• Choreography still

    Type B - Negative (2011)—Photo: Meredith W. Watts

A native of São Paulo, Brazil, Simone Ferro joined the Department of Dance at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee in the fall of 2001. After a professional career as soloist with companies in Brazil and Europe, she completed her graduate work in dance at the University of Iowa. Simone is an advocate for the Milwaukee and Midwest dance communities where she collaborates with artists and scholars of different fields.

Her dance pieces–often dealing with racism, women’s identity, alienation, and community identity–provide both artistic and pedagogical engagement of dancers in broad social themes. Since 2004 Simone has travelled regularly to Brazil with her husband and research partner, Meredith W. Watts, to document and research the traditional Bumba-meu-boi folk festivities in the Northeastern state of Maranhão.