Book Samba Dancers & Cultural Performances

Escola de Samba Chicago performs full Afro-Brazilian cultural productions—not just samba, but capoeira, maracatu, and the other traditions in our repertoire—staged as a complete show with a company of dancers and a live drumming group, for weddings, corporate galas, cultural festivals, and milestone celebrations across Chicago. Every engagement is built around your event, not a walk-around act or a couple of dancers working the room. If you’re planning a full production and want that scale of color, energy, and craft on your stage, we’d love to hear about it.

The Elements We Perform

Capoeira

Capoeira (cap-o-ay-ra) is a unique, interdisciplinary Brazilian art form combining acrobatics, dance, martial arts and passionate Afro-Brazilian music. The performance will contain capoeira solos and duplas (pairs) done within and capoeira roda (ring) which will delight audiences with their dazzling movements

Maracatu

Maracatu is a parade style performance with a drumming group and a coterie of dancers and stock characters including the king and queen. Dancers and stock characters dress and behave to imitate the Portuguese royal court of the Baroque period. The performance also enacts pre-colonial African traditions, like parading the calunga, a doll representing tribal deities and Orixas – traditional Afro-Brazilian goddesses. Traditionally seen during Carnaval in Pernambuco, northeast Brazil, it’s one of the most colorful and elaborate performances.

Samba

Samba (sahm-bah) is one of the most popular and well-known dances from Brazil. The Samba music rhythm has been danced in Brazil since its inception in the late 19th century. Featuring a highly contagious rhythm, samba is usually seen during Carnaval and Mardi Gras celebrations around the world, featuring dancers wearing state-of-the-art costumes, decorated with feathers and rhinestones.

Dança dos Orixás

Traditional folkloric dance of deities from a syncretic religion – candomble, originated among enslaved Africans in Brazil. Orixas are synthesized with catholic saints, but also believed to be patrons of different forces of nature and have their own characteristics as well as dance and music styles. Axé Chicago’s Dança dos Orixas features two most expressive dances of Oxum and Iansã as a tribute to the folkloric roots of Afro-Brazilian culture.

Coco De Roda

Coco De Roda (Cocoo-dee-hoda) is a typical dance from the coastal regions of northeastern Brazil. Coco music has a strong African and Native Brazilian Indian influence and is performed with a series of percussion instruments. Coco rhythm is based on the sounds of breaking coconuts, and later evolved as it’s own music style. The choreography of the dance is based on joyous stomping and spins. The performers wear colorful skirts and beach hats.

Maculelê

Maculelê (mah-coo-leh-leh) is an Afro-Brazilian dance created as a game by African slaves on the sugarcane plantations in northeastern Brazil. The slaves would play maculelê with the machetes used to cut sugarcane to vent their anger and frustration. Later, it evolved to a form of expressive dance with athletic moves, where performers strike wooden sticks and/or machetes to the drumbeat.

PERFORMANCES

Book Escola de Samba Chicago for Your Next Signature Event