Maria Ferreira Silva, born in 1988 in Lisbon, started her artistic journey at the age of six, performing at the local auditorium in the suburbs of Lisbon. In 2006 she graduated from her classical, modern, tap, and folk dance training at the National Conservatory of Lisbon, followed by studies at the Performing Arts Research and Training Studios - PARTS (2006-2010) in Brussels, with the support of Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Her trajectory as a freelance performer has been crafted through the works of Willi Dorner, Daniel Linehan, Georgia Vardarou, Radouan Mriziga, Marco Torrice, Anneleen Keppens, Renan Martins de Oliveira, Benjamin Vandewalle, Maud le Pladec, and the visual artists Sarah&Charles. Her first time working with Trajal Harrell is in O Medea (2019) - part of his big trilogy Porca Miseria. Most recently she is dancing with him in The Köln Concert, a production for which she becomes a guest performer at Schauspielhaus Zürich. Alongside performing, she is a guest teacher at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp (BE), works as choreography assistant, and leads an artistic research project that investigates plasticity and interconnectivity in movement. Parallel to dance, she attends the Feldenkrais Method training program and occasionally works with costumes and textiles.
