VANESSA ISAAC DANCE COMPANY PRESENTS
“PASSAGENS”
Performed in Monaco at F(ê)aites de La Danse , July 8, 2023
F(ê)aites de La Danse, Produced by the Renowned Les Ballets de Monte Carlo
Photo by Fritz Olenberger. Dancers on this Photo: Leida Tolentino, Vanessa Agle Isaac and Franchesca Marisol Cabrera
Passagens
With Choreography by Vanessa Isaac with live music by Marcus Santos.
Passagens is a piece contemplating the past, present and future. Passagens is about roots and innovation, ancestry and vision. In Portuguese a “passagem” means a hall or a bridge. A “corredor” that takes you from ‘‘point A to point B” and always connected in both directions. We are our future (and present) as well as our past: culturally, artistically, psychologically and spiritually.
Immense Gratitude: The creation of “Passagens” is made possible by the generosity of an anonymous donor. “Passagens” is also made possible in part by a Rent Subsidy Grant from American Dance and Music, Inc.
The Vanessa Isaac Company’s Stage Program
Vanessa Isaac Dance Company Performance:
Passagens, Choreography by Vanessa Isaac with live music by Marcus Santos and musicians. In addition to premiering Passagens the company will present Vem Dançar, a Contemporary Piece.
An Excerpt Video of “Passagens” in Monaco
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F(ê)aites de La Danse & Les Ballets de Monte Carlo.
F(ê)aites de La Danse was created and is produced by Les Ballets de Monte Carlo.
Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo
In 1985, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo Company was born thanks to the wish of H.R.H. the Princess of Hanover. The new company was directed by Ghislaine Thesmar and Pierre Lacotte, then by Jean-Yves Esquerre.
With his experience as a dancer with Rosella Hightower and John Neumeier, and as choreographer-director of the Centre Chorégraphique National de Tours, Artistic Director and Choreographer Jean-Christophe Maillot has expanded the work of the company. He created more than 40 ballets for her, including several which enter the repertoire of large international companies. Furthermore, Jean-Christophe Maillot also enriches the company’s repertoire by inviting the major choreographers of our time but also enabling emerging choreographers to work with this exceptional structure, which are the 50 dancers of the Ballets de Monte-Carlo. Among these guest choreographers are Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Shen Wei, Alonzo King, Emio Greco, Chris Haring, Marco Goecke, Lucinda Childs, William Forsythe, Jiri Kylian, Karole Armitage, Maurice Béjart and even Marie Chouinard.
In 2000, choreographer-director Christophe Maillot created the Monaco Dance Forum, international showcase that presents an eclectic fusion of performances, exhibitions, workshops and conferences. The company regularly participates in this festival, as does the Princess Grace Academy. The Ballets de Monte-Carlo currently concentrate on the excellence of an international company, the assets of a diverse festival and the potential for a school of a high level. Creation, training and production are currently united in Monaco to serve the art of choreography in a way that is unprecedented in the world of dance.
Passagens Artists & Cast
Vanessa Agle Isaac
Director, Choreographer, Dancer
Vanessa Agle Isaac is a performer, choreographer, dance educator, producer and writer. She is the artistic director and choreographer for the Vanessa Isaac Dance Company. Isaac’s unique language of movement combines the rich cultural traditions of her native Brazil with the boldness and aesthetic pluralism of contemporary dance. Her innovative choreography embraces both eclecticism and ancestral bonds while celebrating diversity, connection, and environmental healing and health.
In 2021 Vanessa choreographed and performed the dance films “Pandu-cada” and “Alfazema” , both works commissioned by composer Ami Molinelli for her San Francisco Arts Commission Individual Grant Raizes do Choro and Samba project. Other recent projects include Feita de Luz, a dance film directed and choreographed by Isaac that premiered online in 2020. The project is dedicated to “the Baianas,” women of African descent who embody Afro-Brazilian culture in the Brazilian state of Bahia. A short clip of this dance work was featured in Before It Kills Us All, a film and video installation produced and directed by Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Margaret Lazarus.
Internationally, Isaac has served as a guest teacher for Les Ballets de Monte Carlo’s “Fete de La Danse” in Monaco, the Ecole de Danze Kim Kan and Centre Momboye in Paris, and the Mounier Center in Brussels, International Samba Congress in Los Angeles and California Brasil Camp. She has also served as a guest lecturer at UC Los Angeles.
Shes has taught and performed extensively globally for the last 20 years. Vanessa has been nominated for the Brazilian International Press Award in the Dance category
Marcus Santos, Music Director
A contemporary percussionist and educator, Marcus, is a native of Bahia, Brazil. He commits his life to the study, teaching and performance of his hometown's Afro-Brazilian music and heritage. Marcus performed with several world renown artists such as the Gypsy Kings (Spain), Daniela Mercury (Brazil) and the Brand New Heavies (England). He has also performed for the president of Brazil, TEDx and with the “One World Band” produced by MTV. Marcus also played at the Sony Pictures Oscar nominated movie ‘Rachel's getting Married’ with Anne Hathaway. He has been honored with the 2013 KOSA Recognition award, Outstanding Arts Performer Award by the Brazilian Immigrant Center (2008) as well as Outstanding Percussionist Award by Berklee College of Music in 2004.
