Renata was born in Brazil where she began her formal dance training with folk, modern and ballet, performing as a young child in the prestigious Teatro Municipal de São Paulo in the 1980s and in the Ballet Company of Paula Castro Dance School in São Paulo. After graduating in Engineering, she traveled to Bolivia to learn about traditional communities living in sustainable ways in the Andean rural areas. During her stay in the Shamanic Community Janajpacha in Cochabamaba she was inspired by the traditional dances and participated into the cultural project involving the recovery of traditional Andean dances from Bolivia and Peru. For two years she performed and toured around many Latin American countries, including Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela and Mexico (where she had six months training in Aztec Dances), appearing on TV programs and performed in public theaters.

In 1998, when Renata came to the UC Berkeley to pursue her doctoral degree in Environmetnal History, she continued modern dance at the UC Berkeley (including two performances, one on her own poem/dance choreography) and started her training in Ancient Hawaiian Dance (Hula Kahiko) with Misao Mizuno. In 2003, Renata was invited to dance with the Ballet Folklorico de Pernambuco, in Recife, Brazil. In addition, Renata has also been giving private lessons and workshops on traditional and ancient dances for kids, teens and adults in the past decade and has been substituting for Misao's classes over the past year.