Educator, researcher, and operatic singer, Inaicyra Falcão dos Santos has built a solid career in the fields of performing arts and pluricultural pedagogy, becoming a reference across diverse spaces of knowledge production—from academic settings to non-formal contexts.
Her creative practice challenged stereotypical perceptions of difference and developed categories aligned with Brazilian realities, introducing updates to the field of dance knowledge production whose effects remain significant to this day.
Photo with Mãe Senhora (Década de 1960) by Autoria desconhecidaPortal MUD - Dance Museum
Her family descends from the royal lineage of Asipá, a city in Ketu, in the former Yoruba Empire. Her paternal grandmother, Maria Bibiana do Espírito Santo — known as Mãe Senhora— was the Iyalorixá of Ilê Axé Opô Afonjá and a highly respected leader, as was Deoscóredes Maximiliano dos Santos, Mestre Didi, a visual artist and the supreme priest of the Egungun cult. Both exerted a profound influence on the artist’s creative, intellectual, and visionary imagination.
Inaicyra grew up with knowledge of the Africas, learning where Brazil’s ties to African countries come from — their languages, musical traditions, and literatures.
Inaicyra Falcão at the Dance School of UFBA. Inaicyra Falcão at the Dance School of UFBA. (1970) by Autoria desconhecidaPortal MUD - Dance Museum
Inaicyra earned her degree from the Dance School of the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), the oldest higher-education dance institution in Brazil, founded in 1956, which housed the Contemporary Dance Group (GDC/UFBA), where the artist performed.
Inaicyra Falcão at the Dance School of UFBA.Portal MUD - Dance Museum
In the 1970s, American choreographer Clyde Morgan arrived at UFBA, introducing African American and African aesthetics. Working with the GDC under his direction, Inaicyra realized the possibility of being and acting as a Black artist in dance.
Inaicyra Falcão at the Dance School of UFBA.Portal MUD - Dance Museum
From the GDC to Olodumaré and then to the world!
Inaicyra followed a singular and transformative path: from the GDC—the Contemporary Dance Group of UFBA—to Olodumaré, later known as Brasil Tropical, which brought the richness of Bahian dance, music, and popular cultures to the world.
Choreography 'Maculelê'Portal MUD - Dance Museum
From 1971 to 1980, the artist was part of the Olodumaré Dance Company, choreographed by Domingos Campos, which later became Ballet Brasil Tropical and toured Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
Performance by Cia Brasil TropicalPortal MUD - Dance Museum
Graphic Material from Cia Brasil Tropical Graphic Material from Cia Brasil Tropical (1970) by Autoria desconhecidaPortal MUD - Dance Museum
Folk ballets emerged in the 1970s, including the renowned Brasil Tropical, and played a major role in showcasing Brazilian popular and urban aesthetic worlds nationally and internationally. Combining tradition and spectacle, they reworked popular expressions for tourist-oriented formats.
As key groups in spreading musical and dance traditions, folk ballets expanded public awareness of expressions that had been little valued in theatrical contexts until then.
Even amid the complexities arising from the interplay of cultural preservation, the market, and spectacle, folk ballets contributed to artistic exchange and became an important part of Brazil’s dance history.
Performance by Cia Brasil TropicalPortal MUD - Dance Museum
Performance by Cia Brasil TropicalPortal MUD - Dance Museum
Photo collage with Inaicyra Falcão (1970) by Autoria desconhecidaPortal MUD - Dance Museum
Between Dialogues and Traditions – Building a Black-Brazilia
Through her travels and encounters with various choreographers in Europe and the United States, Inaicyra felt an urgent need to develop an artistic and pedagogical narrative that reflected her reality, rooted in Afro-Brazilian traditions.
Research showed that ancestry forms the foundation of bodily movements and that each sociocultural context mobilizes its resources and modes of adaptation in its own way.
Inaicyra was invited to teach at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, in the Department of Theatre Arts, serving as a research artist, choreographer, and dancer.
Inaicyra engaged with an African cosmopolitanism little known in Brazil, as well as with highly unique societies whose complexities she gradually unraveled during the six years she spent there.
"Records of Inaicyra Falcão during the period she lived and studied in NigeriaPortal MUD - Dance Museum
"Records of Inaicyra Falcão during the period she lived and studied in NigeriaPortal MUD - Dance Museum
"Records of Inaicyra Falcão during the period she lived and studied in NigeriaPortal MUD - Dance Museum
"Records of Inaicyra Falcão during the period she lived and studied in NigeriaPortal MUD - Dance Museum
"Records of Inaicyra Falcão during the period she lived and studied in NigeriaPortal MUD - Dance Museum
Her immersion in tradition led Inaicyra to realize that the sacred and the everyday are intertwined, and that by understanding what lies “inside the gate” and “outside the gate,” one can perceive organizing elements for social life—an insight that became the foundation for her later artistic and pedagogical work.
