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Mariano Silva is one of the stars of Solstice with his Brazilian music and dancers. And he is busy all year round promoting Brazilian culture in Santa Barbara through the Brazilian Cultural Arts Center of Santa Barbara. Here was Mariano in the 2023 Solstice Parade.
Brazilian Day Santa Barbara was a chance for a wide range of Brazilian culture to be on display in and around De La Guerra Plaza and Casa de la Guerra. And this year other cultures were included as well.
Here are my photos and here are my videos.
The Agua Doce (freshwater) Dancers put on the kind of dance we know from Solstice. One of the dancers is Clau Orona, who used to be one of the Solstice costume designers and is a regular Solstice performer.
As I mentioned, several other cultures were included this year. This young man Shlok Joshi was a big hit with the crowd.
Following him was the Kunjal Patel Indian dance group.
Kunjal kindly posed for a photo afterwards.
The UCSB Iaorana Te Otea ITO Hula Dancers were up next for a bit of culture very far from Brazil.
Hector Sanchez is well known for his Tango teaching and performances and I have shared photos and videos of him many times over the years. He did a very high energy performance that included aerials with his partner.
My friend DJ Darla Bea was handling all the music and stage work for De La Guerra Plaza. She and Hector posed together.
The Strut Don’t Stress Dancers put on a burlesque show that was a crowd pleaser.
Over at Casa de la Guerra the TropiCali drummers were performing. I learned that both of the singers performing with them had come all the way from Brazil just for this event!
Their performance was very participatory with the energetic crowd. Including a Capoeira dance.
Drummer Caterina Malinowski told me she loves her drum! She is also a dancer and she has performed in many events I have covered here.
Toward the end of the festival was a Bikini Models Fashion Show. Here the models kindly posed for me before going on stage.
And here they did their modeling for a grateful crowd.
Clau Orona was not in the modeling show, but she was happy to pose.
I was also delighted to meet up with my former engineer co-worker Maya, who called out to me. She no longer lives in Santa Barbara, but she always comes back for Brazilian activities. Here she posed with her three boys.
And maybe this attendee will be delivering a future performer!
Here you can learn more about the Brazilian Cultural Arts Center of Santa Barbara and learn to dance and perform! Or just get fit and have fun! https://www.capoeira805.com/
– Robert Bernstein
