A sculptor of movement
Three years ago, Esmeralda made a courageous decision. She left behind her career as an architect and data engineer to follow her heart—straight into a world where dance and art meet in their purest form.
She enrolled in the evening program at the Rietveld Academy and opened her studio, tucked away in Het Salon behind the Westerpark in Amsterdam. There, surrounded by paint and flowing movement, she lives her dream. You’ll find her there: painting, dancing, creating. A space where art is born, grows, and is meant to be shared. Curious? Send her a message here and drop by.
Even as a child, she felt it—that deep longing to create. But only now, years later, has she fully surrendered to it. Esmee calls herself a sculptor of movement—someone who doesn’t just dance the dance, but captures it. Who doesn’t just write words, but gives them form.
Inspired by tango and capoeira, she constantly explores the tension between closeness and distance in her work. She lets herself be guided by poetry, by rhythm, by intuition. And so, canvases are born—alive with movement, rich with emotion. Each piece a dance, every line a breath.
Ever since I was a child playing and dancing under the mango trees of our house, I can't seem to shake my love for aesthetic motion. From my first steps in Niger until today, I have been moving on rhythms naturally. Traveling trough different dance styles during puberty and later as a architectural student improvising all that I knew at techno festivals. At the age of 26, just after graduation, I came home. I discovered Tango. Sensational zen, homeostase, in touch with my core and therefore in touch with life and others. I discovered through abstract art I could finally share that sensation and tell stories for others to be inspired by in their day-to-day lives. Dancing Tango is an integral part of my practice and it's beautiful how every time it transports me right back to being that playful child under the mango tree again.
Growing up as the youngest of 2 children I marvelled at how my parents could harness a pencil, a music instrument, a sewing machine or a hammer to create something beautiful that didn't exist before. Their courage to just do and improvise fuelled my passion to never stop creating, as they told me over and over again, yes of course you can do anything you want. Just do it and enjoy the proces. We didn't have a lot of money growing up but my parents where creative and had strategic long term plans. They showed me by transforming an old french farm, that anything with time, persistence and joy is possible. So here I went to Montessori high school, to spend the most possible hours at drawing, construction and theatre class. Studied architecture at the TU Delft to combine my love for technique and aesthetics. After eight amazing years of working as an architect, design thinker and data engineer, I started this adventure of my childhood. Creating art, with my dancing mind and painting hands.