DouDouLe

Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Cristina won a Kids Samba Competition at the age of 4. At age 6, Cristina auditioned amongst 120 kids competing for only three spots to join the PIONEER dance school in Brazil “Escola Estadual de Dancas Maria Olenewa” from the Municipal Theatre of Rio de Janeiro where she remained for eight years full time. She performed and studied modules such as: Ballet, modern and contemporary, jazz, character, flamenco, improvisation and composition, history of dance and arts, musical morphology, notions of anatomy, musical theory and rhythm study. At age 8, Cristina danced at the Ballet play production “The Nutcracker” and Opera “AIDA”.

In 1993, Cristina became an “Artista Bailarina” at the age of 15 and was accepted by the Artists Syndicate of Rio de Janeiro where she studied acting, singing, percussion, national and international folk dances and was selected for her first professional dance job at the Golden Brazil Musical, Scala-Rio, and was cast as a member of the weekly TV Program in Brazil Academia do Faustao as an aerobic dancer and to work with the Brazilian singer Mara Maravilha. In 1994 Cristina accomplished a dream position when she was chosen by Oswaldo Sargentelly (the internationally recognized pioneer of Mulata [Samba] Shows) to be his mascot where she had her own dance piece Samba on Point Shoes. In the same year she travelled performing to the Caribbean, Japan and the Philippines with three different dance companies.

Back to Brazil in 1996, Cristina worked with as a lead dancer with various companies and shows before moving to Australia in 1998 where she was instantly recognizes as the ‘Samba Queen’ by many. This acknowledgement led her to perform in many other countries such as Indonesia, India, Japan and Singapore with the Brazilian Fantasy Show. Cristina also works regularly in Film,Television and Theatre Productions – such as the Lion King.

In 2005 Cristina joined the best Cuban dance company in Sydney, Afro-Cuban Express where she remained for a year and over the last 9 years has managed entertainers for various events around Sydney and Australia and organised the LOUNGE BRAZIL event in 2006.

Throughout the past 11 years Cristina has performed at various Major events such as the Australian MTV awards, Dance Coroboree, Australian Salsa Championships and Jambalaya Festival (NZ). Has taught and performers at Universities, highschools, dance schools, international events and festivals. She is responsible for influencing and teaching many of the professional Samba dancers around Australia today and currently teaches Samba and Personal Training at Latin Motion, Salsa Republic, Dance Central and FITNESS FIRST throughout Sydney.