Meet the new theatre artist in residence at Cork Opera House 

The new theatre artist-in-residence at the Cork Opera House, in collaboration with UCC, came to Ireland from her native Brazil for a year to improve her English.

Eight years later, she is still here; networking, working creatively, in the early years here, she served her time with side-hustles as a cleaner and a barista.

Tatiana dos Santos, 40, is friendly, resourceful and engaged in developing a play that she hopes will be produced at the Cork Opera House next year or in 2027. It will be a cabaret-style show, across the artistic genres she embraces, including dance, music and acting.

Although she has been involved in dance since the age of 12, Tatiana initially set her sights on a career in journalism and worked with BBC Brazil after studying the subject. Her English, at that stage, was very basic.

“I was told that in order to progress my career, I should take a sabbatical and do intensive English,” says Tatiana. “One of the reasons I came to Ireland was because I have a friend who came here in 2014 and loved bragging about how Irish and Brazilian people share the same sense of humour. I came to Dublin and did my Masters in conflict resolution at Independent College Dublin.

“I decided to do the Masters because I had started to engage with dance and the arts in Ireland and I felt it would be a good methodology to bring people together. A few tensions were emerging.”

Having learned “mainly urban dance” including hip hop, Afro-Brazilian and dance-hall, as well as ballet, Tatiana broke into the dance scene in Dublin.

“I think there was an element of luck. It happened naturally. Because I’m very ionate, people could feel the ion coming from me. So I started to attend dance classes. I became a dance teacher.”

Tatiana has worked as a dance facilitator with Tallaght Community Arts, tutoring young people. Her career spans performance and equity advocacy. She has worked with the Dublin Fringe Festival and Create Ireland.

For this capable artist, 2025 has so far been good.

“My partner, who’s Irish (a musician and primary school teacher) managed to buy a house so we’ve moved in. He was saving to buy a house for many years.”

Tatiana is commuting to Cork from her Dublin base, coming down south at least once a week.

The play she is currently researching is about “people who did not grow up with their fathers. My mother is a single mum so there’s a bit of my experience in the play.

“It’s mainly telling the story of those children who, on Father’s Day, do the drawings but for whom? I wanted to explore this in a comic way. I want to be sweet but also sour at the same time. I’m already in touch with local artists. I want to do research on the musicality of the piece.”

What Tatiana is aiming for is “relatability with the Irish community and the migrant community. It’s a very relatable theme. But not many people have spoken about it. I haven’t spoken about it for years. I being 12 or 13 at school when I used to lie, saying my father travels a lot. I used to be ashamed. I wanted to fit in.”

Part of Tatiana’s research will involve reading about the Mother and Baby Homes in this country.

“It’s interesting to look at the way women have been punished and the male figures seem to get away with it.”

Working on this play is “cathartic” for Tatiana. 

“I’m now realising a lot of things about my childhood and my relationship with my mother. I’m an only child. I didn’t understand back then how hard it was for my mum. She sacrificed so much. Many times, she had to leave home to work. When it came to relationships, I used to ask my mother why she didn’t have a boyfriend. She didn’t want to risk having a man at home. It’s wrong to generalise, but in her position, she didn’t want that.”

When her mother was working away from their home in the countryside in the State of Sao Paulo, Tatiana loved to write when she was alone. It has stood to her. And she stresses how fortunate she is to have secured the year-long residency, worth €20,000.

for the arts is more democratic in Ireland than in Brazil, says Tatiana. “In Brazil, if you’re an independent early-stage artist, you have to compete equally (for funding) with the big fish. That’s really hard.”

Throughout the year, Tatiana will have access to mentorship, creative spaces and resources to develop her work. She is engaging with the staff of the Cork Opera House and UCC - and loving the vast receptacle of knowledge that is the Boole Library - as well as local artists and communities through performances, workshops and talks.

This year’s call for a theatre artist-in-residence is ed by UCC’s University of Sanctuary programme, which provides scholarships and fellowships for students, researchers and academics who are refugees and asylum-seekers.

Tatiana has found her sanctuary in Ireland, particularly Cork, which she says is friendlier than Dublin. “Every time I go to buy a coffee or if I’m in a shop, people ask ‘how are you?’ They really want to know.”

She has no regrets about not pursuing journalism, being fulfilled in her creative work.