Program coordinator, dancer, choreographer, vocalist, teacher, facilitator

Debbie Nargi-Brown is a gifted dance teacher who has been teaching African Inspired Dance Classes for over 22 years. She produces and facilitates drum and dance events in California, Hawaii, Canada, and Europe and is recognized for her abilities in the dance forms of West Africa, Brazil, the Congo, Cuba, Trinidad, and Haiti just to name a few. Students can experience traditional dances that she has learned from master dancers as well as from her travels in Africa. They can also groove to her lyrical, funky, or interpretive styles of dance with African, Caribbean, and Brazilian influences and all to the driving rhythms of her talented drummers and co-facilitators.

As a specialist in movement, rhythm, and teaching, Debbie relies upon dancing, singing, and the creation of a safe place to ignite joy, passion, and a sense of community in her workshops and classes. There is always an abiding respect for the cultures from which many of the dances and songs originate. She embraces and embodies the healing and sacredness of the songs, dances, and the people who have been her teachers.

Debbie’s nurturing approach to dance allows her students to feel comfortable at their own level of dance, to be smoothly in their bodies, and to feel the satisfaction of dancing with others. She encourages expression from within while drawing upon a connection to levels and powers greater than ourselves. This has resulted in an network of dancers, drummers, and a tightly knit community that continues to grow and flourish beyond the bounds of Santa Cruz and with people of wide and diverse life experiences.