JANELLE KEANE CAMPOVERDE
Janelle Keane Campoverde is adjunct faculty for Evergreen State College and Antioch University teaching movement, sensory awareness and Afro-Brazilian dance.
Janelle studied Brazilian dance at the Universidade Federal da Bahia in Salvador, Brazil and also traveled to Santiago, Cuba to intern with the renowned Ballet Folklórico Cutumba Dance Company. Janelle serves as dance director and choreographer of the Seattle-based Samba group GiraSol, performing widely for both corporate and public events. She is a member for ¡Todo Folklore Cubano!, under the artistic directorship of José Carrión, former principal dancer and corps professor of Cutumba, serving as dance partner to Mr. Carrión.
Whenever possible, she takes her classroom “into the community”, providing students the opportunity to perform at festivals such as Bumbershoot, Follklife, Brazilfest, and at popular Seattle-area parades, including the Fremont Solstice.
JEFF BUSCH
In the 1990s, Jeff studied with a variety of percussionists in Brazil including Edmilson Costa Teixeira, Gilo do Pandeiro, and Mestres Memeu and Lazaro from Olodum and he performed with them. In 1998 performed in Brazil with the Jovino Santos Neto group.
Jeff now performs with a variety of groups in the Seattle area including the Jovino Santos Neto quinteto; Cuban jazz groups Rumba Abierta, and Tumbao led by pianist Julio Jauregui; and Cuban dance band Mango Son, led by Roberto Sanchez. He is the drummer at First AME church, and also plays for pianist Kent Stevenson, and gospel singer Patrinell Wright. He leads the Brazilian band Sambatuque and makes soulful music to inspire dancers at Cornish College of the Arts and is the bandleader for Janelle’s Afro-Brazilian dance classes.
Jeff teaches percussion both privately and in schools and universities. He is currently the recipient of a King County Arts grant for a recording project entitled ‘Drums and Voices – Contemporary Spirituals’ which is a collaborative effort with gospel singer Patrinell Wright.
MIKAELA ROMERO
Born and raised in Fairbanks, Alaska, of Puerto Rican and Polish descent, Mikaela Romero moved to Seattle to attend Cornish College as an opera major. It was her mentor, Jovino Santos-Neto, a two time Latin Grammy nominee, who encouraged her to return to her Latin roots and also exposed her to Brazilian music, which she quickly fell in love with.
Romero is currently the lead singer of Seattle’s premier Brazilian band, Sambatuque. She also performs in with: Banda Alecrim, led by Brazilian pianist and composer, Jovino Santos-Neto, Grupo Ashe, a Cuban Timba band led by Cuban master percussionist, Pedrito Vargas, and Big World Breaks, a band that fuses World music with hip hop, soul, and funk, directed by Aaron Walker-Loud, with whom she was a featured vocalist and cellist on their first album, “4 Those Lost…” Through singing and composing, she reaches out to people of all cultures. Mikaela Romero’s warm and impassioned voice will positively touch your emotions.
DENNY STERN
Denny Stern has been playing a variety of West African derived rhythms both professionally and communally in the Seattle area for over 25 years. He has had the good fortune to play and learn with musicians from Cuba, Congo, Senegal and Brazil. Currently he performs with Sambatuque, Show Brazil, Abrace, and in Janelle’s dance class.
PACIFICO
Pacifico is a native of Sao Paulo, Brazil and a sambista since 1973 when he discovered dancing in the roda (circle) and invited to join a samba school. Through the years he both danced and played pandeiro in Sao Paulo samba schools. He began his training in Capoeira training in 1974 and became a maestre in 1986. He brings the spirit of samba and Brazil into Janelle’s Afro-Brazilian dance class and the Seattle community.
VINCENT GONZALEZ
Vincent’s initiation in percussion began with Seattle’s Bloco Vamola, a group that Janelle co-founded. In 2005, he traveled to Cuba and Brasil to deepen his studies of Afro-Latin percussion. In Cuba, he studied with Carlitos Medrano. In Brasil, he studied and played with Bangalafumenga and Monobloco, two famous blocos in Rio, studied pandeiro with Scott Feiner and Celsinho Silva, and hung out in the quadras of Rio’s samba schools.
In 2010, Vincent began his studies of Afro-Peruvian music with Dr. Monica Rojas, studied cajon with Juan Medrano Cotito, Juanchi Vazquez, and Peta Robles, and performed with De Cajon Project directed by Dr. Rojas. He currently plays with Sambatuque, the Samia Pania Trio, Samba Assim, Cascadia ’10 and Cordaviva.