Choreographer, curator and researcher. She is part of the collective of artist-curators who represented Portugal Venice Art Biennale (2024) with the project “Greenhouse”. She received her PhD from Kingston University funded by a university scholarship. She works at the intersection of critical dance studies, performance philosophy and experimental practices in curating, dance and performance.

Her interests lie on notions of refusal, fugitivity, improvisation(s), opacity, black ecology, black (non)performances, negotiation and hospitality. Gala has been Course Leader of MA Expanded Dance Practice at the London Contemporary Dance School, Director of the BA (Hons) in Contemporary Performance Practice at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and module coordinator of the MA/MFA Choreography at Trinity Laban Conservatory of Music and Dance. She is an Associate Professor at Escola Superior de Dança.

Recent performative interventions include Passa Folhas (Venice Biennale), Table for Upside Down Practices (Gulbenkian Foundation and Tramway (UK)) and Fanon’s Pharmacy- Grammars of the Blues (Culturgest). Latest publications include Greenhouse: Art, Ecology and Resistance and a chapter under Afroeuropeans: Racism, Identities and Resistances. Gala is co-convenor of the Theatre, Performance and Philosophy group of TaPRA and had consulting & evaluation roles in national/international projects at Arts Directorate Portugal (Ministry of Culture), Manifest (EU) and European League of Institutes of Arts.