With support from the California Arts Council, Viver Brasil Dance Company will build on its long-standing tradition of offering master-level Afro-Brazilian dance classes with live music at a low-cost for our intergenerational communities. Since our founding in 1997, Viver Brasil has been committed to sharing Afro-Brazilian expressive culture, along with its ancestral and contemporary wisdom, in Los Angeles while maintaining strong connections with our spiritual and cultural elders and contemporaries in our sister city, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. With support from the California Arts Council, we will sustain and expand access to this rich cultural experience, serving over 1,000 Los Angeles area community members during the grant period.
Samba in the Streets, VB’s free community engagement program teaches Afro-Brazilian traditional dances modeled on Blocos Afro, Afro-Brazilian parading organizations that introduce communities to Afro-Brazilian history through traditional and contemporary dance and music. Cooking Samba, VB’s signature family program is a narrated 45-minute show that include the royal orixa dances, riveting capoeira, joyful samba and Bahian carnaval with live music and an interactive dance workshop. Community Class, is a weekly Afro-Brazilian technique dance class led by founding artistic directors Linda Yudin and Luiz Badaro accompanied by live music. Dancing at the Source is a 16-day cultural immersion program to Salvador, Bahia, Brazil where participants experience: daily Afro-Brazilian dance, music, and culture classes taught by experienced faculty who are master cultural workers, that reflects VB’s role as a bridge between the U.S. and Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.