Lia Rodrigues studied ballet and history at the University of São Paulo (USP). After taking part in the São Paulo contemporary dance movement in the 1970s, she joined Maguy Marin’s company in France from 1980 to 1982. Back in Brazil, she founded Lia Rodrigues Companhia de Danças in Rio de Janeiro in 1990. In 1992 she created the annual contemporary dance festival Panorama de Dança, which she headed until 2005.
Since 2004, her company has participated in the development of educational and artistic initiatives in the Favela de Maré in Rio, in partnership with the NGO Redes de Desenvolvimento da Maré. From this collaboration emerged 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.
Lia Rodriques has received many awards including the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres medal in 2014 and 2022. She was voted choreographer of the year by Tanz magazine in 2019, and won the dance critics’ prize as Choreographic Personality in 2020.
Lia Rodrigues believes in the synergy between art and social processes, as seen in her choreographic works Ce dont nous sommes faits (2000), Formas Breves (2002), Incarnat (2005), Chantiers poétiques (2008), Pororoca (2009), Piracema (2011), Pindorama (2013), Para que o Céu não Caia (So That The Sky Does Not Fall, 2016), Fúria (2018) and Encantado (2021).
She is associate artist at Centquatre-Paris, at the Maison de la Danse de Lyon/Pôle Européen de Création, and at the Lyon Dance Biennale.
