Filipe Portugal

Filipe Portugal was born in Lisabon in 1978. He began his dance education at the National Conservatory in Lisbon with Georges Garcia as his main mentor.

After his graduation he was invited by the director Jorge Salavisa to join the National Ballet of Portugal and start his career as a professional dancer. Six years later he joins the Ballet Zürich under the direction of Heinz Spoerli, where he becomes a principal dancer.

Between these two companies he had the opportunity to dance pieces by choreographers as George Ballanchine, John Cranko, Patrice Bart, Jiri Kylian, Matz Ek, William Forsythe, Hans Van Manen, Nacho Duato, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Marco Goecke, Crystal Pite, Edward Clug, Douglas Lee, Martin Schläpfer, Nils Christie, Heinz Spoerli, Christian Spuck, Vasco Wellenkamp, Rui Lopes Graça and others.

He made his choreographic debut in Portugal with the piece "Anfractus", which was immediately chosen as part of the Company's repertoire. During his stay in Zurich/Switzerland, Filipe began creating pieces for the Ballet Zürich and the Junior Ballet under the direction of Heinz Spoerli and later Christian Spuck.

Always having the enormous support of his directors, Filipe created more than 10 pieces for Zurich, while being able to start creating internationally.

In 2018 he makes his North American debut with "Stepping Over" for Ballet Charlotte, which will also be performed with Ballet Ireland. For the “Noverre-Young Choreographers”, Filipe created for the Stuttgart Ballet the piece "Heavy Lightness".

Furthermore, he had the opportunity to create pieces such as "Thoughts of a Silent Night" for the Shanghai Ballet, the "Reecontres" for Cannes Junior Ballet, the "Teu Corpo Meu Eco" for Nacional Ballet of Portugal, the "Shelter" together with Stephen Delattre for Delattre Dance Company among others more.