Lia Rodrigues (1956) studied Classical Ballet and History at the University of São Paulo. After having been part of the São Paulo contemporary dance movement in the 1970s, she joined Maguy Marin’s dance company in France from 1980 to 1982. She setted up the Lia Rodrigues Companhia de Danças in 1990. And in 1992 she created the annual contemporary dance festival Panorama de Dança, running it until 2005. Her company has been involved in developing educational and artistic activities in the Maré favela in Rio de Janeiro in partnership with the NGO Redes de Desenvolvimento da Maré. This collaboration has established the Centro de Artes da Maré (Maré Arts Centre), which opened in 2009, and the Escola Livre de Danças da Maré (Maré Free Dance School) in October 2011. With her blend of activism and utopia, Lia Rodrigues believes in the synergy between art and social processes. Her most recent creations include Aquilo de que somos feitos (2000), Formas breves (2002), Para que o céu não caia (2016) and Fúria (2018). Lia Rodrigues is associated artist at the Théâtre National de Chaillot and the Centquatre-Paris.