Isa Soares was born on 1953 and is a Brazilian-born Argentine dancer and activist involved in creating awareness of the African traditions of Argentina and fighting racism against Afro-Argentine peoples.
11 Facts About Isa Soares
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Isa Soares was one of the pioneers in developing African dance interpretation and instruction in Argentina.
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Maria Isabel Soares Sousa was born in 1953 in Maragogipe, of the Brazilian state of Bahia to Afro-Brazilian parents Iraildes Sousa Gomes and Fernando Bispo Soares.
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Isa Soares's father had degrees in both biochemistry and music, and her mother was a dressmaker and tobacconist.
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Isa Soares moved to Sao Paulo and had a son, while continuing her education at the University of Sao Paulo.
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Isa Soares took dance lessons with Wilson Silva, who taught her the basic techniques of African dance and how those spread into the Americas through candombe in Uruguay, samba from Brazil and tap dancing in the United States.
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The couple settled in Bahia Blanca and Isa Soares returned to her studies through the National Technical Education Council, earning her technical instructor's certification.
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Between 1985 and 1987, Isa Soares studied and worked as a dance instructor on a scholarship in the dance school of Aida Prestifilippo, the principal dancer of the Teatro Colon.
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Between 1990 and 2006, Isa Soares was the coordinator for African dance at the Centro and began traveling to places like Rosario, Santa Fe in the Santa Fe Province to teach and back to Brazil for students to train in Bahia.
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Isa Soares hosted annual summer courses on dances with African roots through the Municipal Institute of Education for Art in the Municipality of Avellaneda.
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Isa Soares is considered one of the pioneering dancers who brought African cultural expression back to Argentina after the close of the dictatorship.