SYLVIA RIJMER (JP/NL/PT)
Sylvia is an independent artist, dance maker, researcher and teacher, based in Lisbon, Portugal.
Deeply interested in the capacity of human cognition to translate movement into more creative and efficient currents of organisational flow and sequential connectivity, she encourages collaborative, interdisciplinary and multimodal processes, to build a dynamic and interactive mode of learning, understanding and application within dance making. Using invented and re-processed improvisational tools, her ongoing research is to find a body logic within a performative platform which makes sense to both dancer and spectator, introducing the negotiation of choice as an active and practical tool within dance making, teaching and thinking.
She has studied various dance techniques at the Nationale Ballet Academie Theaterschool (NL), Elmhurst Ballet School (U.K), and Ballet Sumber Cipta (ID), and holds degrees and certificates from the Royal Academy of Dancing (U.K), and the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (U.K).
She danced at Ballet Gulbenkian (PT), Tokárt (PT), Stageworks Rui Horta (PT), Ana Roethlisberger Co. (CH), Marcel Leemann Physical Dance Theatre (CH), Bern Ballet (CH), Cie. DRIFT (CH) and Stadttheater Giessen (DE), amongst others. She danced in original creations by Örjan Andersson, Stijn Célis, Foofwa D’Immobilité,, Jacopo Godani, Rui Horta, Gilles Jobin, André Mesquita, Hervé Robbe, Phillipe Saire, Didy Veldman, and Lila York, to name a few. She also danced works by Mauro Bigonzetti, Marie Chouinard, Nils Christe, Jiří Kylián, José Limón, Ohad Naharin, David Parsons, Paul Taylor, Pierre Wyss and Lila York, and worked on a solo creation under the guidance of Ivo Dimchev.
She has created group and solo works in Switzerland, Portugal, and Spain, highlighting the body in its theatrical and physical forms within collaborative processes between dancers, visual artists, computer scientists, musical composers, neuro-scientists and neuro-linguists.
As a rehearsal assistant she has worked closely with Portuguese choreographer, Olga Roriz on three original creations; Sagração da Primavera, Terra and Orfeu e Euridíce, for Companhia Olga Roriz (PT), and The National Ballet Company (PT), and Balé Teatro Guaíra (BZ).
Her latest research works include two co-creations between dance and science, whereby two collaborations (2018/9) with the scientific team of the BlackBox at the University Nova (PT), opened a continuing dialogue as to the nature of cognitive awareness and practice within her choreographic process.
Sylvia was awareded the Phillip Morriz Prize at the 1994 International Theatreschool Festival (NL), and was nominated Outstanding Young Dance Nominee by Swiss dance critic Lilo Weber in 2001. She is the recipient of a BFA in dance, (The Juilliard School, USA), a M.A in Dance Teaching (Superior Dance School/IPL, PT), and is due to defend her Specialist Title in Dance (IPL, PT).
