• Ivan Vaconcellos is a contemporary dancer, choreographer, dance educator, and ethnologist deeply rooted in his afrobrasilian culture. After his education in the Escola do Teatro Municipal - INEART in Rio de Janeiro under the supervision of Lygia Costallá and the instructors Edmundo Carijó (Ballet), Lourdes Bastos (Modern), Mercedes Batista (Afrobrasilian Dance), and C. Morgan (Ethnic Dance) he studied in the Mudra School in Brussels, mainly with M. Béjart, in whose company he also danced.
  
  The most important teachers for him at the Mudra School were Germaine Acogny (African Dance), Ray Phillips (Modern Dance), Jorge Lefebre (Classical Dance), and Doudou Ndiarfe Rose (Rhythm).

• In the following years he was engaged as a dancer at Opernhaus Zurich, Switzerland, the Stuttgart Balett and Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Düsseldorf. In addition he studied ethnology at the ETH Zurich and at the University of Lagos, Nigeria.

• With support by the cultural departments of the cities of Düsseldorf and Stuttgart as well as by the "Präsidialabteilung Kultur" of the city of Zurich, numerous dance theatre productions were realised under his supervision.

• He is lecturer for Candomblé, Afrobrazil Dance, and Samba at the University of Zurich (ETH-ASVZ) and at the Sports University of Basel. He presents lectures on the topic "Candomblé - Dance and Music of the Gods" in various cultural areas, for instance at the exhibition about the work of Pierre Verger "Black Gods in Exile" at the "Völkerkunde Museum" (Ethnological Museum) in Munich.

• Ivan Vasconcellos is a former lecturer for afro-brasilian culture with the K.I.D.S. project of Munich.

• He is guest instructor with the German Professional Union for Dance Education (Berufsverband für Tanzpädagogik), among others in the frame of educational seminars of the John Neumeier Ballet Center Hamburg, and with the Funceb - Universidade da Bahia / Salvador.
  Ivan is working as an instructor with important international dance workshops, to name a few: International Easter- and Summer Workshop at the "Tanzfabrik" Berlin, International Dancing Festival Bolzano, Italy or the VII Biennale of Contemporary Dance in Poznan, Poland.

• He is also present at a variety of Samba Festivals throughout Europe, as for example the Sambasyndrom Berlin or the Festival in Coburg.

Press Review

• Ivan Vasconcellos is an active member of the legendary "Bloco Filhos de Gandhy" and of "Malê de Balê", both in Salvador de Bahia. He was also instructor and choreographer in the "GRES Beija-Flor de Nilopolis", one of the most important Samba schools in Rio de Janeiro, which often won the Carnival there.

• As a Carnevalesco, the art director for the visual arrangement of Samba processions, he participated for example in the Longstreet carnival in Zurich, in the "Züri-Fest" and in the "Karneval der Kulturen" (Carnival of Cultures) in Berlin. In the latter he was invited by the group "Sapucaiu no Samba" as a Carnevalesco and choreographer. With the topic "Froschkönig" (Frog King) the Samba school won the first prize of the procession.

• Ivan Vasconcellos is a member of SEG - "Schweizerische Ethnologische Gesellschaft" (The SWISS Ethnological Society) as well as founder and director of "Tanzbrasil - Workshops and Performance" in Munich.