About
WILL LOPES
Brazilian Butoh dancer, actor, performer, body trainer and theatre director. Bachelor in Theatre at the University of Brasilia in 2003, studied theatre, dance, dance-theatre, dramatic body mime, physical comic, Butoh, circus, martial arts, and vertical dance. Physical trainer of performers specialized in the Brazilian technique Integral Bamboo. Master degree in Communication and Semiotics at Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo in 2016.
In 2010, he was acclaimed by audiences and critics alike as “the sensation,” “the highlight of the program,” and “a rising star” at Cena Contemporânea – Brasília’s International Festival of Contemporary Theatre. In 2013, he was ranked first in the call for Innovation and Transversalities Art Projects of the Culture Department of Brasilia/Brazil. By 2014, he was awarded 3rd place in the selection of scholarships for masters at the Pontifical University of São Paulo where he studied until 2016. In 2017, he was selected for a scholarship of the Brasilia government to study Butoh Dance with Atsushi Takenouchi at the Jinen Butoh School in Italy and other places in Europe for a year.
Since 2018, Will Lopes has been calling Vienna home, where he’s been crafting performances, leading workshops, and collaborating with companies like New Vienna Opera, Lalish Theaterlabor, Photon Gallery, Aerial Silk Vienna, and Phoenix Circus Arts Center. His work has also taken him across Italy, Germany, France, Belgium, Poland, Brazil, Japan, Türkiye, and Norway — appearing in festivals, tours, and creative residencies.
In 2022, he launched his own independent platform: Hybrid Butoh Vienna Art Festival, which has already reached three editions in just three years. By 2023, with support from the City of Vienna and BMKOES, he directed his first short film, I Will – Foreign Portrait, and kicked off Muiraquitã Bamboo, an experimental circus project. 2024 marked a vibrant year of international movement and creation, crowned by an award at the Rotlicht Analog Foto Festival in Vienna, where he officially premiered his immersive performance-installation I Will – Foreign Portrait at Semper Depot, Atelierhaus der Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien. Looking ahead, 2025 begins with momentum, as he joins the leadership teams of ECHOLOT – Kulturverein für transdisziplinäre Kunst & Artistic Research and Das Lot initiatives.