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What's New This Week With Viver Brasil?
- Inspiring Words from John Lewis
- August Classes with VB!
- Community Class Tomorrow With Vera Passos!
- Meet our artists, Jahanna Blunt and Natália Spadini, off the VB stage!
- Performance Spotlight on "Para Onde a Samba Me Leva"
- #VoiceMoneyTimeOrTalent!: School on Wheels' Virtual Backpack Drive
- UPCOMING: Dancing the Majestic Kings (August 15!)
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“Without the arts, without music, without dance, without drama, without photography, the civil rights movement would have been like a bird without wings." –US Representative John Lewis
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Symbols, Sambas, Movements of Joy and Resistance
This week we continue to dive into the dances of the Órixas: symbols and movements with our incredible Associate Artistic Director,
Vera Passos.
8/3: Vera Passos: Dances of the Orixas: Symbols and Movements
8/10: Vera Passos: Dances of the Orixas: Symbols and Movements
8/17: Vania Oliveira: Dances of the Blocos Afro
8/24: Vera Passos: Dances of the Orixas: Symbols and Movements
8/31: Vera Passos: Samba de Roda
Since VB transitioned to online classes we have reached dancers all over the US and communities in 20 countries, 34 states, and 219 zip codes in California!
Join our global community every Monday night at 6:30pm!
From wherever you are in the world, you are invited to join us for another Virtual Dance Class.
Every Monday in 2020
6:30 to 8 pm PST
Suggested donation of $5
No one will be turned away due to lack of funds
Click here to register and receive a confirmation email with the link to our virtual Community dance class!
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VB Artists off the VB Stage!
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Jahanna Blunt: Le Ballet Dembaya at the Music Center
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Our fabulous dancer, Jahanna Blunt, is the Founder, and Artistic Director of Le Ballet Dembaya. Le Ballet Dembaya is a professional West African drum and dance company based in Los Angeles. With Guinea as the group’s primary country of study, Dembaya practices traditional percussive rhythms, typically played on Djembe and Dundun drums accompanied by intricate, polyrhythmic dances from various regions throughout West Africa. In hopes of preserving a beautiful cultural tradition, Dembaya’s members dedicate themselves to studying and mastering this art, while exposing its powerful healing qualities.
Jahanna Blunt, a native of Los Angeles, California, began her dance career as a sevenyear-old with Abalaye African Drum and Dance Ensemble. While majoring in acting, she continued to dance throughout her time in high school at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts and in college at UCLA's School of Theater Film and Television. Jahanna has had the pleasure of choreographing and dancing for Beyonce Knowles, Yemi Alade, Kanye West, R. Kelly, Stevie Wonder, and Kevin Hart, among other world renowned entertainers. She has taught in several school districts and universities, as well as workshops and studio classes both locally and abroad in China, and Brazil. Jahanna has also danced with Viver Brasil since 2013 as both a company member and dance captain. She feels blessed to be able to pursue her passion as a career and looks forward to a bright future.
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Natália Spadini's New Single: Ok, But First Coffee
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Natália Spadini, one of our amazing singers, released an incredible new single with the help of one of our drummers, Marcelo Bucater!!! Click the picture above to listen on Spotify!
Follow her on social media for updates: @nataliaspadini
Click here for her bio!
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Performance Spotlight:
"Para Onde a Samba Me Leva/Where Samba Takes Me" at the Ford
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This week's #PerformanceSpotlight is our performance of "Para O Samba Me Leva/Where Samba Takes Me" at the Ford Theatre's 20th Anniversary.
Para Onde a Samba Me Leva pays homage to the great sambadeira Joselita Moreira da Cruz Silva (aka Zelita), whose life was dedicated to the preservation of the samba from the Reconcavo region of Bahia. Bahian choreographer Vera Passos explores the steps and rhythms of the samba chula style with the same intensity in which the late Zelita lived her life: with joy, love, creativity, movement and action rooted in ancestral wisdom.
Performed in Viver Brasil Celebrates 20 Years: Agô Ayó – Spirits Rising at the Ford Theatres on Semptember 22, 2017
Choreography by Vera Passos
Musical arrangement by Kahlil Cummings and Simon Carroll with VB musicians
Costumes by Rosalida Medina
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#VoiceMoneyTimeOrTalent -
Schools on Wheels' Virtual Backpack Drive
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This week's #VoiceMoneyTimeOrTalent entry is the School on Wheels' Virtual Backpack Drive. Since students in LA won't be returning to classrooms this fall, many are without supplies to get their work done. School on Wheels works with students who are experiencing homelessness, providing services like tutoring, scholarships, and school supplies. Their yearly backpack drive distributed over 7,000 backpacks last year across LA county and they hope to distribute more this year before school starts back up. Please consider donating your money towards this cause:
Every child experiencing homelessness that we serve receives a NEW backpack filled with school supplies. In 2019 we distributed over 7,000 backpacks filled with school supplies to students across Southern California living in shelters, motels, group homes, and on the streets. This year looks different for our students in so many ways, but we want to make sure they start off the school year with a backpack full of the school supplies they need no matter what!
Click here to donate.
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UPCOMING: Dancing the Majestic Kings
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Photo: Jorge Vismara
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YOU ASKED FOR MORE!
Join our wise elder Dona Cici and VB's Associate Artistic Director Vera
Passos for an intensive/workshop exploring the dances, stories and
songs of the kings of the dance: Exu, Omolu, Oxumarê, Xango.
Saturday, August 15, 2020
10am - 1pm PST
2pm - 5pm (GMT-3/Bahia, Brasil)
$30 per ticket
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DO YOU LOVE WHAT WE'RE DOING?
Your generosity support our artists, our dance and music making, and our community programming.
We welcome your donation to Viver Brasil, a 501(c)3 organization to which tax-deductible contributions can be made at any time. Please visit viverbrasil.com/support or click the button below to donate.
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