Sweet Briar students join Afro-Brazilian festival in Charlotte

By AI, Created 7:35 PM UTC, May 21, 2026, /AGP/ – Five Sweet Briar College students traveled to Charlotte, North Carolina, from April 10-12 for the LAVAGEM African Brazilian Celebration, an off-campus experience designed to deepen their study of Afro-Brazilian dance. The trip highlights how the college uses internships, research, travel, and hands-on learning to build career-ready skills beyond the classroom.

Why it matters: - Sweet Briar College is using experiential learning to give students direct exposure to professional and cultural settings beyond campus. - The Charlotte trip gave dance students access to master teachers, live performance, and community-based learning tied to Afro-Brazilian traditions. - The experience also helped students build technical, expressive, and cross-cultural skills that support future study and careers.

What happened: - Five Sweet Briar students attended the 5th Annual LAVAGEM African Brazilian Celebration in Charlotte, North Carolina, from April 10-12. - The trip was coordinated by Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance Mika Lior for students in the spring Afro-Brazilian Contemporary Technique class. - Student attendees were Ceili Allder ’26, Atty Bestwick ’26, Liza Dareing ’26, Andro Hayward ’27, and Ella Cate Johnson ’29. - The festival included four days of African Brazilian dance, music, and procession.

The details: - Tamara Williams and Luciano Xavier organized the event in partnership with Bloco Afro Ayédùn. - Guest teachers included Rosangela Silvestre, Vania Oliveira, Danda da Hora, Zé Ricardo, Nildinha Fonseca, Mestre Alegria and Mestre Jelon. - Workshops featured live music by Batalá New York, an all-women, Black-led samba reggae percussion group. - Williams said the celebration began in Charlotte in 2022 after the COVID-19 pandemic and was inspired by the annual LAVAGEM in Salvador, Bahia. - Williams said the festival was created to bring people together, honor those who died during the pandemic, reclaim regional spaces, and uplift Indigenous peoples, African Brazilians, and broader African diasporic communities. - Lior said the small size of Sweet Briar’s dance program allows for unique performance and choreography opportunities, while off-campus trips add exposure to diverse dance forms and practices. - The students learned through direct knowledge transmission from master teachers, immersion in festival culture, and dancing alongside students from other institutions. - Lior said the trip helped students study dance in a more contextualized musical, social, political, and cultural framework. - Atty Bestwick said the festival was informative, highlighted the community aspect of the event, and offered a chance to connect with other dancers and learn the history behind the dances.

Between the lines: - The trip shows how a small liberal arts program can broaden student learning by pairing classroom instruction with short-term field experiences. - The festival also gave students access to a living cultural tradition rather than only a studio-based interpretation of the material. - Sweet Briar is framing experiential learning as a core part of student preparation, not an optional add-on.

What’s next: - Sweet Briar says students will continue to gain experience through internships, undergraduate research, study abroad, leadership opportunities, and hands-on projects. - The college says that approach is meant to help students build confidence and enter competitive careers and graduate programs. - More information is available at Sweet Briar admissions or by email at admissions@sbc.edu.