Claudina Correia
Dancer
“My name is Claudina and I was born in a very dangerous neighbourhood. My parents always fight to keep me away from that neighbour environment and they put me in a public school from where I only returned home at night. In this school I discovered my great passion for music and special for dancing and I made some choreography to small presentations at school with a small girls group.
Some day our school group was invited to participate in one casting for a company of African traditional dance. It was the first time that I had contact with African roots and I realized that although I have been born in Europe I am African girl and since then I started to know who I really am, I increased my self esteem and self confidence. Today I’m the main choreograph coordinator in the company.
In that company that I was invited to participate in the MUS-E Project and be part of the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation and participate in the IYOUWE SHARE THE WORLD Project.
I do not depend financially on Dance because there is not enough opportunity in my country to be a dancer or a dance teacher; I dance everyday because it makes me happy. Today I’m a Tourism student because in that company a travelled a lot and I realized that I love knowing new people and new cultures and I know that I cannot be a dancer forever and I want to take with me everything that Dancing provides to me.
I always say to my pupils that we don’t need to be an engineer, a lawyer or a doctor to be accepted, we have to know and accept our self like we are and do what we really like to do to be accepted and happy.”
Claudina Correia
