Ami Molinelli
Composer, Musician and Music Educator
San Francisco, California
“Artistic Innovation & Collaboration”
I first heard about Vanessa Isaac 15 years ago when I was studying for my MFA at the California Institute of the Arts. I was deeply rooted in performing and studying Brazilian music and my instructor, Aaron Serfaty, told me about Vanessa and that to take her dance class was worth a drive to Santa Barbara (2 hours or more from Valencia). He said he could not think of any other dancer in Los Angeles who had the creativity and level of dance skill as her.
Years later I would meet her and perform in tandem with her, with people in our community and always I was impressed by her passion, her hard-working drive and the people that were loyal to her. In Brasil there are “cultural hotspots” called “pontes da cultura” and it was apparent that Vanessa Isaac has been that for her community and her reputation takes her all over California and also abroad. Her strength in my humble opinion is in composition and in dance in general but yet always honoring her Brazilian roots.
When I first started studying music, whether it was when I first moved to Los Angeles or here in San Francisco there was a huge Brazilian community of world class musicians and performers. To be frank, with the high cost of living, it’s not thriving and Vanessa Isaac has been keeping up a tradition, a culture and innovating at the same time her artistic practice.
One of the aspects that has always impressed me is her inspiration for who is in her studio. The diversity of people in age, culture, gender. It should not be so hard to find diverse groups coming together and yet it really is.
The strength of her dance company is in the outlet for innovation in choreography, self expression and learning cultural traditions. The themes are always unique and yet all of this is taught with lifestyle and compassion in mind.
A few years ago, Vanessa and I taught at a performing arts camp together and were able to collaborate for a final culmination. We discussed doing further work together and she had the idea of a dance piece with three “pandeiros” (instrument). We were able to secure funding for the project and then the pandemic struck. Even in this intense time, I was impressed how Vanessa never strayed the course and kept a schedule, clearly explaining to me how she was mapping out the piece and then how she would create costumes. It was challenging to figure out how to spearhead everything from our home and collaborate via zoom and yet I got better at what I do and learned something in the process. At this juncture our individual discipline is what stayed our course and we adapted.
For this community at large right now, there is no one in the Bay Area creating, performing and teaching the way that Vanessa does with Classical, Brazilian and Afro-Brazilian movement vocabulary influenced by modern and contemporary dance. This is why even though I live here, as others who have worked with as well, we have sought her out.
There is a place for learning traditional dance and music, and yet as traditions are taught they continue to evolve and move and this is the essence of her work. This unique voice of innovation, creation is an inspiration and I look forward to when we can work again together.
Ami Molinelli,
Music Is First Founder
Ami Molinelli is a composer, percussionist and music educator specializing in Brazilian and Latin percussion. Ami is the director of Music Is First, an organization empowering early educators and parents through simple actionable music activities that not only reinforce and build music skills, but also target math, literacy, and social emotional skills. Ami is a percussionist and bandleader of the Grupo Falso Baiano. She is also the percussionist and ensemble member of Duo Violão Plus One- Chamber Music America showcase of Historia do Choro album. For more about her work please go to her site at www.amimo.com.
