Today we’d like to introduce you to Ines Duarte
Hi Ines, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My name is Inês Duarte, I am a professional dance artist, choreographer, teacher and over all a creative being. I have started my journey through dance when I was 6 years old (2001) when I started taking ballet lessons, that passion lasted for about 3/4 years before I realised classical dance wasn’t exactly the style I wanted to pursue. I went through many different stages of obsession with different forms of art, always knew I wanted to do something in that realm, I just didn’t know exactly what – so for years I explored different areas – drawing, painting, singing, started leaning instruments such as guitar, piano and eventually found drumming and that was the one instrument that stuck with me for longer, and that still, to this day I occasionaly practice whenever I have some free time. Dance ended up finding me when, years later, when I was about 15 years old (2009/2010), a few friends were taking hiphop classes at the local gym and dragged me into class, there was also this boy I used to fancy who also practiced in the same class and so I was obviously quite inclined to join.
Even though I primarily went there for social reasons, soon I started to feel like there was something more keeping me in the space, that’s when I realised how much I actually loved and related to these dance styles (street dance realm) and that it felt quite different that all other things I had tried before. I found that my skill and potential were also promising whenever I spoke to my teachers, so I decided to pursue this path further and that’s when I moved to a different school, in the centre of Lisbon.
I started taking more classes from different teachers and from different styles at this dance studio named (Jazzy Dance Studios) which was up and coming at that time. Went through form Jazz, contemporary, floor work until I got to the actual street dance classes, started taking foundation classes from styles such as Popping, House, Breaking, Locking, etc…. and fell completely in love with all of them – the richness of their culture and history, the dept behind the music that brings these styles to life started to become a part of me and who I am as a mover. I related, I understood and I wanted to keep going.
Within a few months of taking about 4h/5h of classes per day, from different styles, I was finally introduced to the world of battling – which is, in the street dance universe, a quite competitive but exciting environment. I started competing and connecting with other movers, with time I won some tittles and started conquering a name in certain specific styles – main references being the Popping, Locking, House and Waacking at that time.
Battling wasn’t enough for me as I wanted a little bit of everything that can be done in the dance industry. As I wanted to be a performer as well, I started practicing with all the choreography heads that were teaching in Lisbon and eventually started going overseas to train and visited cities such as Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Copenhagen, London and also New York and LA – which were always my dream places to live in one day.
Gathered lots of information around these styles, learned deeper insights on the specific styles from street dance forms, directly from the sources, the creators and original movers and in the places they were originally created.
In Lisbon, there was this new training program named ” Bootcamp project”, that was created by a crew named “Jukebox Crew” – they were the biggest references in the street dance scene in Portugal, most of the member were specialists in one or two dance styles and would also be the teachers of the upcoming training program. I was invited by the leader of this team (Vasco Alves) to join the program with the benefit of a scholarship. I was honoured by the offer and joined this training program for about 3/4 years before I moved to London in 2020. This program shaped the way I move, train and connect with other artists, it was a really important experience for me to go through as it allowed me to access a new level of potential in myself and I am extremely grateful for the opportunities provided there.
In the meantime, as my journey and efforts started to be recognised in the dance community in Portugal, I was able to start booking professional commercial dance jobs in Lisbon, worked with many brands, artists, references in the entertainment scene and events such as big as the Eurovision, Rock In Rio and a live TV show/dance competition named “Let’s Dance” or internationally as well such as the Saudi Games, for example.
