Dear BrasArte Community,

We are reaching out with a heartfelt request for your support. At the beginning of September, we’ll leave our beloved home at the Capoeira Arts Foundation Building after over 15 wonderful years. While we look forward to our next chapter with hope and excitement, this transition will come with significant costs.

We need your help to make this transition smooth and successful. Your generous contributions will assist with moving expenses, storage accommodations, and the setup of our new space for our costume library and other inventory. By supporting us, you’ll help maintain the tools and resources we use to promote and celebrate Brazilian culture in our local community.

Thank you for your continued generosity and commitment to BrasArte. We look forward to starting this next chapter with you!

For more information, please read the letter to our community below:

Dear BrasArte Community,

We hope this message finds you well and in good spirits. We are writing to share important news regarding our beloved cultural space at the Capoeira Arts Foundation Building (1901 San Pablo Ave Berkeley), which has been our home for over 15 years.

As some of you may have heard, we must say farewell to our current dance, music, and performance space. While this news may initially bring feelings of uncertainty, we urge you to see this moment as an opportunity for growth and renewal.

Like the butterfly, BrasArte is poised to transform. We have remained a strong community through several changes over the years and look forward to that same strength in the future. We are reimagining what our dance community can be—a chance to spread our wings and explore new possibilities. While we cherish the memories we have created in our current space, let us look forward with excitement and new opportunities for the future.

While the future is still an open road for us, please be assured that we will continue to offer community classes and special workshops, and that our BrasArte family will be the first to be informed of what lies ahead.

We acknowledge our dedicated teachers, staff, and volunteers, whose passion and guidance have been the heart of our community. They have inspired us, nurtured our talents, and enriched our lives with their knowledge and dedication. Let’s let their contributions continue to seed and grow as we journey toward anew.

To all the new and veteran students who boldly danced across the green floor, we thank you for your support and for filling the space with joy. You are the reason we do what we do. The “Green Floor” was home to many of us. We have such fond memories and relationships built on that floor. It was a symbol of connection to one another, and to the culture. As we embark on this new chapter, let us honor all the memories created, the teachers we met, and the friends we made.

We encourage all of you to get involved and contribute your energy, passion, and time as we navigate this new phase of our organization. Your involvement is crucial as we shape the next chapter of our journey together. During this initial stage, we are looking for volunteers to help with the moving process: we will be transferring our costume library and other inventory to offsite storage while we navigate these changes, and welcome support through this process. If you are interested in being part of the move out team, or in making a financial contribution, please fill out our volunteer form linked in our Bio.

And please stay tuned for more updates and opportunities to participate in shaping our next steps. For now, your best way to support is to show up and DANCE!

Due to the circumstances surrounding these changes, the 20th annual Lavagem Festival will NOT be taking place this year in its original form. We hope to do something that honors that important milestone, so please stay tuned.

Let's embrace this opportunity to preserve what we have built and cultivate an even more inclusive and dynamic community. Together, we can create a future where our love for dance continues to inspire and uplift us all.

We invite you to join us in celebrating the past, embracing the present, and envisioning the future of our community. Your support and enthusiasm will be instrumental in making this transition a success.

Thank you for your continued dedication and support of BrasArte. We look forward to the next chapters of this journey with each of you.

With Love,

Artistic Director Tainah Damasceno

Secretary Ashlee George