Avatâra Ayuso

Avatâra Ayuso is a freelance dance artist and Artistic Director of AVA DANCE COMPANY. She trained in ballet (Conservatorio Profesional de Mallorca) and in Linguistics (BA and MA, Universidad Complutense de Madrid) before moving to London to obtain a Certificate in Higher Education at London Contemporary Dance School. In 2005 she became part of the D.A.N.C.E. programme where she worked and performed internationally under the artistic direction of William Forsythe, Wayne McGregor, Frédéric Flamand and Angelin Preljocaj.  She obtained a Postgraduate Degree in Dance from Palucca Hochschule Dresden. From 2010-2018 she has been Associate Artist of the European Centre for the Arts Hellerau Dresden (Germany) and Associate Company of Creative Academy Slough (UK) since 2014. She was nominated for the 2015 National Dance Awards in the UK. She is also Residence Artist 2019 at the Teatro del Lago in Chile. Avatâra is Associate Artist of Shobana Jeyasingh Dance (UK).
Over the years, Avatâra has received several awards and grants to develop her skills as a choreographer, researcher and cultural leader. She completed studies in leadership with the Open University UK; workshops on conflict resolution and bussiness of dance; and the Clore Leadership Programme Emerging Leaders.
Her artistic practice aims to overcome eurocentrism, by promoting cultural exchanges among artists. In her most recent projects, she has collaborated with artists from Burkina Faso, Japan, Senegal, Taiwan, Morocco and Nunavut (Canadian Arctic).
She is fully committed to empowering women and girls. Her AWA DANCE charity (Advancing Women’s Aspirations with Dance) is a platform to support the leadership development of women and girls, through the transformative power of dance.