Sara Montalvão (1986) graduated in Anglo-American Studies from FLUP in 2008. She trained professionally as an actress in Buenos Aires, at Estudio de Actuación Augusto Fernandes, in 2010. She completed the Advanced Course in Performance and Choreographic Creation (FAICC) in 2013 at Companhia Instável, in Porto. In 2018, she completed a post-graduate degree in contemporary dance (ESMAE/Teatro Municipal do Porto). She received intensive professional training with such choreographers as David Zambrano, Edivaldo Ernesto, Luke Jessop, Hofesh Shechter, Horacio Macuacua, and Rakesh Sukesh, among others. During the last trimester of 2020, she trained with Olga Álvarez at Area, in Barcelona. She has also carried out community service as a contemporary dance, theater and inclusive dance instructor for people of various ages and from various countries.
Sara includes many performative practices and movement styles in her identity as a performer, such as physical theater/clowning, Afro-Brazilian and Latin rhythms, street dance styles, and martial arts. She also develops and manipulates animated shapes. She currently collaborates as a performer with the Spanish theater company Agrupación Señor Serrano.
As a creator, she has presented both solo pieces and pieces co-created with other artists. She has worked with Mafalda DeVille, Miguel Moreira, José Artur Campos, Teresa Alpendurada, Edgar Pêra, Ana Bacalhau, CiM/VoArte, Teatro do Mar, and Ana Mula, among others. In 2019/2020, she premiered Sombras, a performance co-created and co-performed with Diletta Bindi, supported by Fundação GDA, developed in partnership and co-produced with various important cultural structures. In 2020, she directed the interactive videodance Loop Mental with visual artist David Negrão. In 2021, again with David Negrão, she completed an interdisciplinary collaborative project, UNLOOP, bringing game design to the stage. In 2022, the two of them developed BIO LOOP together.
