Educational Work

As an educator and artist, Vanessa Agle Isaac’s commitment is to the highest Educational Work

The educational work of Vanessa Isaac Dance Company is grounded in rigorous artistic practice and cultural inquiry. Through classes, workshops, and residencies, the company offers movement-based learning experiences that engage dancers and non-dancers across levels and backgrounds.

Educational programs emphasize embodied practice, musicality, rhythm, and body–mind awareness, drawing from Brazilian and Afro-Brazilian dance traditions alongside contemporary movement practices. These offerings provide participants with both technical training and cultural context, supporting breadth of movement experience and artistic development.

In 2025, Vanessa continued teaching and cultivating community, valuing time in the studio alongside the educational extension of her work online.

Selected classes taught in 2025:

Contemporary Movement Explorations
A practice focused on developing awareness, fluidity, and expression through contemporary movement, encouraging exploration of the body’s relationship to space, rhythm, and sensation.

Malandro Roots
An exploration of rhythm, character, and subtle expression rooted in the malandro tradition, where movement emerges through musicality, play, and embodied presence.

Dance of the Blocos Afros of Salvador
A class inspired by the movement, rhythm, and cultural expression of the Blocos Afros of Salvador, Bahia, exploring grounded movement, musicality, and Afro-Brazilian traditions.

Spring and Fall Movement Explorations
Seasonal movement sessions exploring the body through rhythm, awareness, and expressive practice, developed in both in-studio and online formats.

Teaching Approach

Educational work integrates movement exploration with structured techniques drawn from Contemporary Brazilian dance, Afro-Brazilian Orixás and elemental movement practices, Samba-Reggae, Afro-Blocos, and Samba-no-pé. These forms are approached as interconnected practices, offering dancers an understanding of their shared African roots while situating them within contemporary dance expression.

Through this integrated approach, participants explore rhythm, expression, coordination, and symbolic movement, developing tools that can be applied across performance, improvisation, and choreographic practice.

Institutions & Programs

Vanessa Agle Isaac has been invited as a guest teacher and educator at a range of international institutions and programs, including:

  • Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, Monaco

  • Centre Momboye, Paris

  • University of California, Los Angeles

  • University of California, Santa Barbara

  • Krishnamurti Foundation America – Oak Grove School

  • Gustafson Dance School (State Street Ballet Academy)

  • Cazadero Performing Arts Camp

  • International Samba Congress, Los Angeles

  • Capoeira Brasil Women’s Encounter, Los Angeles

  • California Brasil Camp

  • Mounier Center, Brussels

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