Jane’s journey in dance started in 2011 when she signed up for her first class, purely for fitness, quickly becoming addicted to the music, movements and energy of Samba, Jane immersed herself in her training and by 2015 was regularly performing professionally around Adelaide and at interstate congresses and competitions. Sharing the stage with Rob Mills for Autism SA (2015), Todd McKenny for the Royal Flying Doctors Service Wings For Life fundraiser (2016), performing at the televised Rio Olympic Australian swimming team qualifiers (2016), placing 1st In the Open Samba Shines Team category at the Brisbane World Salsa Solo in 2019 and placing 1st in the professional category at Tropicana (2020) with a Brazilian Funk routine choreographed by Felipe Rodrigues, are some of Jane’s most memorable highlights as a professional dancer for the Dança Brazil Entertainment team.
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Jane took her love of samba one step further in 2017 when she began teaching, with a goal of sharing with students one of the biggest gifts Samba gave her, confidence, as well as being passionate about teaching Samba respectfully and with integrity, educating students about, not only the moves but the history and culture that is Samba no pe.  Jane has a natural talent for teaching and sees her inception into dance as an adult as an advantage as she can use her experience learning to break down moves in a way that ‘makes sense’.

Jane’s dedication to continue learning and deepening her understanding of Samba has seen her travel to Brazil in 2020 and 2023 with Samba International, training intensively for 5 weeks, participating in Ensaios (rehearsals) and parading in Rio Carnaval in 2020 Porto Da Pedra’s Show Ala and In 2023 as a Passita for Unidos de Bangu. Jane has continued her training with Escola de Samba Sydney online.

Jane is 1st generation Australian-born Portuguese which helps her in interpreting the music for her students and is an administrator by day. Jane is dedicated to the integrity and authenticity of Brazilian dance and loves to share that passion with others. She is proud to represent the Adelaide branch of Australia’s leading Brazilian dance school Escola de Samba Sydney.

Erin is a professional dancer, trained in various styles and specialises in Samba no pé. Erin’s performer life began at the age of 6 in competitive gymnastics and 8 years old her love for dance began with Ballet as well as Jazz, Contemporary, Tap and Hip Hop, which saw her completing exams and competing into her early 20s.

After taking a break to study to be a Registered Nurse, Erin was missing the creative expression that dance brought to her life and reconnected with her love for dance when she was introduced to Samba in 2012. Her passion for Samba saw her training and studying the art, performing regularly in Adelaide, as well as travelling and performing interstate showcasing Brazilian Dance with The Dança Brazil Entertainment Team. Some of her Samba highlights include dancing alongside Todd McKenny for the Royal Flying Doctors Service Wings For Life fundraiser (2016); performing at the televised Rio Olympic Australian swimming team qualifiers (2016); placing 1st in the Open Samba Shines Team category at the Brisbane World Salsa Solo in 2019 and placing 1st in the professional category at Tropicana (2020) with a Brazilian Funk routine choreographed by Felipe Rodrigues.

Erin’s passion took her to Brazil in 2020 and 2023 with Samba International to parade in Rio Carnaval. Erin was honoured to be selected to be a part of the official Ala de Passistas for the Samba School Unidos de Bangu, something she considers to be a highlight of her professional dance career. Erin trained extensively in Rio, performed in ensaios (rehearsals) and paraded for 2 Samba schools in Rio Carnaval – as a passista for Unidos de Bangu and Porto Da Pedra’s show Ala. She has since continued her training with Escola de Samba Sydney on-line.

Erin is dedicated to continuous study and to ensure that the music, moves and history of Samba no pé is showcased correctly, respectfully and with integrity. She looks forward to bringing her technical dance background paired with her love for Samba no pé and Brazilian culture to the students of Escola de Samba Adelaide.

A professional Brazilian dancer, performer and instructor specialising in Samba no pé, Jane is the co-director of Escola de Samba Adelaide.

From a young age, Ebonie always had an inspired interest and passion for music and dance. This led her to study various instruments, which included drums, piano and vocals. Although, originally not having a dance background, she trained in gymnastics and aerobics, where she eventually followed a path of group fitness training and instructing. This combination started her love and appreciation for music and fitness and set the foundation of musicality and developing choreographies.

In her early 20’s she started Salsa dancing in the Latin dance community and absolutely fell in love with dancing, the vibrancy of the Latin culture and depth of its history. She has since trained in multiple styles including Cuban, LA and Cali style Salsa.

Her love for Samba came later when she started learning and training locally with Jane in 2019. While always having an admiration and appreciation for the style and culture, it was through commitment and ongoing training and practice where her love for Samba grew into a real passion. It wasn’t long before she was fully emersed in the rich vibrant culture, including its history and has a true appreciation for the music and expression of this dance.

Ebonie started performing at the end of 2021 and shortly after successfully became part of the first Sambinha’s Team for Escola de Samba Adelaide performing in community events in South Australia. Being a part of the Sambinha’s has allowed her to find more confidence in expressing herself through Samba and to connect with the broader Escola community, which is what Samba is all about!

After being inspired at a school disco dance competition at the age of seven, Leela began her formal dance training in 2010 Danza Live, where she studies Jazz, Ballet Contemporary, Hip-hop and Commercial styles. Here she developed a passion for bold choreography and expression grounded in classical technique.

