“She had left a marketing job to study dance, a novice at 28; her work with Mr. Pitts introduced her to the stage. You will never guess this from her softly commanding presence in “Black Velvet”. (…) A haunting duet”.
(The New York Times, May 2019)
Originally from Goiânia (Brazil, 1984), Mirelle Martins received her Bachelor Degree in Social Communications from Universidade de Brasília –UnB (Brasília, 2002-2006) – one of the top 10 Best Universities in Brazil. Mirelle focused her studies on storytelling, writing, video editing, and creative strategies for digital media.
From 2008 – 2018, Martins worked as a copywriter, digital content creator, and creative coordinator at the major Brazilian advertising and design agencies: Tátil Design, F.Biz, ampfy, Bullet Events, Loducca (LDC), between others.
During her marketing career, Mirelle created and coordinated digital and multimedia campaigns for local and multinational clients like Red Bull, MTV, Budweiser, BMW, Peugeout, Ford, Carrefour, Natura, AmBev, Mitsubishi, DrogaRaia, Unilever, among others.
osgemeos custom made art piece created during the project “Era uma vez um cinzeiro” (Loducca, São Paulo, 2009)
Parallel to her formal jobs, in 2010 Mirelle Martins started to move her work activities from marketing towards art, by creating her first art projects as independent curator and cultural producer.
Martins’ first art projects were idealized in collaboration with the Polish artist Adam Kalinowski and had the goal to produce his first exhibitions in South America. The result was “In Void“, “Jungle House“, “The Core“, and “The Cloudy Thoughts“, original site-specific sculpture exhibitions curated and produced in São Paulo from 2011 to 2013 in partnership with MuBE (Brazilian Museum of Sculpture), MIS – SP (Image and Sound Museum of São Paulo), FAAP (Armando Alvares Penteado Foundation), Polish Consulate, Ecotelhado, and SOS Mata Atlântica.
During the production of Adam’s projects in Brazil, Mirelle got to know the artist, writer, actress, and producer Anna Zêpa. From 2013 to 2015, Zêpa and Martins collaborated in various artistic projects, one of them the video poetry, and digital art project called #experimentos poeticos, a series that mixed urban performance and short video poetry using internet (social media) as the main platform of to share the artwork with the audience. The project expanded in 2014 with visual art exhibition at A7MA Gallery (São Paulo, 2014), Museu da Língua Portuguesa (São Paulo, 2015), and SESC Pinheiros (São Paulo, 2015).
During 2013-2015 Mirelle collaborated as performer with the independent electronic-music after-party urban collective called Dsviante, composed by the DJs Dunwich, Andrea Gram, Juba Sprovieri, producer Joana Franco, and VJs Astronauta Mecanico and Lucca Del Carlo. Mirelle was part of the performance duo #ODORITAI from created with the costume designer and DJ Aaron Kawai and fashion designer David Gap.
Mirelle Martins started to research movement, performance and dance during the Gaga Summer Intensive 2013, where she and Shamel Pitts first met (Brooklyn, 2013). From 2015 to 2019 she has been the producer and translator of GAGA /Brazil, project that brought for the first time to Brazil regularly courses of Ohad Naharin‘s movement language. The project created initially in collaboration with Anna Zêpa, Carolina Amares, and Shamel Pitts, had until now over 1200 dance students and professional performers in the major Brazilian cities and art institutions like Itaú Cultural, SESC-SP, SESC-MG, São Paulo Cia. de Dança, CCBB-RJ, Grupo Corpo, Clube Hebraica, among others.
Gaga /Brazil – Clube Hebraica (São Paulo, 2019) 
Gaga /Brazil – CCBB-RJ (Rio de Janeiro, 2019) 
Gaga /Brazil – CCBB-RJ (Rio de Janeiro, 2019) 
Gaga /Brazil – Casa Palco (São Paulo, 2019) 
Gaga /Brazil – Casa Palco (São Paulo, 2019) 
Gaga /Brazil – Casa Palco (São Paulo, 2019) 
Gaga /Brazil – Teatro Cacilda Becker (Rio de Janeiro, 2016)
Mirelle started to perform as a dancer at BLACK VELVET in November 2016. The award-winning multidisciplinary duet was also Martins’ debut on the stages.
In “Black Velvet,” the second part of a trilogy, Mr. Pitts explores a partnership with Ms. Martins, whom he met while teaching Gaga in 2013. She had left a marketing job to study dance, a novice at 28; her work with Mr. Pitts introduced her to the stage.
You would never guess this from her softly commanding presence in “Black Velvet,” which opens with the striking image of her perched on a tall pedestal, in a long black skirt that drapes to the floor. With her bare, bronzed torso and ghostly, mechanical gestures, she resembles a statue brought to life
By Siobhan Burke – New York Times (May 17, 2019)
After the premiere at Teatro Sérgio Cardoso (São Paulo, 11/11/2016), “BLACK VELVET” toured internationally from 2017 to 2020 as part of international dance festivals: Adelaide Festival (Australia, 2020), BAM (Brooklyn, 2019), Colours Festival (Stuttgart, 2019), Cena Brasil (Rio de Janeiro, 2019), Cross Festival (Verbania, 2019), ImPulzTanz (Vienna, 2018), Sesc 24 de Maio (São Paulo, 2018), Machol Shalem (Jerusalem, 2017), Suzanne Dellal (Tel-Aviv, 2017), 14th Street Y/ APAP (New York City, 2018), among other venues.
Mirelle Martins is one of the founding artists of TRIBE, Afrofuturistic arts collective based in Brooklyn, NYC (2019) where she also acts as Creative Director >> itsatribe.org
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Mirelle Martins 