Maisa

Maisa burst onto the San Francisco Carnaval scene in the year 2000 at King and Queen contest held at Roccapulco in San Francisco's Mission district, There was little doubt that this was a great star whose presence was as sparkling as her talent.

Maisa was born in the America's capital of the African Diaspora,
Salvador, Bahia Brazil and as far as she can remember, dancing is what she enjoyed most. Maisa started entering and winning dance contests when she was ten years old. Her ability to move her perfectly toned body to the complex, frenetic polyrhythmic beating of samba music has never been done with such beauty and grace in the SF Bay Area. Queen Maisa like her 2002 King Norberto would be a great standout dancer in any City in the world including their birth countries.

It is worth noting that Maisa in her 2000 debut before the devoted SF Bay Carnavalescos was first presented by one of the web's best known samba dancers, Aquerela director and former Carnaval San Francisco Queen Maria Souza('94), who is also a symbol of Carnaval San Francisco's indomitable spirit to usher in a new tomorrow for the San Francisco Bay Area.

as a Queen contestant before the discerning insider crowd and veteran judges with the powerful, sexy dancers of Aquerela. In 2001 you were most likely to have seen Maisa performing with Birds of Paradise or Samba do Coracao, led by Mary Dollar, who was at the forefront for the artists with her co-director husband Fernando de Sanjines in 2001 as Carnaval was reorganized by Mission Neighborhood Centers to contain the most artist support ever in the history of the parade.
Throughout her reputation has grown and this year her own troupe, Energia do Samba Dance Company will be debuting in the parade in support of her royal presence on the King and Queen float. The name Energia do Samba (The Energy of Samba) was chosen by Maisa because it is the energy, or more specifically, the positive energy of Samba, that she believes is the essence of Samba. Energia do Samba's dancing is the embodiment of that energy.


Click for some sound & mo from Energia do Samba (MPEG 450K)
Maisa's performance was longer than standard since the next King contestant, Wemerson Nader from Energia do Samba insisted she dance with him (MPEG 450K).	Here she attempts to stay on the sidelines. (MPEG 350K)