FERNANDA LIPPI

Founder
Choreographer, Movement Director, Performer

Founder of Zikzira Physical Theatre and Zikzira Action Space, Fernanda has created critically acclaimed work for film, stage as well as site-specific productions. Her work has been exhibited at The Barbican, The ICA, The Laban Theatre, Regent Street Cinema, Tate Modern, Sky Arts, HOME Manchester, Riverside Studios, Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin), Teatro Akropolis (Italy), São Luiz Teatro Municipal (Lisbon), SESC Pompéia, CCBB and Itaú Espaço de Cinema (Brazil) amongst many others. Fernanda has collaborated with some of the most influential theatre companies in South America such as Teatro da Vertigem and Lot. 

A Trinity Laban alumna, Fernanda is recipient of a fellowship from the International Society of Performing Arts (New York). Her first solo Canvas was performed during opening of the Tate Modern, celebrating the work of Louise Bourgeois. Breaking new ground exploring a combination of dance and film, Fernanda choreographed the critically acclaimed dance feature film As Cinzas de Deus (‘Stupendous’ Time Out Critic’s Choice). Her second feature film, Sea without Shore, co-directed with Andre Semenza (‘A cinematic masterpiece’ The Culture Pill; ‘Surrender to its spell’ The Guardian) was released in 2015. 

Together with Javier de Frutos and Paul Roberts, Fernanda was commissioned by BalletBoyz to co-choreograph the Sky Arts prime-time production Kama Sutra. In 2016, she choreographed and performed in Marcus Waterloo’s dance film “We have Bled”. In 2017, she was commissioned to choreograph Outro em Si, a large-scale performance nominated for five Sinparc Brazil 2018 awards, picking up Best Performance and Best Dancer. In 2019, Fernanda choreographed and performed in the multiple-award-winning music video ‘Unfair Game’ by Kid Loco. Meisner-technique-trained, Fernanda is in development with two high-profile films produced by Juliana Guedes. In 2020, Fernanda collaborated with artists around the globe; as a result, Turning to birds will premier in 2021. Fernanda curates Zikzira Action Space, a pioneering cultural hub in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. In 2021, the space resumed its Artists in Residence programme.

Andre Semenza

Founder
Artistic Director and Filmmaker

Co-founder of Zikzira Physical Theatre and founder of Maverick Motion (UK/Brazil), Andre has directed critically acclaimed films and live performances. 2003 saw the theatrical release of pioneering dance feature film As Cinzas de Deus (“Intense, flashbacking and highly stylised dance drama” BBC). Shot by award-winning director of photography Marcus Waterloo, the film features a cast of Brazilian dancers and a haunting music mix by arguably France’s premier producer Kid Loco.

The Merging of Dance and Cinema: The Process, a reflective documentary on the making of As Cinzas de Deus, premiered in 2012. Andre’s second feature film Sea without Shore (2015) features a sound-design by Academy-Award and multiple-BAFTA-winner Glenn Freemantle and was hailed a “cinematic masterpiece” by Culture Trip upon its UK release; subsequently, the film was released through Brazil’s largest art-house cinema chain, Itaú Espaço de Cinema. As Artistic Director of Zikzira, Andre has directed all of the company’s productions, including the multiple-award-winning performances Verissimilitude, Eu vos liberto, The Smooth Wax of ingenuous Souls and the urban intervention project A ultima palavra é a penultima (co-directed with Teatro da Vertigem). Outro em Si was nominated for five awards and picked up Best Performance and Best Dancer 2018 (Sinpark Brazil). Andre has published on the company’s working methodology (Akropolis Libri).

He co-founded the cultural hub Zikzira Action Space, officially opened by Jarek Fret, director of the Grotowski Institute, establishing the institute’s first official collaboration with an entity in Brazil; the space has hosted world-renowned practitioners of physical theatre, dance and film, such as Thomas Prattki (École Lecoq and Thomas Prattki Centre), Leo Brum (Dança em Foco), Eduardo Fukushima and Teatro Akropolis.  In 2019 Andre directed the multiple-award winning music video Unfair Game (“Rare Birds”, Kid Loco). In 2021, he co-directs the international multi-disciplinary on-line performance, Turning to Birds.