Afro-Brazilian Orixas Chant, Dance and Symbology

Dance of the Orishas Workshop

With Beatriz Ballarin

📅 Date: Saturday, October 11th, 2025
🕚 Time: 11:00 AM – 3:45 PM
📍 Location: Acosta Dance Centre
💷 Price: £55 (4-hour workshop)

About the Workshop

Dance of the Orishas is a movement-based workshop inspired by the chants, symbols, dances, and rhythms of Candomblé Ketu, an Afro-Brazilian spiritual tradition rooted in the Yoruba and Bantu diasporas.

Through storytelling, dance, sound, herbs, and food, we will explore the physical and spiritual dimensions of the Orishas—deities of nature and transformation.

This workshop is open to all levels, ages, and abilities. The presence of elders and children is especially welcome. Traditional Candomblé snacks and herbal medicine prepared by the teacher will be available to participants for a multisensory cultural immersion.

Workshop Schedule

🔥 FIRE Block (11:00 AM – 1:00 PM)

• 11:00 – 11:30 | Welcome & Talk: History and Context of the Orisha Tradition and the African Diaspora in Brazil

• 11:30 – 11:50 | Warm-up

• 11:50 – 1:00 | Dances, Chants & Stories of Shango, Oya, and other deities of fire and transformation

🍴 1:00 – 2:00 PM | Lunch Break

💧 WATER Block (2:00 PM – 3:45 PM)

• 2:00 – 2:20 | Talk: Candomblé as a Matriarchal Culture & the Power of Water

• 2:20 – 3:30 | Dances and Chants of Yemaya, Oshun, and Nanã — female Orishas of water, birth, death, and ancestry

• 3:30 – 3:45 | Self Check-in, Meditation, and Final Talk

About the Artist

Beatriz Ballarin is a multidisciplinary artist, choreographer, and teacher from São Paulo, Brazil. Trained in classical, modern, and contemporary dance (Royal Academy of Dance Brazil and Ginasiano Escola de Dança, Portugal), her practice centres on Afro-Brazilian sacred arts and their connection with performance, music, and visual storytelling.

Currently based in Barcelona, Beatriz teaches and performs across Europe and Latin America. In 2024, she led cultural exchanges with Fidelinas Inc. in Aruba and Sint Maarten, and in 2025, she joined the Brazil-France dance season with her touring performance Mandinga do Futuro. Beatriz is also a maracatu drummer (batuqueira), capoeirista, and dedicated practitioner of Candomblé.