Nyrhio was born in Angola and has lived in Europe for five years. He is a community health technician at the GAT association, in Intendente (Lisbon), an STI support, screening and treatment center, aimed at sex workers, trans people, migrants and people who sleep on the street. He is a masseur graduated from EMMA-Escola de Massagem e Motricidade Aplicada. His passion for massage arose during the pandemic, when, in confinement, he dedicated himself to learning different techniques from YouTube videos, practicing with his housemates. In 2022 he became a professional and currently practices therapeutic and sports massage techniques, joint mobilization and rehabilitation.

About the Queer Kizomba Classes (see the AND Lab Space permanent programming)

Kizomba is a music and dance created in Angola in the early 1980s, derived from semba, with a mixture of kilapanda and Angolan merengue. Kizomba is danced in pairs, where one person is the guide and the other is guided. Nyrhio Ribestião learned to dance kizomba at dance schools in the neighborhood where he grew up. He started giving private Kizomba Lady Ginga lessons to friends and neighbors. When moving to the Netherlands in 2021, he accompanied his sister and kizomba teacher @ elizasala85_official, improving techniques for group classes. The Kizomba Queer (non heteronormative) classes initiative serves to break heteronormative patterns of social dances, freeing people participating from the gender roles present in this dance.

Fazer Comum ['Do Common'] is a housing program by Espaço AND Lab, in Lisbon, whose main objective is to contribute to the dynamization of the artistic and cultural fabric of Lisbon, providing space for work, dialogue, meeting, research and sharing of practices within the scope of work AND Lab - Art, Politics, Community. Extensive (self)care and expression-creation practices are welcomed, such as regular classes/sessions, specific workshops and artistic residencies. There is also space for event proposals such as study groups, book launches, conferences and lectures, meetings and gatherings, exhibitions and informal presentations, etc.