Born in Lisbon, Portugal, and trained at the Contemporary Dance Academy in Setúbal under the guidance of Maria Bessa and António Rodrigues. In 1995/96 he was an apprentice with CeDeCe – Companhia de Dança Contemporânea. Joined The National Ballet of Portugal (CNB) in 1996 and as a Principal Dancer he danced a variety of classical and contemporary repertoire including the leading roles in: Swan Lake, Cinderella, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Raymonda, La Sylphide, Romeo and Juliet, Onegin, Apollo, Serenade, Symphony in C, The 4 Temperaments, In the Middle Somewhat Elevated, among many other works. From 2005 till 2007 he danced with the Norwegian National Ballet, working closely with choreographers such as Paul Lightfoot, Sol Léon, Glenn Tetley, Nacho Duato, Christopher Wheeldon and Jorma Elon. Back to Portugal he becomes the Head Ballet Master of CNB in 2011 where he occupied the position until 2017. As a choreographer he has been commissioned by the Artistic Director of CNB to present his own versions of Swan Lake (2013), The Nutcracker (2014), The Firebird (2015) and La Bayàdere (2016).
From 2008 to 2010, Fernando occupied the position of Ballet Teacher at the Contemporary Dance Academy and from 2018 till 2020 he taught at the School of Dance of the National Conservatory. He has been a guest teacher with the Norwegian National Ballet, The University of Stavanger, The Ballettshule Theatre Basel and the Lisbon Dance University.
He founded in 2018 Dança em Diálogos, a choreographic platform for contemporary dance creation, taking the position as Artistic Director alongside Solange Melo. As a Choreographer. With his first ballet piece created for Dd, Murmúrios de Pedro e Inês, he won the ‘Anna Mascolo’ Dance Prize in the 2018 Mirpuri Foundation Awards. In 2019 he choreographed Tudo Quanto Vi – um poema coreográfico para Sophia and recently, Fernando presented the first adaptation to ballet of the famous novel O Primo Basílio, written by renowned Portuguese writer Eça de Queirós.
He his also a Ballet Teacher at the National Conservatoire in Lisbon and researcher at the Art History Institute of NOVA-FCSH/Universidade Nova de Lisboa. His current theme investigation is within the area of narrativity and choreology in contemporary narrative ballets. Other works are focused on the articulation between dance theory and dance practice that can be reflected on new projects in the field of choreographic creation.