I was finally able to move to London in 2020, getting me one step closer to my goal, I wanted essentially to create a more extensive background as a performer, gain more experience, develop projects, connect with the artistic community and grow as a person. These were necessary steps to get me closer to moving to LA one day. In London, my journey spanned from having to juggle a part-time or at times a full-time job to be able to support the costs of living, taking as many classes as possible to be able to connect with the community, keep creating my own choreography and developing conceptual ideas (which has always been a major focus of my own creative work) and try to get signed into agencies, book jobs and eventually be able to support myself as a freelance dancer. It’s been a difficult journey, as just like with everything else in the artistic world, there’s not really a specific formula to follow and everyone’s journey is quite different. I am not the usual “easy to book” kind of dancer, I don’t really lean towards the status quo or the general profile of a female dancer – I am small, with athletic proportions, don’t bring my leg up to my eye level and my main styles are often or have been, normally in history, considered as masculine styles of dance. But there is more and more variety happening everywhere, especially in places like LA, where many musical artists advocate for diversity on stage, when they book many different dancers with varied body types and shapes, genders, colours and background.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Overall, through my life and career choice there have been some bumps on the road, personally and professionally as well.
I believe one of my biggest life changing moment was in 2017, as I was about to embark on a trip to New York and LA, with the main focus to train, my mother sadly passed away a few days before I left. It was a very difficult year after this happened, me and my sister had to gather everything we owned, sell or give away all the little bits, sold the apartment where we lived and moved on to create a new life for each of us. I did actually still go on the trip I had planned, I couldn’t consider even being in the same space where everything would remind me of her and the very recent traumatic experience. Since then NY and LA started to represent for me a feeling of new found/recovered sense of safety, those were the places that began to help me heal from the anxiety I was dealing with back then when it was all still very fresh. We often hear that we shouldn’t run away from our troubles, but the truth is that having that experience made me realise that even though you shouldn’t or that it becomes impossible to run away from your troubles mentally/emotionally, it will highly aid you to change your environment to give you a new perspective. Whilst a highly important part of my life had just disappeared, a new one was just showing signs of commencement – I eventually started seeing it as a big sign of moving forward, and so I began to consider a future in one of these places. I found comfort and faith in that trip and decided that I would definitely want to move there one day. Hence, my decision to, now, years later wanting to move to Los Angeles. Is not only a place where the dance industry is considered to be one of biggest in the world and so it holds the stage for many opportunities for artists like me, but also it’s a place where I felt at comfort and eased when my heart felt quite homeless.
After getting back from my trip, times were quite strange, I had to adapt back to my friends and faced a big challenge to start a whole new life, find a place to live and financial freedom, now that I was on my own. I lived with my grandmother for a while and then in 2019 I was able to put a downpayment for a small apartment in the centre of Lisbon, in an area that was being recovered and would eventually be valued in the future. At that time I was highly inclined to move to London as the industry in Portugal felt quite small and limited in terms of opportunities in my areas of preference. Even though it was good to gain so much experience in Lisbon and have the chance to work professionally so often, starting to teach and create my own projects, it was also time to move on and pursue further career opportunities. As the apartment needed quite a lot of work, I ended up moving to London in beginning of 2020, to allow the space for it to become liveable and available to start renting. The plan was to have it as a passive source of income. Just 2 weeks after I moved to the UK, covid hit us and sadly, I had to go back to Lisbon before they could shut the borders. I rushed back and was literally living in a place with no kitchen and a bathroom functioning only with cold water. I made up a kitchen with borrowed electric items from friends and lived that way for a few months as the contractor was finishing up everything. Eventually, the house was ready shortly after I moved to London again (in September the same year) and I was able to successfully rent it out to a really nice family that still lives there to this day.
Definitely, on the personal side, losing my mother at a young age was quite an obstacle, and therefore, having to sustain and support myself definitely made me grow faster than I probably should have in a normal situation. I felt an extremely raised sense of responsibility after this happened, as I felt like no one else was going to save me or take care of me besides myself. As years earlier my parents had also separated and so, my father in a way stopped being in touch with us as well.
On a professional level, of course all artists at some phase in their careers deal with frustration, constant rejection, overwhelm about the amount of things we need to keep track to be able to progress in our journeys and to stay in loop of everything that is happening. Over all the feeling of overwhelm is definitely a constant we need to learn how to process and deal with.
