Performance Opportunity!! La Mezcla Artistic Director and choreographer Vanessa Sanchez will be leading a Performance Workshop for ODC’s Spring Performance! We will create a percussive performance piece rooted in Tap Dance, with elements of traditional Son Jarocho foot work, centering Afro-Cuban rhythms as both the score and inspiration for original tap choreography. Geared towards Advanced Beginner tap dancers and up, Rehearsals begin in April!
Friday November 21, 11am-12:30pm at Brava Theater. With LIVE drumming accompaniment!
Bernard Brown is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist, choreographer, educator, curator and artist-citizen working at the crossroads of Blackness, Queerness, and belonging. As artistic director of Bernard Brown/bbmoves, he choreographs for stage, specific sites, film, and opera which has been presented across Africa, Asia, North America, and Europe, including The Getty, On The Boards, Dance Camera West, Dance Camera Istanbul, American Dance Festival’s ADF Movies by Movers, the Oscar-qualifying African Diaspora Cinema Festival, Seoul International Dance Festival, Royce Hall and US State sponsored tour to Centre de Developpment Choregraphique La Termitierre, Burkina Faso, West Africa. His concert dance performance credits include Lula Washington Dance Theatre, David Rousseve/REALITY, Doug Elkins Dance Company, Jazz Antiqua Dance and Music Ensemble, and founding member of TU Dance. Other stage credits include “Letter to a Man” with Mikhail Baryshnikov, “Treemonisha” (choreographer and performer), Los Angeles Opera’s “Aida,” titular role in Nike’s “12 Miles North: The Nick Gabaldon Story,” and the Kennedy Center’s Masters of African American Choreography, as répétiteur and performer. Commissions and residencies include institutions such as The Music Center, Dance Italia, The Wende Museum, the City of Los Angeles, danceBox (Kobe, Japan), South Chicago Dance Theatre, Dance Mission Theater, Northwestern University, Johns Hopkins University, UCLA, among others. A first-generation college graduate, he is an Assistant Professor of Dance at UC San Diego, a Certified Katherine Dunham Technique Instructor, Cultural Trailblazer for the City of Los Angeles, and a California Arts Council Established Artist Fellow. The Los Angeles Times has called him “…the incomparable Bernard Brown…”
Friday November 7, 10-11:30am at Brava Theater!
Namita Kapoor is an interdisciplinary rhythm dancer, choreographer, and visual artist whose work spans Tap, Jazz, Body Percussion, and Indian dance. She has performed nationally and internationally—from Broadway and Lincoln Center to SFJazz and the Ford Amphitheater—with credits across India, Brazil, Turkey, Italy, Iceland, and Japan. Her collaborations include global percussive groups like Barbatuques (Brazil), Leela Petronio (France), Gamelan Sekar Jaya (Bali), and KeKeÇa (Turkey), as well as performances in film and television from Bollywood to Hollywood. Kapoor has worked with legends including Gregory Hines, Jerome Robbins, Jimmy Slyde, and Farah Khan, and recently served as Associate Choreographer for Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding with Broadway choreographer Lorin Latarro. She currently directs the Tap program at the California Academy of Performing Arts, and is also a multimedia artist and Creative Director for Priya Living. Her latest work focuses on designing boutique community living spaces in India that embody vibrancy and reflect her lifelong commitment to the integration of art, music, and dance.
Friday, September 26 at 12-1:30pm. In-person at Brava Theater!
Bring your folkloric skirt and join us for a workshop with Portsha Jefferson!
We are excited to continue bringing accessible and FREE/donation-based workshops at Brava with Master Artists including: Portsha Jefferson, Namita Kapoor, Bernard Brown, and Claudio Naranjos Vega! We hope to see you in class!