Fabíola Santana is a dance artist exploring performance as a medium for connection, transformation and exchange.
Her practice combines classical and contemporary dance training, immersive theatre, audience participation, Butoh, actor training, voice work, the Nobbs Suzuki Praxis, and live art.
These are a prism from which Fabiola looks into the nature of human interactions, identity, place, ritual, memory, landscapes, imagination, belonging, grief, loss, and bereavement practices.
Fabíola works internationally as a dancer, collaborator and workshop facilitator.
Afro-Portuguese descendant, living in Liverpool, UK.
‘What makes Fabiola’s work so distinctive is that it delves into difficult, sensitive, and often private issues, and does so with huge sensitivity and humanness. Her work is beautiful and also brave and intimate; it places ‘care’ at its big heart’
Alice Booth, Lancaster Arts.
Awards & Commissions
Canning Town film awards:
Jury Award 2020 Screen.Dance Scotland; Best Film & Best International Film Awards 2020 InShadow;
Special Jury Award 2020 BIDFF.
2020/21 - Arts Council England National Lottery Project Grants.
2020/21 - DIY by LADA in partnership with Museum of London.
2020 - A Micro-Divergency commission by Hab.
2018/19 - A Diverse Actions Commission by Lancaster Arts through Live Art UK funding.
2017 - DIY by LADA in partnership with CLAY
Education
MA in Contemporary Dance
London Contemporary Dance School
Dissertation on the embodiment of imagery as a catalyst for creativity and artistry.
2014
BA in Community Arts Practice
Award for Outstanding Creative Practice.
2011
CNB - National Ballet of Portugal
Dancer in D. Quixote by Mehmet Balkan
Intership 2006
Pequena Companhia/ Little Company
Dancer - 1999 - 2006
Academia de Dança Contemporânea de Setúbal, Portugal
1996 - 2006