Mestre Jelon Vieira is the Founder and Artistic Director of Capoeira Foundation and Dance Brasil. He has earned much acclaim as a broadly talented choreographer, and a world renowned master and teacher of capoeira. Born in Santo Amaro da Purificação, Bahia, a state in northern Brazil, Mr. Vieira studied capoeira with the famous Mestres Bimba, Eziquiel, and Bobo, Afro-Brazilian dance at Escola de ballet Teatro Castro Alves in Salvador, Bahia, modern dance with James Truite, Thelma Hill, Fred Benjamin, and ballet with Don Farnsworth.

Since his arrival in the US in 1975, Mr. Vieira has catalyzed the growing interest in and understanding of Brazilian culture while simultaneously developing his own choreographic style that blends tradition Afro-Brazilian dance and North American modern dance. In 1976 he formed the Capoeiras of Bahia with Loremil Machado. Then, in 1977, Mr. Vieira founded DanceBrazil, and for the last 20 years has guided the company through breathtaking performances of capoeira and Afro-Brazilian dance. Mr. Vieira and Loremil Machado introduced capoeira to the United States nearly thirty years ago.

Mr. Vieira teaches capoeira to people of all ages and from all walks of life in both Brazil and the United States. He has taught the soccer great Pele and American movie stars Wesley Snipes and Eddie Murphy. Although he resides in New York, Mr. Vieira spends several months a year in Brazil. One of his long term goals is to open a center for underprivileged children, using capoeira to build self esteem and self-discipline and as a beginning to moving these children off the streets and into the educational system and mainstream society.

In the United States, Mr. Vieira has taught in many residency workshops and has been a guest instructor at Yale University's African-American Studies Department since 1982. He has also taught at many other universities and colleges including Oberlin College, Columbia University, Stanford University, Duke University, and the University of Nebraska. He has worked with several American dance companies including Dance Theater of Harlem and Alvin Ailey. He has also worked closely with other cultural institutes in the United States such as the Caribbean Cultural Center in New York and the Carver Community Cultural Center in San Antonio, Texas.

In 1993, after a decade of collaboration between DanceBrazil and the Carver Cultural Community Center, Mr. Vieira and Carver Center Director Jo Long decided to create Ilê Bahia de San Antonio, the House of African-Brazilian Arts. The organization was incorporated in 1993 to establish a professional level instruction and training center in the African-Brazilian performing arts. Special emphasis is placed on training at-risk, minority youth in a positive and culturally affirming activity.