Alice Ripoll was born in Rio de Janeiro. She studied to become a psychoanalyst until the age of 21 and then took a deviant path and started studying dance, as she felt very curious about the body’s possibilities and movement research. Alice graduated at Angel Vianna’s school – an important centre for dance and motoric rehabilitation – and started to work as a choreographer. She directed many pieces, performed a few pieces – mostly her own – and worked with actors and circus artists. Currently her work embraces contemporary dance and urban dance styles from Brazil, researching spaces for the dancers to transform their experiences and memories into images. Alice directs two groups: REC and SUAVE. Her shows have been performed at several festivals in Brazil, such as Panorama Festival, Bienal SESC de Dança, Dança Gamboa Festival, Ceará Dance Biennial and Trisca – Arts Festival for Children; and abroad: Kampnagel – Internationales Sommerfestival, Zurich Theater Spektakel, Noorderzon Performing Arts, Rencontres Chorégraphiques of Seine-Saint Denis; Projeto Brazil (in four cities in Germany: HAU in Berlin, Hellerau in Dresden, Tanzhaus in Düsseldorf and Mousonturm in Frankfurt), Centre National de la Danse (Paris), Festival de La Cité Lausanne, Norrlandsoperan (Umeå). 

Cie REC

In 2007 the choreographer Alice Ripoll was teaching dance in an NGO for boys from a carioca favela. They were about 18 years old, had a hip hop group, and became interested in contemporary dance. The NGO finished the work when they were in the middle of a process, so they decided to go on by themselves, with no sponsors or support, rehearsing in an old church in the favela where they lived. Alice showed the piece that they were developing to one of the curators of Panorama’s Festival in Rio, who decided to put it on the programme. After this successful piece, the group never stopped creating, mostly without support, but always with a lot of strength and passion, during all these years, becoming a reference in Brazil of a company that elaborates and recreates contemporary art. With director Alice Ripoll and the performers Alan Ferreira, Leandro Coala, Tony Hewerton, Luiz L.A. and Romulo Galvão the group composed three contemporary dance shows, a piece aimed at children and a performance on the elaboration of class distinction (aCORdo).