Meet Our Instructors

Tainah Damasceno

Tainah Damasceno began dancing at the age of 3 with her mother, BrasArte founder Conceicao Damasceno. From age of 6 to 14 she studied classical ballet including 5 years at the San Francisco School. Reconnecting with her roots she began studying Brazilian folkloric and contemporary dances under various master teachers.

In addition to her role as artistic director of BrasArte, Tainah teaches samba no pe, samba afro and children’s Brazilian dance.

In her 10 years of teaching Tainah’s goal has been to offer an inclusive, safe space for expression, and to help dancers to immerse themselves into the joy and force that permeates Brazilian culture.

Naby Bangoura

Naby Bangoura learned traditional West African dance during village ceremonies and celebrations in his native Guinee. At age fifteen Naby started dancing professionally with Les Merveilles de Guinee. In 1998, Les Merveilles brought him to perform in the USA.

Known for his energetic and fluid dance style and soaring spirit, Naby has been performing and teaching high energy West African dance, Guinee style, at studios, schools and festivals around the world. Naby lives in Berkeley and has been teaching at BrasArte for over 20 years.

Nadia

Nadia began training as a gymnast at the young age of 5, which gave her the confidence to try many sports and pursue dance. She has explored jazz, tap, and hip hop, but she found her calling in Salvador Bahia Brazil in 2008 when she tried Capoeira, Afro-Brazilian dance and Samba for the first time.

She has been training capoeira for over 9 year has been pursuing her passion for Samba since 2012. In 2017 she competed at the USA national Samba King and Queen competition where she came in 3rd place winning the title of Diva Do Samba USA 2017/2018.

She had the honor of Parading in Brazil’s Carnaval in 2018 and looks forward to returning every year that she can!

Samara

Samara was born and raised in Brazil and she has a big passion for strength training as a form of therapy. She has worked with a variety of women all over the Bay Area improving weight loss, muscle gain, and postpartum recovery.

Elisita

A native of the Bay Area, Elisita grew up in the golden era of hip-hop. She began her love affair with Brazilian dance under the tutelage of Conceicao Damasceno, founder of BrasArte. Later she travelled to Brazil to study the dance and folkloric culture of the state of Bahia.

Elisita has danced, taught and performed with BrasArte for over 20 years. She has paraded and performed at numerous San Francisco Carnavals and Yemanja Festivals. She has also taught the children’s dance program at BrasArte. Elista is very much a part of the BrasArte family.

Her classes bring the energy (Axe) of the street dances of Bahia. She invites dancers to “leave your life at the door” and “free your hips and the rest will follow”.