Vera Mantero studied classical and contemporary dance and was a dancer in Ballet Gulbenkian from 1984 to 1989. She is one of the leading figures of New Portuguese Dance. She began choreographing her own work in 1987 and has presented her work in Europe, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Canada, Chile, South Korea, USA, and Singapore. She has created performative installations, dance pieces, and co-commissioned thematic programmes addressing environmental and economic sustainability and citizenship. In 1999, Culturgest organised a retrospective of her work. In 2004 she represented Portugal at the São Paulo Biennial with Comer o Coração, co-created with Rui Chafes. In 2002, she received the Almada Prize and in 2009 the Gulbenkian Art Prize for her career in the arts. In 2018 she recognised by the Fundación Avina for her work towards environmental sustainability.