VB Nagode Simpson Rezas e Folhas by Sandy Altamirano 2023
Choreographer and Viver Brasil Co-Artistic Director Vera Passos presents a blend of traditional Afro-Brazilian and indigenous dances and rhythms combined with experimental choreography and storytelling. This work in progress is rooted in the spiritual traditions of Candomblé. Passos translates the dances and rhythms of Orixá Ossain (owner of the sacred leaves), Orixá Obaluaiyê (bearer of epidemic diseases), and the caboclos (indigenous Brazilian spirits) into her contemporary gestural language. Together with the curing wisdom of the rezadeiras (female healers who chant prayers to cure), drumming, and mythological stories, the movements call for communal balance called axé.
Funding for this program comes from the LA County Performing Arts Recovery Grant and the New England Foundation for the Arts: National Dance Project.
VB Nagode Simpson Rezas e Folhas by Sandy Altamirano 2023
Photo by Alejandro Pujol
Viver Brasil, a Los Angeles based company founded in 1997 under the artistic direction of Linda Yudin and Luiz Badaró and now Co-Artistic Director Vera Passos, captivates audiences with its irrepressible blend of bold Afro-Brazilian dance theater and exuberant physicality, power, and passion drawn from orixa movement and rhythms, samba, forró, dança afro and bloco afro styles. The dancers unveil history, ignite the present, imagine and inflame the future. Vocalists become part of the action and musicians take polyrhythms to new heights.
VIVER BRASIL DANCE CLASS @ A+P
CURATORIAL WALKTHROUGH: BAHIA REVERB @ A+P