Mário Afonso studied at the visual art school António Arroio, in Lisbon. Between 1991/1995 he received a scholarship at Pro.Dança dance school, where he had the opportunity to meet and collaborate with the first line choreographers who started the New Portuguese Dance movement. From 1995 to 1998 Mário Afonso completed his degree on Dance Theater Performance at EDDC-HKA (European Dance Development Center / Hogeschool voor de Kunsten - Arnhem) in the Netherlands.
Since 1998 he has been developing his authorial work presented in Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, France and Belgium. Parallel to his artistic work Mário Afonso has has been leading workshops, seminars and other events in the area of making and thinking stage work, as well as academic studies on philosophy on the branch of esthetics.
In 2009 Mário Afonso founded the Cultural Association Carta Branca. And, on January 2016, he started the project Prata da Casa, a collection of documentary videos as a register for Portuguese Contemporary Dance.
