Bernardo 
San Rafael

I’m a dance performance artist. Born in Costa Rica, raised in Germany. I dance with swans, shopping bags, teddies, in a landfill in Africa and in a lake in Switzerland

WHITE!!!

Sound, Gesang und Dance Performance with an 10 000 tennis balls installation about "supremacy" and other privileges.

Work in Progress

Kulturkirche St. Jakobi
 21, 22 und 23.8
19.30h

CARIBE!

An hanging installation  made with 5800 shoelaces for a dance performance. 

Kulturkirche St. Jakobi 
Opening ceremony Meeresmuseum:
29.9. 2025, Stralsund

Foto:Anke Neumeister/Deutsches Meeresmuseum

TEDDY!



25.7.2026

Warnemünde 
Mecklenburg Vorpommern, Germany


What about you, your dreams and your childhood? Who are you now and what do you wanted to be?

HOME!

Zürich /Winterthur Dez. 2026

In cooperation with the sound composer Matthias Rosenkranz (59perlen) , “Tension is an installation and a performance about the relationships between humans and humans and the urban environment they are living.  The  threads as a symbol for fragility and distance, connections and ruptures.
Watch the video below :

AM FLUSS! 

Dance performance and sound Installation


Demmin 
Workshops for kids!

Free !

from 10 till 23.8.26

Global Villages (FoDaKu) and KUMASTA

SHOPPING BAG


We swim in an ocean of thousands shopping bags looking for happiness.
This nonsensical phenomena change our behavior, our body perception and environment till we get obligate to leave this place called earth.

„Unterstützt durch das Landesförderinstitut des Landes Mecklenburg Vorpommern und die Stadt Stralsund"

Foto: Anke Neumeister


 

BOLERO! for an scrap dealer

This project startet 2022 in Accra, Ghana and Stralsund, Germany.
In cooperation with the National Theater in Accra we develop an artists program for people with artistic talent living in the electronic waste landfill Agbogbloshie. 

This first phase is financed by the Landesförderinstitut in Mecklenburg Vorpommern as a scholarship.

Accra, 11 - 22.12.2025

SILENCE!

Is a creative proposal as a training for professional  dancers, movers and amateurs.
Without talking at all, we create an environment for freedom, respect and social empathy.

Düsseldorf, Tanzhaus NRW
2026

MUTTER! 

is installation and dance performance at the same time. Hundreds of threads are used to connect the body of the performers with the environment. 

 

This installation is a discussion about the urban space, the current social distancing and the tension in the human relationships nowadays. 

 

We are dependent of a society. Keeping together is now to respect the distance between 

us and at the same time we want to keep our right to individuality. 





 




AGBOGBLOSHIE/

ist ein Ort in Europa

2026 in Stralsund


Dance performance about the strongest human beings on earth-Agbogbloshie is the electronic landfill Europe. It is situated in Ghana, Africa and in your home






„Unterstützt durch das NATIONALE PERFORMANCE NETZ - STEPPING OUT, gefördert von der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien im Rahmen der Initiative NEUSTART KULTUR.


SEA URCHIN

"Sea urchin” started on the island of Skiathos,Greece as a very spontaneous performance in a bar. I began to collect all the used straws I founded in the city and installed them  as a part of my body.  It’s remember the beautiful but dangerous and sometimes painful sea urchins around the beaches from the island.
At the same time, I use the performance to make attention to the irrational use of plastic in our daily life.
How do I feel if I have to live with plastic in or on my body as many animals in the ocean?

Since Sommer 2019 I use to do this small action in every city I visit .


Swan Lake

As a testimonial about the situation from artists in Covid times, this performance at the Lake Zurich combine ice swimming with dance and the interaction with real swans and the environment.

Foto: Hadi Jeanrichard 

PRESSE

Here you can find some of the various newspapers publications about the performances.

About me 

Born in beautiful tropical Costa Rica I started my artistic education at the age of 8 at the Conservatorio de Musica y Artes de la Universidad de Costa Rica and finished my studies at the Ecole Professionelle Superior de Danse in Montpellier in France.

I worked as a dancer for Stadttheater Freiburg, Deutsche Rheinoper Düsseldorf / Duisburg, Theater Dortmund and the Oper Bonn and as a performer for Angie Hiesl and Roland Kaiser in Cologne. 

As a teacher I have been invited to give classes in Istanbul (CATI), Skiathos ( ERASMUS), Athens (ECHODRAMA) , Freiburg (Bewegungsart) and Düsseldorf ( Tanzhaus NRW)).

I have been working in Düsseldorf for Plöger/Winkler/Becker and became a member of the theater company Lokstoff in Stuttgart. 

Now I develop my own performances for places outside of a theater to guarantee accessibility to the beautiful world of dance arts.

My TEAM

Is my family. I love them in pieces.

Camila Scholtbach 
Robert Ssempijja
Sylvie Cieren
Keisuke Mihara
Francesca Perrucci
Camille Berthelin
Sarah Minarik
Matthias Rosenkranz
Valentin Schwerdfeger
Felipe Fizcal

BSR ARTS e. V

We created 2025 an organisation to support social work trough art. YES!: We believe that we can change the world at least a bit... Support us!

If you want to become a member :

Contact me

E-MAIL Adress

[email protected]