In my case, my biggest struggle and that is also a curse as much as it is a blessing at the same time, it’s that I like so many different things, and so many different styles that I want to be everywhere and hold so much fear of missing out on things. I always wanted to learn all that came my way, form performing, to teaching, to creating, directing and everything else that could be involved in the field of dance… and so with such little time to get everywhere, it leaves a feeling of dissatisfaction and frustration.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
For this section I will focus mostly in the work I develop as a creative, which refers to choreography and movement directed work in the format of concept videos or small reel videos of dance/movement content.
I have started creating my own pieces a while back mainly because I felt the need to express myself through my own ideas and movement, I had ideas floating in my head that I wanted to bring to life, and always felt drawn to everything visually appealing. Besides performing or taking on other people’s movement, I really wanted to build up my own identity as a creative and develop my own work in a conceptual/visual format. I started focusing mainly in just creating choreographies at first – I struggled as it was something new, used to take me ages to finish a piece and actually make it look okay – I was often not my biggest fan. But just like any other skill it takes time, effort and repetition to improve at it. So I kept going and eventually got easier as I discovered myself and my identity, and what my expression looks and feels like. Always with room for change and improvement as our art fluctuates as we do as humans.
Nowadays, I’m often still quite critical about about my own work which is, I believe, something normal for a creative person (to be somehow seeking to reach a new level in every attempt and to be perfectionist about the work we develop).
Over the years, I have started to put some conceptual ideas into practice not only with the aim of teaching choreography within my field but also with the ambition of developing that same choreographic work in visual format. From this desire, some conceptual videos came up (either individual or with collaboration/participation of other artists). These are available for viewing through my website or YouTube channel – www.inestavaresduarte.com
I have lately started to see myself more as an all around artist/creative that not only focusses in dance but also in everything surrounding life, trying to welcome any sort of source of inspiration from my daily life and not only inside the studio while creating. Lately, I have been quite connected and inspired by fashion, colours, nature, photography, and photographic composition. I am currently working on transferring this expression to my creations, whether in the form of photography or video.
On another note, in more specific and technical terms regarding the kind of movement I develop and often use:
– I focus mainly on the styles I have deeply studied and developed a great connection with, not only on an aesthetic level, but also within a cultural and historical understanding. Especially in the world of Street Dance, is quite important to understand the music, the meaning, the history, where it comes from and why these styles were created.
– I focus as well as deeply in the qualities of movement, intricacies of musicality, dynamics, the use of textures and of course the storytelling.
– For reference, my main styles of expertise are Popping, House, HipHop and Voguing.
I believe that one thing that sets me apart from other dance artists is the versatility and adaptation to many different fields of work. I always believed in being well rounded and that knowing how to do many different things will most likely set me apart from the majority. It is a great plus to be able to stand out from the crowd for having a specific style you have a high level in. I often use the specific styles that I am proficient in to stand out in auditions, especially when most of the dancer around me are mainly commercial choreography dancers only.
What matters most to you? Why?
On a human level, I think that the thing I prioritise the most at the moment is to be at peace, to know and trust myself and my journey. To know that everything eventually falls into place and that everything that is for me will ultimately find me. It is important for me to feel good, healthy and capable, to feel loved and needed.
All through my life and growing up I learned many core values that I still live by and feel that are essential my balance – such as kindness, honestly, trust, integrity and compassion.
On a professional level, all the above apply regardless, but I also feel like is important to mention perseverance and patience, keeping yourself motivated through the obstacles and having faith everything will end up working out.
Most importantly, it matters to me to feel that I am working towards a purpose or a goal I want to achieve. And keep reminding myself of why I do what I do and the love and happiness it brings me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.inestavaresduarte.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inesduartee_/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@inestavaresduarte4095
Image Credits
– Amy Cook @amycook_photography
– Sofia Tomic @all.so.visuals
– Mafalda Ratola @mechanicaldevil
– Catarina Lima @catarinamlima
