Duda Paiva

Duda Paiva trained as a modern dancer and actor in Brazil, India and Japan (butoh) before arriving in the Netherlands in 1996, where he settled. He has worked on many dance projects and movies with choreographers such as Paul Selwyn Norton, Itzik Galili, Ron Bunzl, Karin Post and with dance companies such as RAZ and Piet Rogie & Company. His research blending dance and puppetry started with the show “Loot” in 1998 in collaboration with the Gertrude Theater Company (Israel), which also marked the beginning of his development from a dancer to a theatre-maker.

Since 2004 he has been developing his own company, DPPD (Duda Paiva Puppetry and Dance). DPPD has three shows in its repertoire (“Angel,” “Morningstar” and “Hamlet Cannot Sleep”) and travels all over the world as part of International Object Theatre as well as to numerous dance festivals.

What do you teach? I’m a dancer and puppeteer and I research the crossover of these two disciplines. The technique consists of using the body as a landscape for the puppet and vice versa, in order to explore the space and create choreographic motifs. It is in fact a very specific form of choreography for two bodies functioning under the ...