Artist bio:
 
Paula Higa, a native of Brazil, has been creating works, teaching and performing for more than 30 years. In 2011, she joined the UVM Dance Program, where she has been teaching dance theory, movement, and performance. She earned her MFA in Dance from UWM, a BS in Chemical Engineering in Brazil, and she is certified in Progressing Ballet Technique. In 2016, she founded her own dance company, PH Dance & ErS as well as Encounters - an improvisational work of music and dance, in collaboration with trumpeter Arthur Brooks, and double bass player Anthony Santor. In the U.S., Higa has performed in the works of Mark Morris, Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR), Larry Keigwin, Jennifer Monson, Tiffany Rhynard, Clare Byrne, among others. Higa is the recipient of NEFA - New England Dance Fund Grant, UVM - Coor Collaborative Fellows Award, and Vermont Community Foundation Grant. She was awarded Bronze Best Screendance Short Award from Los Angeles, Independent Shorts Awards, March 2021 for her dance film The One I Wanted To Be.

Artistic statement:

As a dancemaker, I believe choreography is research. It is the opportunity that arts offer to choreographers to develop their vision through kinesthesia and intelligence. It is when the artist’s voice can be heard, breaking the fourth wall and reaching the audience from distinctive perspectives. My research is rooted in the intersection of dance and visual arts, and integrated into the branch of knowledge such as humanities, social sciences, sciences, and technology. I look for inputs that will take me to new inquiries and will keep me from stagnating in one rubric.  I create choreographic works that challenge myself as an artist, and  at the same time, awake my inquisitiveness.