEANING of dance, LIFE, art.

4. What defines an ARTIST is the insatiable curiosity that propells him/her to SEARCH and never set for what's already done.