This unique perspective became her lens for reading reality, as few artists have managed. Inaicyra understood that growing with wholeness required more than drive: it demanded balance, reflection, and the courage to transform experience into awareness.
The pluricultural art-education project Body and Ancestry (2002) proposes a dynamic relationship between the traditions cultivated by all communities and the nourishment they provide to individuals. These are collective memories activated in each personal experience.
The well-founded discussion of ancestry that Inaicyra develops throughout her career—and implements in her pedagogical approach—is shaped by knowledge passed down through generations, both within religious contexts and, especially, outside them, in the lessons of everyday life.
Body and Ancestry, as a pedagogy for dance education, highlights that ancestry is a foundational element present in all cultures.
Her doctorate at the Faculty of Education of the University of São Paulo (USP) advocates a pluricultural approach, inviting reflection on the complex cultural dynamics that emerge in contemporary societies, particularly regarding the appreciation of diversity and the construction of plural identities.
Cover of the music album "Okan Awa (Our Heart)" (2000) by Inaicyra FalcãoPortal MUD - Dance Museum
ARTICULATOR OF UNIVERSES
In the albums Okan Awa: Songs of the Yoruba Tradition (2000) and Sementes Ancestrais (2021), Inaicyra solidifies her role as a singer, which, like her dance, develops through the intertwining of traditional and contemporary cultures.
Concert "Ancestral Mothers" (2000) by Autoria desconhecidaPortal MUD - Dance Museum
By singing, the transmission of culture is renewed. In her oralitura, voice, lyrics, and performance come alive.
Inaicyra Falcão’s 50-year career
Celebrating her multifaceted role as a professor, researcher, and performer, was honored in the OJO ODUN project, which brought together artists, intellectuals, and thinkers influenced by her work and presence.
More than a tribute, OJO ODUN was a celebration of knowledge, affection, and movement. In the images below, the Three-Movement Concert featured artists from multiple generations of music and dance.
Concert "Inaicyra in 3 Times" with guest dancers.Portal MUD - Dance Museum
Concert "Inaicyra in 3 Times" with guest dancers.Portal MUD - Dance Museum
Concert "Inaicyra in 3 Times" with guest dancers.Portal MUD - Dance Museum
Body and Ancestry: a formative experience in the dance program at Unicamp
In this approach, awareness of one’s own ancestry arises from recognizing the layers of history that shape the individual and enable autonomy, fostering a more proactive relationship with society. In the classes she taught at DACO, Inaicyra valued the experiences inscribed in students’ bodies, understanding them as an essential element in the learning process.
Photographic records of Inaicyra Falcão teaching at UNICAMPPortal MUD - Dance Museum
Photographic records of Inaicyra Falcão teaching at UNICAMPPortal MUD - Dance Museum
Inaicyra’s presence at DACO/UNICAMP—the Department of Body Arts—helped strengthen a pedagogical project designed with careful attention to the processes of formation and transformation of Brazilian culture.
Photographic records of Inaicyra Falcão teaching at UNICAMPPortal MUD - Dance Museum
Perceptive and rigorous, Inaicyra challenged the field of performing arts and highlighted the asymmetries that relegated African and Afro-Brazilian expressions to marginal positions within spaces of recognition and power.
Inaicyra Falcão, Chairholder of the Pequena África Chair (2024) by Tomaz Silva/Agência BrasilPortal MUD - Dance Museum
Appointed in 2024 as Chair of the Pequena África Cátedra at FGV—the first in the country entirely dedicated to Black intellectuals—Inaicyra’s movement remains continuous.
Her voice opened paths, challenged silences, and claimed space for other narratives and aesthetics.
Portrait of Inaicyra Falcão (1980) by Autoria desconhecidaPortal MUD - Dance Museum
Learn more about the story of Inaicyra Falcão
Access materials from the artist’s archive on the Portal MUD
This story is part of the MOVER MEMÓRIAS project, supported by the FUNARTE RETOMADA – DANCE 2023 grant.
Curatorship: Luciane Ramos-Silva
General and Museological Coordination: Talita Bretas
Coordination and Research Assistant: Rúbia Galera
Archivist: Murilo Armando
Intern: Pietra Padilha
Acknowledgments: Kleber Damásio, Mariana Baruco, Ação Educativa, DACO
Referências Bibliográficas
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