Samba Fogo Presents: Fogo Na Cabeça (Fire In The Head)

Salt Lake City, Utah - March 15, 2011 - Nationally touring Music and Dance Company, Samba Fogo is proud to present Fogo Na Cabeça (Fire In The Head), in the Jeanné Wagner Theatre at the Rose Wagner Center for Performing Arts on March 18 and 19 at 7:30pm. Samba Fogo will present works from their 2007-2010 repertory, as well as premiering several new works for their 2011-2012 season.

This live music and dance concert will feature Brazilian and Afro-Brazilian music and dance, the Afro-Brazilian martial art of Capoeira, innovative contemporary dance and fire dance.

Samba Fogo Artistic Director Lorin Hansen choreographed many of the works to be presented, in collaboration with with Musical Director Mason Aeschbacher and the talented cast of more than 20 professional modern dancers, martial artists, fire artists and musicians. Hansen has a BFA in Modern Dance from the University of Utah and has been training in Brazilian and Afro-Brazilian dance and percussion for over nine years. The choreographic works to be presented in this March showcase draw on rich Afro-Brazilian traditions and mythology, and highlight this unique company’s technical abilities and explosive physicality.

The concert will also feature choreographic works by Rosangela Silvestre, world-renowned instructor, choreographer, and performer from Salvador Bahia, Brazil, who trained in the Martha Graham Technique and is now developing her own technique known as the Silvestre Technique, which combines Afro-Brazilian dance and spiritual concepts with contemporary modern dance. Silvestre draws on her cultural roots and dance training in Brazil along with her modern dance training in Graham and Horton technique to evoke a visceral, kinesthetic connection with the audience through her choreography.

Mestrando Mauro “Jamaika” Romualdo and Salt Lake Capoeira will be guests performing with Samba Fogo in Fogo Na Cabeça, adding the exciting element of Capoeira (an Afro-Brazilian martial art / dance form), as well as acrobatics, traditional song and percussion, and the traditional Afro-Brazilian dance-game of Maculele.

In conjunction with Fogo Na Cabeça, Samba Fogo performers and directors will teach a one-day cultural arts workshop in the Mezzanine Studio of Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, Saturday, March 19, Noon - 3:00pm. Fogo Na Cabeça ticketholders will receive a 50% discount on the cultural arts workshop facilitated by Samba Fogo. This will be a three-part workshop, giving community members the chance to learn Afro-Brazilian drumming, dance, and martial art from professional company members and instructors. The workshop is open to all community members of all ages and levels, and instruments are provided for the drum portion of the workshop. Workshop is $20 for general public, $10 for Fogo Na Cabeça Ticketholders. (Must present ticket stub at time of workshop registration). www.nowplayingutah.com or www.sambafogo.com for more information on the workshop.

There will be an all-ages reception, sponsored by a local restaurant, in the Rose Wagner lobby following the concert. Several of the Fogo Na Cabeça performers will be at the reception to sign autographs and take pictures with the kids and their families. The kids will also have an opportunity to touch the drums played in the concert and to sign up for Samba Fogo’s new youth program at discounted pricing (the youth program begins in April). Information on Samba Fogo’s ongoing adult classes will also be available.

Samba Fogo is a project of Shangò Music and Dance, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that focuses on broadening accessibility to the arts, in particular cultural arts. This presentation of Fogo Na Cabeça and corresponding cultural arts workshop is supported by the Utah Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The shows will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Jeannè Wagner Theatre in the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center on March 18th and 19th 2011. Visit www.nowplayingutah.com or www.sambafogo.com for more information. Tickets to Fogo Na Cabeça (Fire In The Head) are $20 for general admission and $15 for students plus applicable fees, and are available online at www.arttix.org, at all ArtTix Ticket Office locations, or by calling 801-355-ARTS or 888-451-ARTS.

This event is recommended for ages 8+.

Contact Information

Lorin Hansen

Artistic Director

Samba Fogo

Contact via E-mail