About me
A positive and inspirational professional who adapts quickly to new and changing environments.
A community leader and enthusiastic educator of men, women and children. A passionate
advocate for healthcare equity and community empowerment.
Onda Mansa was raised by an immigrant mother from La Ceiba, Honduras, in uptown New
Orleans. She began performing dance on stage at age 3 with Kumbuka dance collective under
the tutelage of Mamas Jamila, Ausettua, and Greer Goff-Mendy on the corner of Carondelet and
Dryades (now O.C.Haley Blvd). She also toured and danced with Estrella Garifuna, a local
Garifuna dance troupe led by Dona Zoila until 1996. In 1996, she joined the US Air Force and
was later stationed in Tucson, AZ. While living in Tucson, she found the Afro-Brazilian art of
capoeira and has been training and teaching the art since 1997.
For over 27 years she has traveled across the US, Mexico, and coastal Brazil teaching and performing capoeira and Afro
Brazilian dance forms including samba de roda, symbolic movements of the orixas, maculele, samba reggae and afoxe. She has a holistic health and movement studio located in Tucson, AZ where she also offers acupuncture, herbal medicine, and Rootwork TM products.