Dance Artist, Yoga and Dance Teacher

Soraya Franco

Dance Artist, Yoga and Dance Teacher

(Dominican Republic/France)

Soraya Franco started dancing Ballet in the Dominican Republicwith ClaraE.Ramirez, C.Veitia, and J.Fidel Gautreaux, later on she continued as a young soloist with the National Ballet of Cuba. In Paris she studied at the “Centre National de la Danse”, the“Theatre Contemporain de la danse” and the “Paris Opera Ballet”. She learned dance in Paris with well-known teachers like Gilbert Mayer, Ghislaine Thesmar (Ballet de L’Opéra de Paris) Christine Kono, Jean Cebron (Freeflowing-Essen-School) Betty Jones, Risa Steinberg (Limon Foundation) Susan Alexander (GRCOP) Meg Harper (Cunningham) Douglas Becker, Elisabeth Corbett, (William Forsythe’s Improvisation techniques) Elisabeth Streb (Streb Ringside NY) Emmanuelle Lyon, Gerard Ville, Alberto Huetos(Spain)and others. She has also worked with many international classical and contemporary teachers and choreographers like: Juan F. Gautreaux (DR) Antonio Gomez (Brazil) Alberto Mendez (Cuba) among others. She has been dancing professionally for over twenty years and is also an accomplished ballet teacher, choreographer and has participated as a soloist in many international dance festivals. In her career, she interpreted many roles in classical and contemporary Ballets repertoire such as: Clara and the Chinese solo in Nutcrackers, Don Quixote Pas de deux and variations, Swan Lake Pas de trois, LaFille mal gardée pas de deux and variations, Offerings choreog.By Jose Limon, etc. and also a part of the South Indian classical dance repertory in Bharata Natyam and Mohiniattam performed in south Indian temples and theaters and in Europe and DR.

She studied and practiced dance and Yoga in India, Dominican Republicand Europe with both renowned and hidden masters. She’s teaching Yoga since 1998 and also studied Body Mind Therapy, Ayurveda and Bio-Energetics and diverse styles of martial arts like Tai-chi, Karate, Kung-fu and Aikido. Combining her knowledge and research on the anatomy and movement analysis and with her experience in diverse bodywork techniques; she created the programs “Ballet Fitness” and “YogadanceTherapy™”.

In 1995 was selected for “Artists without borders” Unesco International award to study at VKV School of Arts inIndia. Later on in 2002 she studied and research on South Indian Classical dances in Kalamandalam National Institute of dance and drama of Kerala with the support of the International Council for Cultural Relations in India (ICCR).

She graduated as a Yoga teacher fromKaivalyadhamaYogaCollege and Research institute in India. In 2005, inSouth Korea, she started to put into practice her new method: Yoga Dance Therapy™.

As an independent scholar and researcher shehas published tworesearch works“Yoga Dance Therapy™” published at the International Journal of Yoga Therapy and the Symposium on Yoga therapy and Research (Sytar) in California and “The Indian Dance Karanas Rescue Research” at the World Congress for dance research celebrated in Greece by the International Dance Council. This year 2008 she received recognition from the Ministry of Culture and Education and the National Dance Direction in theDominican Republic for her work, research and achievements in the integration of Yoga and dance to optimize the quality of the movement in the art, promote the wellness of the artists and improve the performance training.

Nowadays she lives in India where she pursues her spiritual path practicing Tibetan Buddhism and Yoga and travels the world to work as dance artist,Yogadanceteacher and Spa consultant;her spiritual awakening directed her away from dancing for entertainment to dancing for devotion, healing, peace and non violence.