Afro-Brazilian Dance Company Viver Brasil Returns to Sierra Madre Playhouse, Oct. 17 & 18

The celebrated Afro- Brazilian dance company Viver Brasil returns to Sierra Madre Playhouse with two performances of Rezas e Folhas (Prayers and Leaves), a genre-defying ritualistic work with live musical accompaniment fusing tradition and revolution by noted choreographer and company Co-Artistic Director Vera Passos, on Friday, October 17, and Saturday, October 18, 2025, 7:30 pm.

Rooted in the sacred traditions of Candomblé, an Afro-Brazilian religious complex, the contemporary work embraces the power of dance to reimagine a life-affirming future grounded in Black and Indigenous traditions. It uplifts the ancestral knowledge of Orixá, divine nature spirits, and Caboclo practices – centering Afro-Brazilian herbalism as a potent response to ecological and spiritual crises. With bold movement, live music, and ritual storytelling, Rezas e Folhas channels the wisdom of the earth and invites audiences into a space of healing, memory, and collective transformation.

LA Dance Chronicle proclaims, “Rezas e Folhas is not a performance—it’s an offering. A ritual. A deep breath of renewal.”

Passos, originally from Salvador, Bahia, is a pioneering choreographer, teacher, and acclaimed performer whose deep-seated relationship with Afro-Brazilian movement and music sets her apart in the field of contemporary dance. As a Black Bahian woman and master of Orixá and Caboclo dances, Passos carries the sacred rhythms and stories of this tradition forward. Through her choreographic and pedagogic practice, she reifies a central learning passed down by her elders – our bodies are a divine mirror for the natural world around us.

The development of Rezas e Folhas was made possible through generous funding from The LA County Performing Arts Recovery Grant administered by the Center for Cultural Innovation, The New England Foundation for the Arts: National Dance Project, and The National Endowment for the Arts.

Viver Brasil, a Los Angeles-based legacy-bearing institution, was established in 1997 by Co-Founders/Co-Artistic Directors Linda Yudin and Luiz Badaró. In 2022, it welcomed Vera Passos as Co-Artistic Director. Viver Brasil creates culturally rooted and aesthetically bold Afro-Brazilian dance theater with its signature blend of ancestral practices, street styles, and live music, addressing contemporary issues of racial and social inequity towards a radically reimagined future.

For tickets ($12-$35) and information, please call 626.355.4318 or visit www.sierramadreplayhouse.org. Sierra Madre Playhouse is located at 87 West Sierra Madre Boulevard, Sierra Madre, CA 91024.