Augusto Soledade, a native of Bahia, Brazil, is a performer, choreographer and currently serves as a full time Assistant Professor in Dance at Florida International University in Miami and as Founder Artistic Director and resident choreographer of Brazz Dance Theater. In January 2009, Mr. Soledade was awarded for the second time the Dance Miami Choreographer’s Fellowship, and in 2008 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Choreography. In 2007, he was awarded the Individual Artist Fellowship and the Artist Access Grant. In 2006 he was awarded the Artist Enhancement Grant and the International Cultural Exchange Grant from the State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs. In 2005 he received the Miami Dade Choreographer’s Fellowship and the Creative Capital Workshop Grant and the Community Grant from Miami Dade Cultural Affairs. He has been awarded multiple grant funds from the Northampton Arts Council and Smith College to develop choreographic as well as research projects. Other Positions at Universities and Colleges were: Visiting Assistant Professor and Graduate Advisor at Smith College, Massachusetts, Visiting Assistant Professor in Dance at the University Of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Guest Artist Instructor at Wells College, NY and adjunct instructor at University of Rochester. He received his M.F.A in Dance from SUNY Brockport in 1998. He received the 1998 Pylyshenko-Strasser Graduate Dance Award and was the finalist in the dance category for the 1998 Thayer Fellowship. He has performed in Brazil, Trinidad/Tobago and throughout the United States. His dance training started at the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil in a program with strong modern dance emphasis and has had training with Garth Fagan, Clyde Morgan. He also holds a degree in journalism from the Federal University of Bahia.