Her love for dance continued steadily into adulthood, training in Jazz and Commercial until she forayed into the world of Latin and Ballroom at Quicksteps dance studio. For 2 years, Leela immersed herself in the Adelaide social dance scene, studying more than sixteen assorted styles from Salsa and Bachata to Waltz and Tango. Here, she realised her innate talent for getting anybody up on to the dancefloor and grew an immense appreciation for the international language of dance.

Beginning Samba and then Funk at Danca Brazil in 2020 was a natural progression for Leela. Becoming immersed in the history and culture of Brazilian music and dance, she joined several performance teams with whom she competed at Tropicana 2021, placing 2nd in the semi-pro division for Samba and 1st in the amateur division for a Funk routine choreographed by Felipe Rodriguez. In 2022, Leela auditioned to be a part of Escola de Samba Adelaide's first Sambhinas performance team, with whom she represented the school's vision for promoting Samba to the community with integrity and passion. In 2023 she travelled to Rio, Brazil with Samba international, and had the opportunity to train intensively with esteemed Samba and Funk dancers. The trip culminated in parading for three schools over two nights in the 2023 Carnaval Series Ouro, including the Sambista ala for Unidos de Bangu and an international ala for Inocentes de Belford Roxo choreographed by the King of Samba, Carlinhos Salguerio. 

After these rewarding and enriching experiences, Leela is more excited than ever to share her love of Samba and Funk through teaching and choreographing as a part of Escola's teaching team, while continuing online training to stay up to date on the current techniques and sounds coming straight from Brazil.

Focused on the positive physical and psychological development of active women and female athletes, Joshua has worked in the fitness industry as a personal trainer, gym owner and performance coach since 2007. Having worked extensively with dancers, Australian rules football and soccer players through his companies Mitise Health & Fitness and more recently -  Mitise Performance Group - his knowledge and methodology around performance training simplifies to ensuring stability in the pelvis and core translates to power and strength in the extremities.

Lana has a wealth of experience as a dancer in various styles. She started in classical training of jazz, ballet and tap at just 5 years old. At the age of 13 she changed her focus to street styles and began training and competing in Hip Hop, JazzFunk and many other Hip-Hop subgenres, learning from international icons such as the Les Twinz, Brian Puspos and Paris Goebel.

In the year 2012, Lana cofounded and lead the first official KPOP dance cover group in Adelaide, travelling and competing interstate and locally. Lana along with her team dedicated their time to learn covers of famous trending dances in the K-pop scene, conducting workshops and choreographing performances for private and community-based events.

Since 2017, Lana has found her home practicing and training in Samba No Pé and Brazilian Funk. She travelled with Samba International in 2020 and rehearsed and paraded in Rio Carnaval in the Samba Show Ala with Porto da Pedra Samba School, also in 2020 she was able to train extensively in Brazilian Funk with Felipe Rodrigues.

Lana has successfully accomplished several accolades in her dance career such as, qualifying in varsity Hip Hop Team at International World Supremacy Battlegrounds in 2013, placing 1st at the 2014 KPOP Dance Cover Contest in Sydney, placing 1st in Open Samba Shines Team and 3rd Place in Amateur Samba Solo at 2019 World Salsa Solo in Brisbane and placing 3rd in the Amateur Samba Solo category at Tropicana 2019.

Lana has a deep passion and connection to music and believes in healing through movement and dance. Her belief is strong in upholding authenticity and respect of Brazilian dance, music and culture and endeavours to grow in her journey of Samba and Brazilian Funk.

Lana loves to share her experiences and knowledge, build confidence, and have fun through her teaching.

Kim was first introduced at the age of 10 to the dance world through the unique sport, Marching, known today as Drilldance. She devoted 10 years to this very competitive sport, taking out 3x national titles and in 2012 reached the finals of Australia’s Got Talent with her senior team the Black Diamonds. Drilldance taught Kim discipline in training, how to perform under pressure and she is now the go-to instructor for working the perfect formation.

While participating in Drilldance, Kim experimented with other styles of dance. She spent 2 years from 1999 to 2001 training in Scottish dancing and then in 2008 she discovered Latin dance where she learnt various styles such as Salsa, Bachata and Zouk. It was through the Adelaide dance scene where she was exposed to Samba and in 2012 her love was ignited. Within a year of training in Samba Kim was training professionally and had the opportunity to perform in Jakarta Indonesia for the Lacopa Charity Ball.

Her other highlights include performing with Todd McKenny for the Royal Flying Doctors Service Wings for life fundraiser in 2016 with Dança Brazil Entertainment Team and winning Tropicana 2020 with a Brazilian Funk routine choreographed and performed alongside Felipe Rodrigues. Kim also has competed various times in the Brisbane Salsa Solo placing 1st in Amateur Samba Solo (2014) , 2nd in Semi-Professional Samba Solo (2015) , and 1st in Semi-Professional Samba Solo (2016)

Wanting to connect to her cultural background Kim has travelled and lived in China to better understand and speak the language and in 2016 completed a Bachelor degree in Chinese Language and culture. 2016 was also the year Kim began teaching Samba which had led her to further deepen her understanding and passion for samba.

Samba has brought Kim community and long-term friendships. She continues the drive to want to learn and showcase samba in its truest form to the best of her ability and believes in respecting and upholding cultural integrity.