VIVER BRASIL

Viver Brasil thrills audiences with bold concert dance theatre and live music inspired by the timely stories of the mythical Orixa, the liberating joy of samba de roda, the call for justice in the movements and rhythms of the Blocos Afro with Afro-Brazilian contemporary dance.
With the company’s 25th anniversary approaching, Viver Brasil is fueled by its commitment to honor Brazil’s African legacy. Under the artistic leadership of Luiz Badaró, Vera Passos, and Linda Yudin, Viver Brasil is dedicated to rigorous research of Afro-Brazilian culture and continuous dialogue between its wise elders, living masters, choreographers, and virtuoso musicians both in Salvador, Bahia and our homebase of Los Angeles. Working in this international footprint the creative voices of the company fuel and empower Viver Brasil’s dynamic and powerful artistry as it addresses anti-blackness, builds joyful community, and honors ancestral wisdom.
“Irrepressible…Brazilian to the core.” Los Angeles Times
The company has produced and premiered fifteen original works at the Ford Theatre in Los Angeles. Over the course of 17 years, Viver Brasil sold out the Ford house 89% of the time. Yabas/Queens, choreographed by Rosangela Silvestre and Luiz Badaró, toured in New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, and Colorado with National Dance Project Touring support. Feet on the Ground/Alaafia, choreographed by Rosangela Silvestre, toured throughout the U.S. and Canada with National Dance Project Production support, Peace Transcends choreographed by Vera Passos, in collaboration with Ford on the Road Series, premiered at the Aratani Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles and then toured to the International Hispanic Theatre Festival at the Adrienne Arsht in Miami. Viver Brasil premiered Shelby Williams-Gonzalez’s site specific work Revealed, which was performed on the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion’s grand staircase at the Music Center’s Moves After Dark Series. Viver Brasil also premiered Vera Passos’ Bloco Afro Motumbaxé at the sold out Hollywood Bowl’s Olympic Carnival Celebration. Since 2013 Viver Brasil has performed at Disney California Adventure Park in the wildly successful Viva Navidad Street Party Parade.
“Yet nothing could shake the regal and rhythmic confidence of Linda Yudin and Luiz Badaró’s Afro-Brazilian dance company, Viver Brasil…embodying the strength and resilience needed to mend broken ties, heal fractured bodies and reconcile fraught relationships.” Los Angeles Times
Viver Brasil reflects the vitality of its global home with members hailing from Los Angeles, Chicago, Knoxville, Miami, Havana, Cuba, Salvador, Bahia and São Paulo, Brazil. The company members have had the opportunity to study in Bahia through Viber Brasil’s cultural exchange program, Dancing at the Source.
Off the stage, Viver Brasil is deeply committed to engaging the wide variety of communities that it serves with its nationally recognized Samba in the Streets (SITS) program. Exploring African Diaspora issues of memory, race, and social justice, SITS connects Civil Rights histories of Salvador, Bahia and the United States. In 2018 and 2020, Viver Brasil toured SITS to the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement creating new roots in Alabama. In a variety of venues — including community centers, museums, neighborhood gatherings, K-12, university settings — the rhythmic movements and joyful drumming derived from Bahian Bloco Afro parading groups create exuberant and valued community interaction. Diverse communities participate in Viver Brasil’s Afro-Brazilian dance, drumming, and song workshops, which includes classes, intercultural dialogues, and celebratory processions. The company is prepared to take these transformative experiences of community building and cultural exchange around the world.
“Viver Brasil was the highlight of a wonderful performance season…This performance had the largest attendance of any performance in the past two years.” Western New Mexico University
Viver Brasil takes audiences on a cultural journey to Salvador, Bahia through our suite of programming. Celebrating Samba, our youth and family program, is a 40-minute interactive performance that presents the royal Orixa dances, riveting capoeira, samba de roda, Bloco Afro and an interactive dance experience for all. Viver Brasil also offers dance and music instruction in Orixa dance movement, Silvestre technique, samba de roda and Bloco Afro, and Orixa rhythms. Viver Brasil is available to mount Viver Brasil choreographic works on high school and university dancers.
Viver Brasil is passionately committed to engaging and transforming new audiences in venues both small and large, in cities and towns throughout the world with its electrifying Afro-Brazilian dance and music where audiences experience the gift of communal joy, innovation and legacy. As Vera Passos promises, “we offer a space to cultivate the ancestral messages in our audiences and each place that we perform.”
“The audience was dazzled and left the theater still moving to the beat. The dancing, the music, the costumes and experience of taking in the culture was a wonderful treat for our Taos audience.” Taos Center for the Arts