Maestra Isaura Oliveira
OCTOBER 5 - NOVEMBER 1, 2021Maestra Isaura Oliveira was born and raised in Salvador-Bahia, Brazil. A multidisciplinary Artist and a Cultural Educator, Isaura’s expertise is in African Brazilian Cultural Dance. Her practice is dedicated to studying and teaching the African roots of Brazilian Sacred & Popular Dances, Rhythms, Chants, and Performance-Rituals, in addition to studying modern and contemporary dance techniques. Oliveira’s accomplishments as a cultural researcher, producer, artistic director, and educator are not limited to solo performance productions, but also collaborations with many artists, incorporating community members like her dance students and emergent artists. Spirituality and Nature are her medicine, and Ancestors are her guides; thus artistic and educational work is connected with her Ancestrality. Oliveira founded Teatro Brasileiro de Dança in Boston, MA, by creating and performing her first solo woman show in the USA, Ancestrais, sponsored by MIT, Smith College, and Festival Cantar da Costa, Italy. Maestra. She holds a BFA from the School of Dance, Federal University of Bahia, and won numerous awards in Brazil, France, and the U.S. for her research, choreography, projects, and performances. Her works have been documented by distinguished sources like the PBS and BBC TV documentary Dancing #5: New Worlds, New Forms, representing Brazilian dance. Her first full evening one-woman show Malinke’ (1988, Bahia, Brasil) is featured in the book Dancing Bahia by Dr. Yvonne Daniel. Oliveira has taught, lectured, and performed at Smith, Radcliffe-Harvard, Brown, Wesleyan, UMass Boston, Stanford, UC Santa Cruz, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, among others.
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