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Samba Dance Academy
Home of Source and Motion
Founded and directed by Brazilian choreographer and interdisciplinary artist Vanessa Agle Isaac, the studio is shaped by decades of artistic practice, cultural exchange, and movement research.
Contemporary practice has always existed in dialogue with Samba, Afro-Brazilian roots, Brazilian movement traditions, choreography, and music. Samba remains part of this foundation, carrying a living intelligence of rhythm, grounding, responsiveness, individuality, and relationship.
The work approaches movement as a field of artistic and cultural inquiry, exploring how the body carries memory, place, and lived experience.
Coming soon: Source and Motion, an evolving online space within Samba Dance Academy for movement, culture, embodied knowledge, and artistic inquiry.
Source and Motion is guided by Vanessa Agle Isaac, a Brazilian choreographer and interdisciplinary artist working across dance, performance, and film. Her practice explores how movement reveals relationships between body, environment, and cultural experience.
Developed over more than two decades, her work spans stage, museum, and international contexts, bringing together contemporary choreography and cinematic language grounded in embodied inquiry.
Her research includes Brazilian and Afro-Brazilian movement traditions in Bahia, as well as recent fieldwork in the Amazon. Moving between Brazil and the United States, her practice continues to unfold across choreography, film, and interdisciplinary exploration.
This online studio has long been a home for samba, Brazilian rhythms, and embodied movement. It continues to hold that lineage, while now gently expanding. Rooted in the same care, rhythm, and depth that have always guided this work.
"Vanessa Isaac has a profound gift for creating a sense of home in the dance. Her love of her country and culture is infectious, so much so, that you want it to be your country and culture too. Samba is no easy feat, and Vanessa was incredibly patient with me as I learned the cadence of the samba language. I reconnected to the beauty of my body and what it was capable of. Vanessa teaches, encourages, supports AND challenges you as you discover who you want to be as a dancer.
She is an incredible ambassador for dance and Brazilian culture, but she is also a genuine, kind and loving human being...”
Adriane Butler ~ Dancer
Movement as sustained practice
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