Celebrating Samba
Photos by Elizabeth Asher, provided courtesy of the LA Phil.
What does it mean to Celebrate samba
Viver Brasil’s signature community program takes audiences on a cultural journey to Salvador, Bahia, in an electrifying Afro-Brazilian dance and music performance with narration. Experience a jolt of joyful color, thrilling rhythms, and communal celebration in this 40-minute interactive performance. Celebrating Samba includes the royal Orixas in vibrant costumes, the joyful samba, and the social justice dances of the Bahian Carnaval in Bloco Afro Motumbaxé. A demonstration of traditional and contemporary instruments is included and Viver Brasil’s interactive dance workshop.
How have we been celebrating?
In 2019
Celebrating Samba journeyed to the lucky number of 13 venues: 11 of which were schools in Los Angeles and 2 of which were Los Angeles libraries. Between February 20th and June 19th, over 970 people Celebrated Samba with us! We were able to provide this funding thanks to the generous funding from the California Arts Council and LA’s Best.
Watch Viver Brasil Perform Celebrating Samba at the Los Angeles Public Library in 2019 for LA Made, a series of cultural programs funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
2020
We Celebrated Samba at the Broad Theater on February 8th, and we were able to host a residency at La Ballona Elementary School on February 19th with a turnout of 565 people before the pandemic prompted us to adapt and put our programming online. Since other programming was more suited to a virtual format, Celebrating Samba took a slight hiatus for the remainder of 2020, only to return stronger than ever in 2021.
In 2021
Celebrating Samba was performed virtually for 550 students at 6 schools over 7 days June and was a part of two virtual school assemblies in December of that year. Our ability to provide virtual programming only improved over time, and although we were still online due to the pandemic, we were not locked down or kept from sharing our programming in any way. These virtual classes were made possible by an amazing remote cast who were willing to pre-record lessons, film dances, perform over the computer, and to scout locations for their livestreams and film shoots.
2022
This program was provided in person once again after two years at 11 schools in Los Angeles County. In partnership with LA’s Best in order to offer programming while people transitioned from a pandemic social distance to an in person space, Celebrating Samba was produced in an online edition which included Bloco Afro dance workshops in both Los Angeles and Salvador, Bahia. Additionally, we taught classes and offered our Celebrating Samba performance across Alabama during the Samba in the Streets tour.
In 2023
This program toured with us to Alabama and was performed at 6 different schools, including Alabama State University and Tuskegee University. In the summer while back in LA we capped off our 6 different school residencies with Celebrating Samba, giving the students a chance to show their knowledge and talents. Additionally, Celebrating Samba showed multiple times at Inner City Arts between June and July.
Learn more about our other programming
Photo Credits: Arthur Seabra, Rebecca Green, Gia Trovela, Ashley Guevara, and Genna Cui