Viver Brasil Dance Company: Samba in the Streets
Event Schedule
Programming that addresses the African Diaspora and creates community for African Americans.
How it started:
2016 & 2017 Viver Brasil developed Samba in the Streets (SITS) partnering with visionary Ben Caldwell of KAOS Network. During this time, VB conducted the program in Leimert Park and with the gentrification of Leimert Park, the program became a place for African Americans to continue to take ownership of their community, through art forms that are inspired by the repression of Black people in both Bahia and the U.S. Civil Rights Movement.
How it’s growing:
2018 Although the gentrification in Leimert Park makes community building a challenge, Viver Brasil’s turnout for Samba in the Streets has only grown through the years since it began. Samba in the Streets has grown in and out of LA, as the turnout in Leimert Park inspired us to take the program out of state to Alabama. In 2018, through the Engaging Dance Audiences Grant administered by Dance/USA, and with generous funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, we were able to tour this program to Birmingham, Selma, and Lowndes County, Alabama. That trip served 10,000 African American community members and for the first time we bridged the civil rights histories of Brasil and the US.
2019-2022 In 2019, SITS stretched from April through June with 24 classes total. These classes were held for both children and adults respectively and attended by over 300 new community members of 65 unique zip codes with 6 zip codes of states outside of California. That year’s Samba in the Streets program concluded with participants having an opportunity to parade in a Bahian Bloco Afro Procession in conjunction with Leimert Park Art Walk and the Festival of Masks. In 2020, Viver Brasil returned to Alabama and continued online due to the pandemic until 2021. In 2022, this program toured to Rust College, a historically black college and university in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Viver Brasil returned to in person programming and expanded to Council District 9 in partnership with the South Park Recreation Center.
How it’s going:
2023 The program returned to Alabama and expanded to partner with local Birmingham public schools, Alabama State University, Montgomery’s Dance Department, St. Paul United Methodist Church, the Ballard House in the Civil Rights District, Crescent Community Cultural Center, and more. We are proud that this program has toured 4 times to the birthplace of the civil rights movement in Alabama and Mississippi. In Los Angeles, SITS was taught by one of the most sought after percussionists Viviam Caroline from Salvador, Bahia. Caroline conducted Samba Reggae drumming workshops at the World Stage and at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center with a live stream to those in Council District 9. Our Co-Artistic Director, Vera Passos, also from Salvador, Bahia, conducted the Afro-Brazilian dance classes. The attendance was overwhelmingly positive with more than 50 community members attending each of the 12 workshops. This year's program culminated at the Festival of the Ancestors in partnership with LA Commons and at the premier of our new work, “Rezas e Folhas” at Grand Performances.
2024 - Current Viver Brasil extended to City Council District 8. We have been creating a partnership with Destination Crenshaw and the Crenshaw Farmers Market, where we held 2004 Samba in the Streets, and the immense success of this program at Crenshaw Yoga & Dance Studio and the amazing Bloco Afro Street Parade held in 2025. We are looking forward to continued success this year in 2026!
We’d like to extend gratitude to the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs for their generous funds for this project!
