Mercedes Quijada

Mercedes Quijada is a choreographer, dancer, and visual artist. Born in Granada in 1991, she trained in Contemporary Dance at the Reina Sofia Professional Dance Conservatory in Granada and at Oficina Zero in Porto. Between 2008 and 2015, she was a student of two flamenco masters, Manolete and Mariquilla, and since 2017 she has studied improvisation with Mozambican choreographer Horacio Macuacua. 

She studied Fine Arts and holds a postgraduate degree in Artistic Education. Since 2019, she has been living  in Porto, where she researches improvisation techniques and their relationship with visual arts, voice, and theatricality. 

She has gained stage experience with Eva la Yerbabuena and Victor Hugo Pontes, among others, and has participated in projects such as “Let's Dance Europe”, directed by DE LooPERS-dance 2gether, “Cova” by Mafalda Deville, and “Lowlands”, directed by Helder Seabra for Companhia Instável. 

She collaborates with visual artists Luísa Mota (Porto) and Ania Catherie and Dejna Ti (Berlin), and with the training program Oficina Zero. She has been part of the project “Self-Mistake” since 2021. 

That same year, she created “Entre la Pena y la Pared” with Sara Santervás, premiered at the Súbito festival, and the solo “BESTA”. She co-created and danced the duet “SELF”, which premiered at the INTERFERÊNCIAS festival, directed by Beatriz Valentim. She directs “Perforartes”, a program that explores intersections between dance and visual arts in various galleries in Porto. She was awarded the Mórula grant by Instável, and her piece “A·Dentro” is part of Instável’s diffusion project Palcos Instáveis Segunda Casa.