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Dancer, choreographer, cultural event manager and dance teacher Murah Soares was born in São Paulo, Brazil. He spent a large part of his childhood in Salvador da Bahia, where he came into contact with the Afro-Brazilian religion, "Candomblé Ketu". After finishing dancing school for classical ballet and modern dance, Murah Soares completed his education with qualifications for teaching yoga and ayurvedic nutrition.
He later contributed towards numerous productions of various dance groups all over Brazil, mainly in the field of modern dance. Beside his activities as a dancer, he also began to teach and choreograph.
In his own dance projects, however, Afro-Brazilian dance always stood in the foreground for Murah Soares, with no small part of this interest rooted in his personal relationship to the "Candomblé" religion, where dance plays an important role within its rituals. He then established himself at various academies in São Paulo as a teacher for "Brazilian-Afro-Dance". Some time later he came to Europe, where he has been celebrated as one of the greatest talents for Ethno-Modern-Dance, and began to teach in Denmark and Germany.
Since 1991 Murah Soares has worked in various projects together with Brazilian master percussionist Dudu Tucci. They received enthusiastic applause for their dance-percussion performances "Obaluaiyé" (1993) and "Dance of the Elements" in 1997, both of which premiered in the "Haus der Kulturen der Welt" ("House of the Cultures of the World") in Berlin. The production "Rhythm of the Gods", created in 1998, was successfully presented by Murah Soares, Dudu Tucci and ensemble in 1999 on a tour in England and Scottland.
Parallel to his artistic activities, Murah Soares studied cultural management in Berlin at the "Acadamy for Culture and Education".
Murah Soares has achieved a name as a choreographer and as a teacher is very much in demand. He is currently developing a choreography for a figure skating show and rehearses with the figure skaters twice a week in intensive training sessions.
Murah Soares also developed the choreography and was the artistic director for "Afoxé Loni®", a group of eighty dancers and eighty drummers who head the great procession of the "Karneval der Kulturen" ("Carneval of Cultures") in Berlin every year since 1997. This project has achieved international status and was invited in 2001 to such international festivals as the "Streets Ahead Festival" in Manchester, England, the "Joy Parade" in Dublin, Ireland, and the "Fete de la Musique" in Mailand, Italy.
Regularly Murah teaches at "Forum
Brasil" and "Percussion Art Center" in
Berlin. In his courses, he concentrates on improving body awareness and
understanding of the cultural history and music of Brazil. Since 2001 Murah
also provided numerous workshops e. g. in Cologne (Germany), Rome, Mailand
(Italy), Basel (Switzerland) and Manchester (England) as well as at the
international "Festival Afrocaribeno" on Veracruz (Mexico).
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