Sivaldo
"He taught me almost everything I know about Bahia. Now he's gracious enough to share himself with the world."
The soul of BBE's Salvador itinerary. Dancer, drag artist, cultural icon, and a teacher in every conversation. The Bahia BBE will offer exists because Sivaldo opened that door first for Bryant. Full itinerary coming soon.
Sivaldo is a special soul, the kind of person you meet once in a city and never forget. Twenty-plus years moving at the center of Salvador's dance, drag, and cultural community. He's the reason I understand Bahia at all.
I came to Salvador looking for music. I left with a teacher. Almost everything I know about Bahia, I know because Sivaldo showed me. The terreiros. The right corner in Pelourinho on a Tuesday. The drag scene most tourists never see. The food his neighbor cooks better than any restaurant. The respect this city earns when you stop performing and start listening.
He charges his own community almost nothing because the community is the point. For years I asked him to let me bring people to him. He said no. Then last month he said "okay, the right ones." So now we get to share him with the world, gracefully, slowly, on his terms.
This page is a placeholder for what's coming. The full Salvador itinerary, built around him, launches soon.
Twenty-plus years
at the center of Salvador's scene
Sivaldo runs a dance studio in Salvador. He performs as a drag artist. He's danced internationally across multiple continents and come home every time because Salvador is the work. He's an elder in the cultural sense even though he's still moving, somebody every younger dancer in the city knows by name, somebody every drag queen sends DMs to before a show.
When you spend a day with him, three things happen: you eat better than you've eaten in months, you learn something about Candomblé you couldn't have read anywhere, and you laugh until your ribs hurt. That's the Sivaldo experience. It's not a tour. It's a friendship for the day.
The Bahia
you can't Google
Dance & Drag
The studio. The drag stage. The cultural performance circuits that run year-round in Salvador and have shaped Bahian identity for generations.
Candomblé Access
Respectful introductions to the terreiros he's connected to. The spiritual capital of Brazil opens differently when you arrive with the right person.
The Real Pelourinho
The colonial center as it actually lives, Olodum on Tuesdays, the family restaurants, the side streets the bus tours miss.
Gay Salvador
Salvador's queer scene has its own rhythm and Sivaldo has navigated it as a public figure for two decades. The clubs, the bars, the parties, the community.
Iemanjá Festival
February 2nd. The single biggest Candomblé celebration in Brazil. White-clad faithful walking to the beach to offer to the goddess of the sea. Sivaldo's been part of this his whole adult life.
Bahian Food
The moquecas, the acarajés, the dishes that aren't on any restaurant menu but exist in someone's grandmother's kitchen. Bahian food is one of the great cuisines in the world.
Sivaldo
through the lens
Salvador, the studio, the stage, the streets. A few moments from years of shared time.
The Salvador Itinerary Launches Soon
Pelourinho cultural deep-dive, Candomblé access through Sivaldo's network, capoeira, gay Salvador nightlife, Iemanjá Festival in February. The full experience, built around the right person.
Get on the Salvador Waitlist →