Marcus has lead workshops on Afro-Brazilian percussion and music for Social Change in festivals, universities and conventions around the world such as Fiesta Del Tambor (Cuba), Carnegie Hall (NYC), PASIC (USA) and Harvard University. He is currently the artist director of the Grooversity global drumming network project that includes twenty four drumming groups from the US, Canada, Germany, Mexico and France.
Dancers
Clarissa Anderson, Luana Bandeira, Romina Cabello, Lucile Delliere, Lea Firouzi, Vanessa Agle Isaac, Valentine Kirszbaum, Katia Nouichi, Audrey Jeannnot
Valentine Kirszbaum
Valentine Kirszbaum danced at the Center de Développement Chorégraphique La Termitière and joined the Ballet Soleil d’Afrique.
Valentine Kirszbaum started African dance and percussion at the age of 3. Her dance has been enriched by jazz, classical, contemporary, Afro-Contemporary.
Valentine has danced in many films and video creations by artists from various backgrounds. She travels regularly to Senegal and Guinea where she trains in traditional and contemporary West African dances.
Lea Firouzi
Léa Firouzi is a dancer, singer and a musician.
She started ballet at 5, and formed herself as a performing artist at the Institut de Formation Professionnelle Rick Odums in Paris. She learned from different artists and styles, including the afro-jazz of Geraldine Armstrong.
She continues her dance education in dance in Rio de Janeiro and Paris with master dance teachers.
Lucile Dellière
Lucile Dellière started her formation in dancing in Paris at the centre de danse du Marais studying various styles, such as Contemporary Dance (Graham) with Maggie Boogaart, and African dance with the great Anna Camara in West African dances, specifically Guinée Bissau.
She has worked and studied with many artists in Brazil and in Paris. In Rio de Janeiro she is currently an official passista of schools Vila Isabel and Império da Tijuca. She received the “Premio Machine” a prize for best passista of Carnaval de Intendente Magalhães for her parade with school Raça Rubro Negra in Carnaval 2022.
Lucile has created the dance section for Sambatuc Samba School in Paris.
Clarissa Anderson
Clarissa Anderson, Ph.D. was trained in ballet, jazz, and modern disciplines and attended intensive programs at Ballet West, Ballet New England, American Dance Festival, Jump Rhythm Jazz Project, and Alvin Ailey American Theatre.
For the last twenty years, she has focused on studying and performing dance forms of the African Diaspora: Senegalese and Congolese, Afro-Brazilian, Afro-Haitian and Afro-Caribbean, and Cuban Salsa.
Clarissa joined Hip Brazil Dance Company directed by Vanessa Isaac in 2002, and in 2005, she participated in a summer workshop in Salvador, Bahia with Rosangela Silvestre and Vera Passos. She continues to study with Vanessa Isaac and take workshops in Silvestre Technique whenever possible.
She has also been intensively studying Flamenco since 2003 under the tutelage of luminaries in both the U.S. and Spain.
Luana Bandeira
Luana Bandeira is a Brazilian dancer from Rio de Janeiro with extensive background in Afro Brazilian Roots and Capoeira.
For 6 years Luana was the Rainha da Bateria for Estácio de Sá Samba School. Luana was awarded “Best Queen Jorge Laford” in 2014, Prêmio Personalidade in 2015, Rainha dos Sambistas do Rio de Janeiro, Corte 2016 among other awards. She has traveled internationally teaching together with her brother Marcos Bandeira she founded the social project titled “Origens” in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Romina Cabello
Romina is a Chilenean born dancer. She started dancing in Chile with the Mestizo Afro Latin dance company and trained several years with with Sul da Bahia, Capoeira's group.
She studied traditional African dances from Guinea Conakry with the Ballet Merveilles de Guinée, in the Ivory Coast with Oumar Ouattara and the the Cie. Kasou-Tri, in Cameroon with the Ballet Universitaire de Yaoundé and in Congo Brazzaville with the master Chrysogone Diangouaya. In Brazil, Salvador Bahia, she was formed as a professional dancer at the FUNCEB Dance School studying with various master teachers including Rosangela Silvestre and the late Mestre King, among others.
In France, she's and she has been part of various dance groups such as the Ballet de la Diaspora Camerounais, Akwaba, Awefa, Cie Pason, Nouvelle Génération, les Danseuses d’Or, among others.
Katia Nouichi
Belgium born Katia Nouichi started training in Brazilian Dance Technique in 2017 at the Samba Shine school directed by Elise Batsele in Brussels. The School offered the opportunity for her to attend various workshops held by international master teachers and dancers a period during which she met and took workshops with guest teacher Vanessa Isaac.
In 2022 Katia represented Samba at the Belgian TV competition "The Dancer" in early 2023. In 2023 Katia performed in Rio de Janeiro with Samba School Lins Imperial in Rio de Janeiro and attended the Samba International Congress in Brazil.
Katia says: “With every step I take I continue to train and learn, to fall in love with samba for its dignity, its strength, its powerful joy and the ancestors' culture to which it pays tribute.”
Audrey Jeannnot
Audrey is a French dancer and and started her training studying Afr0-American dance in Paris.
Since 2010 with Audrey performs with "Aquarela de Paris" in various European festivals in Paris, Switzerland (Geneva),
Germany (Coburg) and Africans (Gabon), USA (Florida).