
Jelon Vieira is a Brazilian choreographer and teacher who, in 2000, achieved recognition by New York City's Brazilian Cultural Center as a pioneer in presenting to American audiences the
Afro-Brazilian
Afro-Brazilians (; ), also known as Black Brazilians (), are Brazilians of total or predominantly Sub-Saharan African ancestry. Most multiracial Brazilians also have a range of degree of African ancestry. Brazilians whose African features are mo ...
art and dance form,
Capoeira
Capoeira () is an Afro-Brazilian martial art and game that includes elements of dance, acrobatics, capoeira music, music, and spirituality.
It likely originated from enslaved Mbundu people, of the Kingdom of Ndongo, in present-day Angola. The ...
.
In 1975, Vieira and fellow choreographer/performer
Loremil Machado became the first capoeira mestres to live and teach in the United States. Vieira states that their first jobs in New York were doing capoeira demonstrations in Bronx public schools and that he spent the summer of 1975 doing weekly demonstrations in
Central Park
Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the List of parks in New York City, sixth-largest park in the ...
. His early supporters included choreographer
Alvin Ailey
Alvin Ailey Jr. (January 5, 1931 – December 1, 1989) was an American dancer, director, choreographer, and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT). He created AAADT and its affiliated Alvin Ailey American Dance Cent ...
, off-Broadway theater pioneer
Ellen Stewart
Ellen Stewart (November 7, 1919 – January 13, 2011) was an American theatre director and Theatrical producer, producer and the founder of La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club. During the 1950s, she worked as a fashion designer for Saks Fifth A ...
, and Brooklyn schoolteacher and martial artist Robert Cooper. In the 1970s, Vieira and Machado taught and performed in multiple locations across New York City, with notable venues including the Clark Center for the Performing Arts and "for four or five years," a weekly performance set to jazz music at the Cachaça nightclub on East 62nd Street.
For over a quarter century, as the founder and artistic director of The Capoeira Foundation, Vieira has guided the dance company,
DanceBrazil through critically acclaimed engagements across the United States, including performances at
Spoleto Festival USA
Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina, is one of America's major performing arts festivals. It was founded in 1977 by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Gian Carlo Menotti, who sought to establish a counterpart to the Festival dei Due ...
, the
Kennedy Center
The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, commonly known as the Kennedy Center, is the national cultural center of the United States, located on the eastern bank of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. Opened on September 8, ...
and
Lincoln Center
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5  ...
. The company has also toured in Europe, Asia and Brazil and has been featured on the
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
documentary series, ''
EGG, the Arts Show
''EGG, the arts show'' is an American nonfiction television program that aired on PBS from January 13, 2000 to April 8, 2005. ''EGG'' documented both the famous and the unusual aspects and projects of classical and modern arts; its narrator was ...
'' and ''
Alive from Off-Center''.
Vieira has worked with numerous major cultural institutions, including NYC's Caribbean Cultural Center and
San Antonio
San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...
's Carver Community Cultural Center. In 1999,
City Lore
City Lore: the New York Center for Urban Culture was founded in 1986 and was the first organization in the United States devoted expressly to the "documentation, preservation, and presentation of urban folk culture." Their mission is to produce pr ...
, a New York City community organization, inducted him into its Hall of Fame for lifetime contribution. In addition to his solo performances and works for DanceBrazil, his choreographic credits include the films ''
Brenda Starr
Brenda is a feminine given name in the English language.
Origin
The overall accepted origin for the female name Brenda is the Old Nordic male name ''Brandr'' meaning both ''torch'' and ''sword'': evidently the male name Brandr took root in areas ...
'', ''Rooftops'', and ''
Boomerang
A boomerang () is a thrown tool typically constructed with airfoil sections and designed to spin about an axis perpendicular to the direction of its flight, designed to return to the thrower. The origin of the word is from Australian Aborigin ...
''.
For ''Times Square 2000'', the globally televised, multinational 24-hour dance marathon in New York City, Vieira was chosen to create the only Brazilian performance. He has been a guest master teacher at
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
,
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1833, it is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational lib ...
,
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
,
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
,
Stanford University
Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
and other institutions.
In 2000, he was the
Bacardi
Bacardi Limited ( , , ) is the largest privately held, family-owned spirits company in the world. Originally known for its Bacardí brand of white rum, it now has a portfolio of more than 200 brands and labels. Founded in Cuba in 1862 by Facund ...
Distinguished Visiting Eminent Scholar at the
University of Florida
The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...
in
Gainesville. He has taught Capoeira to legendary footballer
Pelé
Edson Arantes do Nascimento (; 23 October 1940 – 29 December 2022), better known by his nickname Pelé (), was a Brazilian professional Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward. Widely reg ...
and American movie stars
Wesley Snipes
Wesley Trent Snipes (born July 31, 1962) is an American actor and martial artist. In a film career spanning more than thirty years, Snipes has appeared in a variety of genres, such as numerous thrillers, dramatic feature films, and comedies, th ...
and
Eddie Murphy
Edward Regan Murphy (born April 3, 1961) is an American actor, comedian, and singer. He had his breakthrough as a standup comic before gaining stardom for his film roles; he is widely recognized as one of the greatest comedians of all time. H ...
. Snipes, himself a top martial arts practitioner, has described Vieira as one of "the masters of the martial arts of the 20th century".
He is a recipient of a 2008
National Heritage Fellowship
The National Heritage Fellowship is a lifetime honor presented to master folk and traditional artists by the National Endowment for the Arts. Similar to Japan's Living National Treasure award, the Fellowship is the United States government's h ...
awarded by the
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...
, which is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.
Upon returning to Brazil, in his home community of Boca do Rio, a
bairro
A ''bairro'' () is a Portuguese language, Portuguese word for a Quarter (urban subdivision), quarter or a neighborhood or, sometimes, a district which is within a city or town. It is commonly used in Portugal, Brazil, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, ...
of the nation's third-largest city,
Salvador
Salvador, meaning "salvation" (or "saviour") in Catalan, Spanish, and Portuguese may refer to:
* Salvador (name)
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
*Salvador (band), a Christian band that plays both English and Spanish music
** ''Salvador'' ( ...
, Vieira continues to teach children and young adults the art of Capoeira to build self-esteem, instill self-discipline and raise social consciousness while at the same time becoming a vital part of their own community. In 2007, after having devoted many years to ''Grupo Capoeira Brasil'', he founded ''Grupo Capoeira
Luanda
Luanda ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Angola, largest city of Angola. It is Angola's primary port, and its major industrial, cultural and urban centre. Located on Angola's northern Atlantic coast, Luanda is Ang ...
''.
References
External links
*
* Jelon Vieira o
The EggDanceBrazil websiteCapoeira of Brazil short filmSpeed of Thought: Capoeira television feature
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vieira, Jelon
Brazilian artists
Brazilian folklorists
Brazilian choreographers
Brazilian musicologists
Place of birth missing (living people)
Year of birth missing (living people)
Brazilian emigrants to the United States
Capoeira mestres
Living people
National Heritage Fellowship winners
20th-century Brazilian musicians
21st-century Brazilian musicians