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Antonio Moreira is a Melbourne-based Artist & Creative Cultural Producer with passion for the arts, music and sharing his rich culture. Antonio grew up in Recife, the cultural capital of Brazil where he was immersed in a lifestyle rich in vibrant foods, dance, colours and music. Antonio proudly have the opportunity to share his roots and connect Melbourne with the powerful and exotic performances of rhythms mainly from Brazil’s Northeast representing styles such as; Maracatu, Coco, Ciranda, Afoxé and Forró. Through his experience of traveling and living in different countries Antonio has worked in many productions, since arriving in Melbourne, he had opportunity to work for companies like Melbourne Olympic Park, Australia Open, Melbourne Arts Centre, Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, Melbourne Recital Centre, Multicultural Arts Victoria to mentioned a few, his background in production include also a tour with Cirque du Soleil in Brazil at nine cities, while travelling he identified the challenges of being an outsider within a foreign culture. Once settled he has decide to dedicated his work to re-building cultural identity, breaking social barriers, and creating a sense-of-belonging in a country and or culture that initially felt confronting. Run by volunteers and as a not-for-profit organisation, Maracatu Estrela do Mar was designed with the objective to promote community engagement and create awareness of multiculturalism in the City of Melbourne. Within a year it has grown into a continued self-sustained group and has also performed at major city events and venues such as Australia Day, Etihad Stadium, Moomba Festival, Sydney Myer Music Bowl, and Federation Square amongst others. Antonio recently finished a Graduate Certificate in Arts and Community Engagement and was offered Masters studies at Melbourne University in Arts and Community Cultural Development. “This is my culture, reflected within it is who I am, who I want to be and whom I always will be proud of represent anywhere I go.” Antonio has a number of major projects, including "Maria Mulambo", Melbourne-based band that plays Forró. He hopes to create a not-for-profit organisation in the future, to teach drumming workshops to the intellectually disadvantaged, refugees and new immigrants in order to promote teamwork, motor skills and break cultural barriers as well encourage social engagement within multicultural communities. Multicultural Ambassador for Melbourne Festival 2012 and 2013. |