Brazz Dance Theater

Brazz Dance Theater first started as a collaborative project in 1998 between dance partners Augusto Soledade and Rachelle Zambito. Rochester, NY was the first home for Brazz Dance Theater. In 2001, Brazz Dance Theater took the next step towards formalizing its structure and mission and incorporated as a not-for-profit corporation. The 501(c)(3) status with the IRS was granted in 2002.

In 2004, the company found a home in Miami, FL, and is in residence at the Little Haiti Cultural Center. Since its relocation to Miami, Brazz Dance Theater has enjoyed an unprecedented growth that has placed the company among the leading contemporary dance companies in the community. As a contemporary dance company, Brazz Dance Theater's role is to seek innovative projects that create fresh content and outlook on global life, becoming a vessel for relevant contemporary dance repertory.

Brazz Dance Theater’s dancers are professional artists with a wide and well-rounded training background; their training ranges from classical and contemporary ballet to modern and contemporary dance as well as African diasporic dances.

About the Choreographer

Augusto Soledade is a native of Bahia, Brazil, a performer, choreographer and Founder Artistic Director and resident choreographer of Brazz Dance Theater. Mr. Soledade received in 2010 the Dance Miami Choreographer’s Fellowship for the third time, and in 2008 he was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship in Choreography, and the Dance Miami Choreographer’s Fellowship. In 2007, he was awarded the Individual Artist Fellowship, the Artist Enhancement Grant and the International Cultural Exchange Grant from the State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs. In 2005 he received the Miami Dade Choreographer’s Fellowship and the Creative Capital Workshop Grant and the Community Grant from Miami Dade Cultural Affairs. He has been awarded multiple grant funds from the Northampton Arts Council and Smith College to develop choreographic as well as research projects.

He has performed in Brazil, Trinidad/Tobago, Japan and throughout the United States. His dance training started at the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil in a program with strong modern dance emphasis and has had training with Garth Fagan, Clyde Morgan. He also holds a degree in journalism from the Federal University of Bahia.