FIAT 90
Given by the Fiat Industries to the best dance company in the country in 1990.

PRÊMIO ESTÍMULO
Given by the Ministry of Culture to the best dance performance and the best dance company in Brazil in 1993.

PRÊMIO MAMBEMBÃO
Given by the Ministry of Culture to the best research in popular culture and best body work in 1996.

PRÊMIO BOM DO BRASIL
Given by Varig Brazilian Airlines as one of the five best social and cultural projects in Brazil in 2004.

PRÊMIO MÉRITO AO TURISMO
Given by ABRAJET – Associação Brasileira de Jornalistas de Turismo, for the best services to the tourism and culture in Bahia in 2006.


“Balé Folclórico got the audience dancing. At the end, gray-haired ladies were dancing up a storm as the high-energy on stage transferred to the audience. As one patron remarked, “It’s what Spoleto seemed created to be…”

The Post and Courier – USA.

“A national tour brought the company here tonight with a new, more spectacularly produced program that ended with the audience following dancers and drummers out of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. The sight of previously staid viewers dancing on an outdoor plaza is no surprise to anyone who has seen this traditional close to Balé Folclórico’s performance…”

Anna Kisselgoff/The New York Times – USA

“A bracing Balé Folclórico bursts into town. You could call it the Brazilian “Blast” or the Bahian “Riverdance”. With them one speaks in superlatives: the operative tempos are frenetic, the dynamics numbingly loud, the movement furious, the colors hallucinogenic…”

The Boston Globe – USA

“Brazilian show a breathtaker. Brazil’s Balé Folclórico da Bahia really needs one of those “fasten your seat belts” signs at the beginning of their shows. At times it wa difficult to take in all the movements, with the male and female dancers together and alone, spinning, jumping and whirling frenetically, but absolutely in control…”

Boston Herald – USA

“Fireworks and feats from Brazil. Turn off the eletricity; the dancers of Balé Folclórico da Bahia power the show…”

The Orange County Register – USA

“In a spectacular display of color, movement, music and drama, Balé Folclórico da Bahia proved that the famous north-eastern state of Brazil doesn’t just produce great singers…”

Chicago Sun-Times – USA

“In the eastern Brazilian state of Bahia, when something called samba reggae emerges, you have to imagine the air is full of rhythms intersecting, and the dance floors are vibrating with movements that come from everywhere. One way it gets exported is with Balé Folclórico da Bahia, which closes its latest show, with an eponymous samba reggae fest that turns into genial chaos…”

Los Angeles Times – USA

“For the exuberant and apparently inexhaustible dancers, drummers and singers of Balé Folclórico da Bahia, the final ovation was only a second begin…”

The Sacramento Bee – USA

“Budies clash and spirits soar. These dancers made a spectacle of themselves in the very best sense…”

The New York Times – USA

“Experiencing the performance of Balé Folclórico da Bahia is like being close to a volcanic eruption. You might not want to do it every night, but only an idiot would walk away from the chance to experience it…”

The Australian – Australia/1997

“Balé Folclórico da Bahia, a unique prefessional folkloric dance company from Brazil, made a great impression and even produced a miracle: they made the audience gets up and dance. Two reasons for the audience’s infatuation: the excellence of the artists and that of the production. One has to adore this frenzied spectacular, sensual, so full of passion and fire. Last night at the end of the performance, the musicians and dancers spilled out on the plaza followed by the entire audience, where they prologed the celebration for another half-hour…”

Le progress – France/1997

“Anyone who still thinks the dulcet tones of girls from Ipanema represent all of Brazil would have a change of heart, or pulse rate, after the New York debut of the Balé Folclórico da Bahia at City Center…”

Anna Kisselgoff, The New York Times – USA

“Something happened in Brazil that was like nothing else, a particularly happy meeting of the Latin sensibility’s long melodic impulse and the propulsive energy of African music. These dancers move to the heartbeat of a nation. The exuberant pulse of samba spilled over across the footlights and got the audience up and dancing in the aisles…”

San Francisco Chronicle – USA

“Exuberant, indefatigable and virtuosic, the dancers, singers and drummers of this superb company exploded with the Afro-Brazilian rhythms that are its special heritage. As bravura display, the company’s “Maculelê” with its sticks and blades flashing, and “Capoeira” with its high-flying kicks, were eletrifying. And no one could have been immune to the infectious rhythms of the “Samba Reggae”. The directors have mined a trove of rich material…”

Anna Kisselgoff/The New York Times – USA

“With its choreographed carnival and slave dances, in the capoeira (the high-kicking dances that are also a form of martial arts), and, above all, in the gaiety of the samba, this exuberant, uniquely Brazilian group should absolutely be seen in the United States…”

Anna Kisselgoff/The New York Times – USA