How did you get into dancing?

Back in 1999, I was 9 years old, and was celebrating a cousin’s birthday in the family. There, my brother (Ricardo Sousa) was invited to join a salsa lesson, he tried it and enjoyed it a lot, after that all the family joined the dance school.

What projects are you currently working on?

Nowadays I’m working on several different projects, all related to dance. During the week, from Monday to Thursday, I teach in ALC Dance Studios in Porto – Portugal. During the weekend, I travel to different festivals around the globe, together with my dance and life partner Catarina Braga, as ALC Dance Company, sometimes as a couple, other times as a dance company. I help with the organisation of some festivals in our city: in March we have Tá Fixe Kizomba Festival; in August DMAES Summer Bootcamp; in November Porto Salsa Mob. Aside from these festivals, we also organise some small and local events to help grow our local dance community.

Together with Catarina Braga we manage ALC Dance Team – an amateur dance group that preforms in several national dance, business or personal events and cover the needs that we, as ALC Dance Company can´t fulfil because of the busy agenda. Also, together with Catarina, we are part of ALC Hug Dance as choreographers, with a salsa routine. – Together with ALC Dance Studios, we have an Afrolatin club – Muxima Bar, which I also help in the organisation.

What’s been the most memorable moment of your journey as a dancer so far?

Happily, I have a lot of moments that come to my memory, but if I have to choose one, the moment that together with Mafalda Amado I won ÁfricAdançar, the international Kizomba competition in 2008 is the one that comes first. I was not expecting it at all, and seeing people that I respect so much as dancers among the competitors, was a big surprise and honour for me.

What advice would you give to up-and-coming dancers looking at you for inspiration?

Keep working hard day after day. All careers have up and downs, but if you keep humble, work hard and try to learn every single day, the rewards will appear. Never give up, because you never know if tomorrow will be THAT day.

What can we expect from you for the rest of 2018?

The only thing I can promise is to give my best in everything I do. So for the rest of the year that’s all you can expect from me. Some new projects on the forge, new ideas are coming and hard work to make them come true.