Melissa Pérez Sousa / COMMON GROUND

Melissa Sousa studied contemporary dance performance at UNEARTE – the Experimental University of the Arts, in Caracas, and street and club dances of the African diaspora at the Peridance Capezio International Dance Centre in New York. Her career has unfolded mainly in South America. As a performer, she has worked with Sandrine Lescourant, Dana Foglia, Marjory Smarth, TweetBoogie, Michele Byrd-McPhee, the Alvin Ailey School, Jorge Gonçalves, Catarina Campos, Marco da Silva Ferreira, Jonas & Lander, Bouziane Bouteldja, Jep Meléndez and Lander Patrick. She is the founder of the LOOP Festival of street and clubbing dance; and co-founder of the artistic and educational programme YOLK, dedicated to research, training and the development of the community around these dance forms. She created En el Vacío, and co-created BOWND and PLAYGROUND. She has won several freestyle hip-hop and house competitions across Europe. Alongside this, she works in video and editing, having won awards for her short films MUD and Sincronismo at festivals such as InShadow Lisboa and Curtas de Dança. She is interested in researching and sharing artistic practices centred on intersectional themes such as identity, immigration, and community.