Samba Dancers of Los Angeles

Christiane Callil is the heart and soul of Brazil in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Times has described her as "The Samba Queen." And in her dynamic, widely praised programs with her Brazilian revue, "Christiane and The Girls From Ipanema," she has indeed proven herself to be Los Angeles' reigning monarch of that most sensual of all Brazilian dances.

But Callil is more than a dancer, more than a singer, more than a choreographer. She is the artistic spirit of a nation -- a hip, contemporary Carmen Miranda of the nineties. "Every time I perform," says Callil, "I feel Carmen's spirit surging and singing inside of me."

The city of Los Angeles obviously agrees. In September, when a corner of Hollywood Boulevard was named after Carmen Miranda, it was Christiane Callil who was asked to sing and dance in memory of the legendary Brazilian artist. And her performance brought tears to the eyes of some of the bystanders who recalled the original Carmen, and who could clearly see her spirit of the original Brazilian Bombshell in the energetic singing and dancing of Callil.

In a city teaming with Latin music and rhythm, Callil has consistently been Los Angeles' most visible and appealing Brazilian performer. Beyond Southern California, her widely praised performances in New York, Chicago, Detroit, Florida, Japan , Korea, Croatia, and elsewhere have established her, with considerable justification, as an international voice for the art, the music and the culture of Brazil.

Callil's dark, sensuous sound, her smoothly rhythmic interpretations, are filled with the energy, the life and the color of her native country. When she sings a Jobim song such as "Insensitive," the music comes alive with a feeling and a sensitivity unheard and unfelt since it was sung by Jobim and by Joao Gilberto. When Callil does one of her whimsical renderings of Miranda, the music simmers with the bright rhythms of Carnival. Her dancing, like her innovative choreography, combines the supple movements of the samba with the sophistication of contemporary dance.

In the ten years since Callil came to the United States from her native Sao Paulo, her career has moved rapidly. A featured performer in the 1992 film, "The Mambo Kings," she then created, choreographed and starred in "Christiane and The Girls From Ipanema," described by Dramaloge as a "rousing, nonstop show in which glitz and glamour recreate an atmosphere of Carnival, and the music keeps fingers and toes moving throughout."

"Christiane and The Girls From Ipanema" -- still Los Angeles' most vibrant, original Brazilian entertainment -- has had long runs at Tatou in Beverly Hills and New York, the House of Blues, the Conga Room, Crustacean in Beverly Hills, Muriels in Palm Springs, at the Century Club in Century City, at the Hollywood Roosevelt Cinegrill and the AshGrove and numerous other locations.

Click here to see Christiane's Celebrity Gallery.