Rezas e Folhas (Prayers & Leaves)
Viver Brasil commissioned choreographer and newest Co-Artistic Director, Vera Passos, to create “Rezas e Folhas” (“Prayers & Leaves”). “Rezas e Folhas” was born out of Vera Passos’s unique creative approach, which masterfully blends traditional Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous dances and rhythms with experimental choreography, and poignant storytelling.
Hailing from Salvador, Bahia, Passos is a pioneering choreographer, teacher, and acclaimed performer whose deep-seated relationship with Afro-Brazilian movement and music sets her apart in the field of contemporary dance. As a Black Bahian woman and master of Orixá and Caboclo dances, Passos carries the sacred rhythms and stories of this tradition in her blood. Through her choreographic and pedagogic practice, Passos reifies a central learning passed down by her elders–our bodies are divine mirroring for the natural world around us.
“My culture is my inspiration. When I dance, my feet speak with the earth… bringing ancestral messages of joy, resistance, and transformation.” -Vera Passos
“Rezas e Folhas” is about the meeting place of tradition and revolution. Passos works closely with the spiritual traditions of Candomblé, an Afro-Brazilian religious complex. She translates the dances and rhythms of Orixá Ossain (the owner of the sacred leaves), Orixá Obaluaiyê (the bearer of epidemic diseases), and the dances of the Caboclos (Indigenous Brazilian spirits) into her contemporary gestural language. Egbomi Cici, elder of the Candomblé tradition and long-time Cultural Consultant from Salvador, has been a vital force in the incarnation of these dances.
In particular, the power of the leaves in the Candomblé complex is an integral asset to bringing cure to the community. The elders of the Candomblé tell us that without the leaves, there can be no energetic transmission of healing. This healing is revolutionary, it is the healing of the earth in opposition to a ailing climate, a maltreated land.
Rezas e Folhas seeks to uplift our sacred connection to earth and the Black and Indigenous knowledge from the Caboclo and Orixá practices that preserve this wisdom. This is key to our collective reimagining of alternate life-affirming futures which have power to heal a sick planet.
The initial work in progress premiered at Grand Performances on July 8th 2023, for the show program click here.
The development of this work is made possible through generous funding from The LA County Performing Arts Recovery Grant administered by the Center for Cultural Innovation, The New England Foundation for the Arts: National Dance Project, and The National Endowment for the Arts.
We are excited to announce Viver Brasil has been granted the National Dance Project for our newest work choreographed by Co-Artistic Director, Vera Passos!!
This new work, Rezas e Folhas (Prayers & Leaves), was selected out of 167 eligible preliminary applications for the National Dance Project Production & Touring Grant. They each were assessed and evaluated by 12 Advisors using program criteria to guide their collective decision-making and future selection of 40 new dance projects as NDP Finalists.
Rezas e Folhas seeks to uplift our sacred connection to earth — and the Black and Indigenous knowledge systems that preserve this wisdom — as key to our collective reimagining of alternate life-affirming futures. The National Dance project said it best, “These projects push others to be imaginative, conjure process and ritual, and intentionally promote multi generational preservation through collaboration.”
NEFA's National Dance Project is generously supported with lead funding from the Doris Duke Foundation and the Mellon Foundation, with funding for special initiatives from the Boston Foundation, and the Aliad Fund at the Boston Foundation.