I was asked to write my bio-data because of the Workshop I'll be conducting. And this is how they do it here...
Raquel Lemos is a Portuguese Dance Lover, Teacher and Performer who is now in India working as a volunteer for Lalita Ubhayaker Foundation for the Arts.
Raquel was born in a family that shares the passion for Dance. Since early age, being the daughter of a Cape-verdean (African) father and a Brazilian mother, Raquel started dancing as a pass-time, a hobbie and a way of expression, as dance was an essential part of her family’s life.
While as a child she attended Ballet classes, from the age of 12 she started dancing Hip Hop. At 15, she was very active in the world of Fitness and started receiving training in Dance Monitoring. By the age of 16 she was conducting Hip Hop & Cardio-Funk classes both to Children and Adults on a regular basis. It was the beginning of her proficiency in dance.
During High-School Raquel got involved in a Theatre Group, which gave her a different insight into performing arts and stage creations. Her studies led her to do a college degree in Communication & Culture, but her life-time passion kept calling for her dedication.
Having contacted with the Latin Dance World, the community quickly and enthusiastically embraced her as a fast learner and a dancer from the heart. Few months later she was invited to become a dancer for Sabor Tropical Dance Company, which gave her personal training on the rhythms, moves and techniques of dances like Salsa, Cha Cha Cha, Merengue among others. She also received private lessons from the best Dance Masters in Portugal and overseas in the areas of Salsa, Zouk and other Latin and African dances.
With her dance company, for 3 years Raquel Lemos travelled Portugal giving classes, workshops and animations in many sorts of events and venues, having performed in the most notorious Latin dance congresses in the country including some TV shows. During this period she created, together with a dance couple, an original unprecedented methodology for the teaching of Zouk (couple dance style original from former Portuguese colonies in Africa and the French Antilles), which is now being used by many masters a little bit all over the country.
For the following years, she took training and traineeship in Show Production and contacted with some of the best practices in Hall and Cultural Management. In 2006, as she started her professional career as a Communication and Events Manager at the biggest private bank in Portugal, her time to teach and perform became limited. But as she took executive post-graduations in Events Management and Business Management, she still managed to use her spare evenings to perfection and diversify her dance skills, having attended several courses and regular classes in Sevillanas, Flamenco and Tango.
Raquel is nowadays an accomplished and multi-style dancer who does occasional performances and workshops under request. During her stay in India where she came to do volunteer work, she performed four times already, mostly for clubs and associations like Ashvasan, and she’s taking classes in Odissi classical Dance. Raquel Lemos loves plastic and performing arts, and she has long decided to take up Art and Culture as a producer and a managing facilitator rather then as an artist. It is in this scope that she joined Mrs. Lalita Ubhayaker in her endeavours in Smriti-Nandan Cultural Centre, Yuva Sangeet Utsav and Ashvasan Foundation. She is now invited to do a recollection of all Dances she learned throughout her life and present a World Dances Workshop for Children and Adults at Smriti-Nandan.
