Ana Paula Höfling is an American dancer, dance scholar, academic, and

capoeirista Capoeira () is an Afro-Brazilian martial art that combines elements of dance, acrobatics, music and spirituality. Born of the melting pot of enslaved Africans, Indigenous Brazilians and Portuguese influences at the beginning of the 16th centu ...

Education and training

Höfling began dancing as a child and trained in classical ballet at the

Royal Academy of Dance "Health and happiness" , predecessor = , successor = , formation = 1920 , extinction = , type = NGO , status = Registered charity , purpose = Examination board – dance education and training , headquarters = 36 Battersea SquareSW11 3 ...

. She has a bachelor of arts in linguistics from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, a master of fine arts in dance from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and a master of arts in dance and a PhD in Culture and Performance Studies from the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

. Höfling studied

capoiera Capoeira () is an Afro-Brazilian martial art that combines elements of dance, acrobatics, music and spirituality. Born of the melting pot of enslaved Africans, Indigenous Brazilians and Portuguese influences at the beginning of the 16th century ...

with Mestre Accordion, Mestre

João Grande João Oliveira dos Santos (born 15 January 1933), better known as Mestre João Grande, is a Grão-Mestre (Grand Master) of the Afro-Brazilian martial art of capoeira angola who has contributed to the spread of this art throughout the world. He w ...

, Mestre Jogo de Dentro and the Grupo Semente do Jogo de Angola.

Career

Höfling served on the faculty at

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Epis ...

, where she was an Andrew Mellon postdoctoral fellow, and at the

University of Wyoming The University of Wyoming (UW) is a public land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, and opened in September 1887. The University of Wyoming ...

. She was an IIE

Fulbright scholar The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

at the Academia Superior de Artes de Bogotá in Colombia. In May 2015 she published some of her research in the book ''Performing Brazil: Essays on Culture, Identity, and the Performing Arts''. She authored the book ''Staging Brazil: Choreographies of Capoeira'', as part of her academic research, which analyzed the role of capoeira and its practitioners in establishing a national culture of

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

and the globalization of capoeira. Her research focuses on issues of race, class, and authorship within capoeira and Afro-Brazilian culture. Höfling has also researched representations of mesticagem in 20th century ballet in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

and choreographic productions of

Eros Volúsia Heros Machado (1 June 1914 – 1 January 2004), known as Eros Volúsia was a Brazilian dancer and actress. Her dancing style blended classical ballet to Afro-Brazilian dancing traditions. Volúsia participated in several movies in Brazil and Holl ...

, Mercedes Baptista, and Felicitas Barreto. She has also contributed chapters to the book ''Axé Bahia: The Power of Art in an Afro-Brazilian Metropolis''. Her research has been published in the ''Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism'', the ''Brazilian Journal on Presence Studies'', and the ''Journal for the Anthropological Study of Human Movement''. She is a member of the Dance Studies Association, the Brazilian Studies Association, and the Latin American Studies Association. She currently serves on the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro as an assistant professor of dance studies and as an Honors College teacher. In the spring of 2019 she was appointed as the director of graduate studies for the UNCG School of Dance.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hofling, Ana Paula Living people American capoeira practitioners American female dancers American women non-fiction writers Dance in North Carolina Dance education in the United States Dance teachers University of North Carolina at Greensboro faculty University of Wyoming faculty Wesleyan University faculty Women academic administrators University of California, Berkeley alumni University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American dancers Year of birth missing (living people) American women academics