Helena Araújo is an enthusiastic femme maker and performer, lover of plot twists and a clown full of kitsch and bad jokes. She is originally from Rio de Janeiro and currently lives in Vienna and Brussels. Helena, as a maker, loves to give space for the imagination to flourish and the double meanings to arise. 

She is interested in leaving space for different artistic languages to coexist and blend together. In this space, the conventional values and expectations projected onto these languages, and how they are supposed to relate to each other, are free to be challenged. In her performances she tries to embody the political/theoretical/poetic, more than to use a didactical or academic discourse to show the nuances of different questions that she explores. 

As a good libra, Helena loves to please. Besides working within the traditional spaces of contemporary art she also adores to entertain feverous cabaret nights. Helena challenges the canonical language of cabaret theatre by melting the rigid structures of what a cabaret performance should be and look like. It is often a very colorful mix of dance, performance, theatre and screaming songs.    

Helena's works have been shown in various places such as Radiant Nights Festival (BE), Moving Futures Festival (NL), FDS Festival (CH), Zahrada Theatre (SK), V-Fest Festival (NL), Pinkbus Plataform (CZ), Paradise Cabaret (IE) and House of Circus- Cabaret Night (NL). 

Also, as a performer she has worked with many artists: TRASH performance group (NL), Ivo Dimchev (BG), Renan Martins (DE/BR), Martin Talaga (CZ/SK), Petra Tejnorová (CZ/SK) and Pietro Marullo (IT/BE). Helena went to several International cities and festivals. As for example, Revolve Performance Art Festival, Sweden (2022), Seoul International Dance Festival, South Korea (2018), Impulstanz Festival, Austria (2018), Tanec Praha, Prague (2017), Festival des Arts de Bordeaux, France (2018), New Baltic Dance Festival, Lithuania (2018). 

In recent years, Helena has been working as a dance and performance improvisation teacher. Her practice is called shake it to the ground and bring it back up and she has shared it in different places such as Masters at AP School of Arts, DeSingel (BE), Fontys Academy of Circus and Performance Art (NL), Dansverkstaedid (IS), University of Arts in Iceland (IS) and Espaço Mova (BR).