Currently as an apprentice with Kairos Dance Theater, a company member with Grant Jacoby & Dancers and StoneWorks Productions, Carmen has been blessed to be dancing in studio with great dancers who inspire her daily. She has enjoyed  learning repertoire including choreography by Itzik Galili, Micaela Taylor, Rena Butler, Yin Yue, Marco Goeke and Shannon Gillen.  Graduated from Manhattanville College in 2020  Summa Cum Laude with a dual degree in Dance & Theatre (with a concentration in Dance) and Business Management and a minor in Psychology, Carmen was thrilled to conclude her college experiences in a space that brought to her yet another meaning of diversity and provided her with numerous enriching opportunities and an all-around academic baggage.

 

         Coming from a culturally rich background in São Paulo, Brazil, Carmen has always been very socially and culturally involved. From a young age, her diverse studies have given her the tools needed and explored to go further in her experiences and develop important skills. She took a variety of elective extracurricular activities since age 4 and always found connections between them and her academic studies. She has also always been known for trying her hardest in everything she was involved in, making it easier to push herself to try next levels or a new challenge. This made her build up to a balanced and well-rounded lifestyle.

 

        She is the middle child and only woman which she believes has also shaped her and her personality. She was born into a family where sharing was always essential and family bonds were always a priority. They were her primary foundation for her values together with her formal education and professional level ballet and modern dance training. Ambition and motivation have been working hand in hand to help her achieve goals and reach beyond her comfort zone.

 

         Dance has been one of the most important aspects of her life from a young age but Carmen never confined herself to that solely. She took French, gymnastics, soccer, handball, basketball, swimming, drawing, piano, guitar, flute, chorus and a variety of dance styles classes. She also was always the class president and at the top 10% of her class, on top of getting a private plane license by age 18. Her diversification has helped her not only develop a variety of skills and significant relationships, but also become a more interesting candidate for jobs and internships.

 

         Communicating well has always been my path to leading my group to success, be it in the Student Accounts or Dance and Theatre Department Offices at Manhattanville (NY), tutoring in a variety of high schools, working as a Social Media intern for Informed Nomad (Colombia), working at Peridance (NY), being a Resident Advisor, or even as a student leader. I have always been a leader in and outside of the classroom just by bringing in new ideas, being able to set new perspectives and naturally tending to organize group work.

 

         During her first year in college, through the Student Government Association, she founded the Council of Diversity and Equity which gave her a position in the Advisory Board for the Center for Inclusion on campus. Her sophomore year she was hired as a Resident Advisor, allowing her to develop strong communication and organizational skills as not only did she serve as a leader for the students, but she also continuosly collaborated with staff members. Her junior year she had the opportunity to spend a semester in Belgium which meant travelling all around Europe and getting to know 15 countries. It also meant making new connections and learning about different cultures and lifestyles. As a senior, she had the opportunity to work on my thesis for both majors: for dance she researched on how language and dance are similarly processed in the brain and for business management she elaborated a plan on how to successfully start her own dance institution from scratch.

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          It has been one of her greatest aspirations since she can remember to make my mark in the dance world and my plan on doing that is establishing an institute of arts that educates and forms artists that are well rounded in all forms of arts as a way to enrich their concentration. As a part of her lifetime goal, that is the cherry on top. It will take a lot of networking and working as an overall performer and manager in a variety of settings for her to properly reach that final step.

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           Carmen's experiences have made her develop collaboration skills and how to quickly analyze and solve situations. Creativity and management skills have always come naturally since she began focusing on her career early on. Managing assignments and time starting at the age of 8 helped her not only to better understand herself, her abilities and limits but also how that reflects on others, how those skills can be used daily and the benefits of always having more than one perspective.

 

           She feels prepared to start this long and challenging path she has set herself up for. She has the building blocks so now it’s time to start building!