Rafaela Sahyoun

She graduated with a Performance Major from SEAD – Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance (Austria, 2013) and holds a degree in Dance Studies from Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London (2009).

Since 2012, she has collaborated as a performer with national and international choreographers and ensembles, while pursuing her own choreographic research centred on bodily materialities and relational dynamics. Her creations include the collection Something to Phase Us (2022–2023), Fôlego (Breath) (2022), created for the São Paulo City Ballet and nominated for the APCA Dance Prize, the trilogy NINGUÉMMESOLTA (2018–2021), as well as recent works such as The Trouble is Wildly Wet (2024). In 2025, she premieres BOCA ABISSAL, her second creation for the São Paulo City Ballet.

In 2023, she received support from the ATLAS programme at ImPulsTanz (Vienna). She is also the artistic-pedagogical curator of the 9th edition of the Danspunt Festival (Belgium, 2025). That same year marks the foundation of her dance company, ELETRO-RAIA, co-created with Inês Galrão and Aline Santini, in collaboration with guest artists.

Alongside her stage work, Rafaela Sahyoun has developed a committed pedagogical practice since 2014, grounded in ongoing research and transmission. She teaches across undergraduate and postgraduate contexts as well as within professional dance and theatre companies, contributing to the development of new generations of artists. Since 2019, she has been a faculty member at the PERA School of Performing Arts at Girne American University (Cyprus), where she contributes to the development of the postgraduate choreography programme. She regularly collaborates with institutions such as Tanzfabrik (DE), Circuit-Est (CA), EBB (FR/ES), Unplugged Dance (GR), the postgraduate programme “Body: Dance, Theater and Performance” at Célia Helena (BR), Atland Residency (US), Campus, C.E.M. and Moot – The Movement Lab (PT), among other cultural and academic platforms.