Courtney "Jabuticaba" Carter first fell in love with samba when her friend took her to see a performance in 2006 while attending UC Davis. As she witnessed the beauty and high energy of the performance, she pointed to the samba dancer (who later became her very first samba instructor) and said, "I'm going to learn how to do this!" The very next day Courtney began to research samba classes and met Marta Santos, who set the foundation for the love Courtney has for Brazilian Samba dance.

In the same year, Courtney graduated and moved back to Southern California where she immediately found another samba school (escola de samba) in San Diego- Super Sonic Samba School. For almost two decades, Courtney has dedicated herself to the craft of learning more about the dance form and appreciating the African/Black influence of Brazilian culture. She trained with top notch instructors and participated in Samba encounters where she had the opportunity to learn from the multi-talented Monique Guzman Dance Master, Carnival Queen Jonia, Ana Laidley (Aninha Malandro), Pablo Guerreiro, Carlinhos Rei dos Passitas, Ailton Nunes Mestre da Bateria, and Rainha da Bateria, Egili Oliveira (just to name a few).

Courtney started Brazilian Dance Company in Temecula on April 1, 2015 due to the lack of representation of Black Passistas in the US. As a way to demonstrate resistance to the eurocentric beauty standards, Courtney created this group to be an inspiration to all women who feel they do not have the samba "look". Through BDC, Courtney is able to inspire people of all walks of life to embrace who they are, overcome a common challenge, and make new friends along the way.
Our motto is 'Samba is for Everyone!' and we hope you join us.
To follow Courtney please see the links below.