Harrison Rodrigues is a Brazilian contemporary dance artist, performer, and choreographer from São Paulo, currently based in Essen, Germany.
In 2026, he was recognized in the Tanznetz critics’ survey of the 2025/26 season as one of its notable dance artists, with his performance in GALA by French choreographer Jérôme Bel specifically highlighted. His participation in the work culminated in the performance’s final solo, a moment shaped by the direct relationship between performer, audience, and the inclusive artistic language at the heart of Bel’s practice.
During the same season, Harrison continued his collaboration with choreographer Rodolpho Leoni and performed as a guest dancer with Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch in The Rite of Spring. Presented in 2025 as part of the work’s 50th-anniversary celebrations, the project marked an important encounter with one of the most influential works in the history of contemporary dance.
Harrison began his formal dance training in 2013 at ETEC de Artes and Núcleo Luz in São Paulo, where he developed a foundation combining technical training, artistic research, and creative practice. Since then, he has built a diverse body of work through institutional, publicly funded, and independently produced projects, moving between collaborative processes, repertory productions, and solo performance.
Based in Essen since 2017, he works across North Rhine-Westphalia and internationally. His artistic trajectory includes productions and collaborations in cities such as Essen, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Euskirchen, Wuppertal, and Recklinghausen, as well as performances in France, Jordan, Switzerland, and Turkey.
Harrison is a member of Folkwang Tanzstudio (FTS), the international graduate dance company of the Folkwang University of the Arts, founded by Kurt Jooss in 1928. With FTS, he has performed works by Pina Bausch, Richard Siegal, Jérôme Bel, Rodolpho Leoni, Morena Nascimento, Renate Graziadei, I-Fen Lin, Jakub Truszkowski, Maya M. Carroll, Raymond Lieu, Antonia Koluiartseva, and Carla Jordão.
His recent repertoire includes GALA by Jérôme Bel (Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen, 2026), Lunar Cycle by Richard Siegal (Essen, 2025), Dissonance Symphony by I-Fen Lin (Switzerland, 2025), Orchidee by Raymond Lieu (Essen, 2025), Warten auf S6 by Antonia Koluiartseva (Essen, 2024), Stand / Still by Jakub Truszkowski (Essen, 2024), Eyes Held Wild Horizon by Maya M. Carroll (Essen, 2024), Treasures by Morena Nascimento (Essen and Marl, 2024), Wandering Mind by Renate Graziadei (2023), and Wonderful Life by Rodolpho Leoni, performed in Marl, Gießen, Essen, Amman, and Izmir between 2023 and 2024. He also performed an excerpt from Pina Bausch’s ...como el musguito en la piedra, ay sí, sí, sí... (Wie das Moos auf dem Stein) in Essen in 2023.
During the 2022/23 season, Harrison was a member of the dance ensemble at Nordharzer Städtebundtheater. There, he performed in Winterreise by Tarek Assam, presented in Halberstadt, Quedlinburg, Herford, and Bernburg; Oratio in Danza by Steffen Fuchs, Gianni Cuccaro, and Tarek Assam; Sportomania by Sara Angius; and Froschkönig by Gabriella Gilardi.
His other artistic collaborations include AMETERANDAHALF by Jill Crovisier (Essen, 2021), C0039: The Three Jars by Luca Bosani (Cologne, 2021), Bodies in Urban Space by Cie. Willi Dorner (Euskirchen, 2019), and Das Land des Lächelns (Essen, 2019). He also appeared in the video artwork WAHNSCHAFFE – Vermisse (Cologne, 2022) and in Daisy Bells by Magdalena Ottl (Essen, 2018).
Earlier in his career, Harrison co-directed CISZA with Com[som]antes Company of Art in São Paulo in 2017. His work in Brazil also includes Díptico das Multidões – Cosmos and Axis (2016), Okinosmóv – Um Ballet Nada Russo by Chris Belluomini (2015–16), and Heurói, also by Belluomini (2013–14).
His choreographic and performance projects include Trying to Get to Heaven Before They Close the Door, created within Folkwang Young Choreographers (Essen, 2022); SOLI DEO GLORIA with die Brücke PROJECT (Halde Hoheward, Herten, 2021); and JACI and GUARACI, presented through Folkwang Young Choreographers and at the SoloDuo NRW + Friends Tanzfestival in Cologne between 2019 and 2025.
Harrison holds a Bachelor of Arts in Contemporary Dance from the Folkwang University of the Arts, an institution internationally recognized for its interdisciplinary approach to dance, music, theatre, and design.
Active as a professional dance artist since 2013, his practice explores the intersections of embodied research, musicality, dramaturgy, and collaborative experimentation. Moving between repertory, creation, and performance, he approaches the body as a site of memory, transformation, and dialogue, bringing together diverse artistic voices within an evolving contemporary practice.
