Vanessa Agle Isaac is a Brazilian interdisciplinary artist working at the intersection of dance, film, the ecological feminine, and cultural memory. Her creations are acclaimed for their fusion of physical poetry, music, and cinematic sensibility.
In 2025, the Vanessa Isaac Dance Company performed a commissioned choreography by Vanessa Agle Isaac, created in collaboration with two-time Grammy Award winner Ted Nash, at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. The work was inspired by the exhibition Modern Life: A Global Artworld, 1850 to 1950 and responds through music and dance to works by Pierre Bonnard, Wifredo Lam, Georgia O’Keeffe, and other modern artists.
In 2024, the Vanessa Isaac Dance Company presented Bach and Bachianas, a work commissioned by the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in collaboration with the Santa Barbara Symphony. The company performed two pieces paying tribute to J.S. Bach and Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos.
In 2023, the Vanessa Isaac Dance Company premiered Passagens in Europe. The work was commissioned by the renowned Les Ballets de Monte Carlo and presented at Fête de la Danse 2023 in Monte Carlo, Monaco. Passagens contemplates the past, present, and future. A dance about roots and innovation, ancestry and vision. In Portuguese, a passagem means a passage or bridge, a corredor that connects “point A to point B,” always moving in both directions. We are our future and present as much as we are our past—culturally, artistically, psychologically, and spiritually.
In 2021, Vanessa directed, choreographed, and performed the dance films Pandu-cada and Alfazema, both commissioned by composer Ami Molinelli as part of her San Francisco Arts Commission Individual Artist Grant project Raízes do Choro e Samba.
Other recent projects include Feita de Luz, a dance film directed and choreographed by Isaac, dedicated to Bahia—the Afro-Brazilian motherland—and to the Baianas, women of African descent who embody Afro-Brazilian culture and the power of sisterhood. A short clip of this work was featured in Before It Kills Us All, a film and video installation produced and directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Margaret Lazarus.
In 2018, her company performed Prelúdio da Saudade, commissioned by the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. Internationally, Isaac has taught in Brazil, the United States, France, Belgium, and Monaco. She has served as a guest teacher for Les Ballets de Monte Carlo’s Fête de la Danse, Centre Momboye in Paris, Gustafson Dance School, UCSB, and the International Samba Congress, among other institutions. She has also lectured at UCLA. Isaac’s pedagogy emphasizes inclusivity, welcoming all ages, genders, and body types.
Nominated for the Brazilian International Press Award in the dance category, Isaac was named one of the “Most Intriguing People Worth Getting to Know” by the Santa Barbara Magazine for her cultural contributions to the city.
For more about her dance company, The Vanessa Isaac Dance Company, please visit site www.vidancecompany.com