Review: DanceBrazil Wows Audiences With Afro-Brazilian, Contemporary Dance, and Capoeira

Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts ("The Wallis") presents DanceBrazil (Jelon Vieira, Artistic Director) for three performances only, February 6-7, 2015 in the Bram Goldsmith Theater. The program includes the West Coast premieres of Gueto, choreographed by Vieira to music of Marcos Carvalho, and Búzios, choreographed by Guilherme Durarte to music of Leo Jesus. The program also features Vieira's 2013 Fé do Sertão, also set to music by Carvalho. The company will also conduct master classes in Afro-Brazilian movement (February 5) and Capoeira (February 7).

For over 30 years, New York City-based DanceBrazil has thrilled audiences across the United States and throughout the world with its dazzling artistry, which is inspired by the cultural tapestry of Brazil. Whether in the streets or on stage in the most prestigious theaters, the dancers of DanceBrazil never fail to enthrall audiences with the company's unique fusion of Afro-Brazilian movement, contemporary dance and Capoeira, the traditional dance form that had its origins in Africa and evolved in colonial Brazil.

Artistic Director Jelon Vieira - one of the staunchest proponents of Capoeira, a Brazilian martial art that combines elements of dance, acrobatics and music - founded DanceBrazil in 1977. At the Wallis, the group is premiering two pieces new to West Coast audiences: Gueto ("Ghetto") by composer Marcus Calvalho. a testimony to the abiding vitality and humanity that sustain the people living in the many marginalized, disenfranchised communities in Brazil and around the world, and Búzio by composer Leo Jesus, which explores the role that "jogo de búzios," an enigmatic and mystical game of divination, plays in everyday life in Brazil.

All ten dancers (8 men and 2 women) perform their highly aerial acrobatic movements while barefoot, with effortless switching between smaller dance groups emerging from the wings. Or even more spectacularly, the dancers seemed to materialize out of thin air from the upstage darkness during Gueto. The effect was noting short of breathtaking.

The group opened the program with its 2013 dance Fé do Sertão by composer Marcus Calvalho. Sertão, a largely rural area of Northeastern Brazil, is known for its extremely arid climate and brief growing season, which has also helped foster its strong faith and the close-knit communities that support one another through many lean months of the year. Vieira's piece honors that community with a dance that fetes the esteemed Festival of São João, which celebrates the end of the rainy season and the annual corn harvest. The piece begins with dancers in a prayer circle, taking turns praising the forces of nature - a ceremony which eventually leads to a great downpour. And while no water ever hit the stage, the exuberance of the dancers certainly allowed you to believe in the realism of the rainfall.

With only three performances on February 6 and 7 in the Bram Goldsmith Theater at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, the production will be finished by the time you read this review. I encourage you to follow DanceBrazil on Facebook and Twitter so you don't miss them the next time the group graces the stage in Los Angeles.

Photos by Andrea Mohin