9.Dance
Dance is a universal cultural element. It is performed around the world, in a variety of ways, and for an assortment of reasons. Examples include dances that are traditional, ceremonial, rites of passage, entertaining, or religious. In Brazil, there are several dances in particular that are popular and are of African influence. In this section, I will discuss 1)samba, 2)bossa nova, and 3)capoeira.
Samba
Samba has many definitions to describe its existence as it fits into two categories (music and dance). The following are definitions provided by Alma Guillermoprieto, author of the book Samba (Guillermoprieto 15).
Samba’s roots are speculated to have come from Bahia to Rio more than one hundred years ago. The mystery of samba’s roots is complicated further by the fact that the word samba was used in the late nineteenth century both as a synonym for various Afro-Brazilian dances and to designate parties held by slaves and former slaves. But it was certainly in Rio that samba was developed, embellished, and transformed into a distinct genre. (McGowan and Pessanha
Bossa Nova
McGowan and Pessanha share the following about bossa nova, "Bossa nova was a new type of samba in which the genre’s rhythmic complexity had been pared down to its bare essentials, transformed into a different kind of beat. It was full of unusual harmonies and syncopations, all expressed with a sophisticated simplicity. Sometimes small combos performed bossa; but it was ideally suited to a lone singer and a guitar. This "new fashion" or "new way" (the approximate translation of "bossa nova") of singing, playing, and arranging songs was born in Rio de Janeiro in the mid-1950s" (McGowan and Pessanha 55-56).
The importance of bossa nova in the evolution of Brazilian music itself was also immense. After its golden days, 1958 to 1964, the bossa nova movement lost momentum, but every musician that came after it fed on its sophisticated harmonies. Young musicians who before bossa nova would look for novelties abroad started looking for them inside Brazil, inside themselves. In the years to follow, many artists, when asked about the beginning of their serious interest in music, would answer, "Well, it all started with bossa nova." (McGowan and Pessanha 73)
Capoeira
The following paragraphs contain an account of the evolution of capoeira from its birth to its role in Brazilian culture today. Capoeira has developed into a martial art and a form of dance.
Created nearly 40 years ago by African slaves in Brazil, capoeira is both a martial art and a unique dance that brings together beauty and power. The Africans first arrived by the hundreds and later by the thousands (approximately four million in total). The Bantu groups are believed to have been the foundation for the birth of capoeira. They brought with them their culture, a culture that was not stored away in books and museums but rather in the body, mind, heart and soul. A culture that was transmitted from father to son, throughout generations. There was candomble’ a religion; the berimbau, a musical instrument; vatapa, a food; and so many other things. Basically a way of life.
The Dutch controlled parts of the northeast between 1624 and 1654. Slaves took steps towards reconquest of their freedom when the Dutch lashed out against the Portugese colony, invading towns and plantations along the northeastern coast concentrating on Recife and Salvador. With each Dutch invasion the security of the plantations and towns were weakened. The slaves taking advantage of the opportunities, fled, plunging into the forests in search of places in which to hide and survive. Many after escaping founded independent villages called quilombos.
The quilombos were very important to evolution of capoeira. There were at least ten major quilombos with internal socio-economic organizations and commercial relationships with neighboring cities. The quilombo dos Palmraes lasted sixty-seven years in the interior of the state of Alagoas, rebuffing almost all expeditions sent to extinguish it. Because of the consistency and type of threat present, capoeira developed its structure as a fight in the quilombos. The embryo of capoeira as a rudimentary fighting style was created in the slaves’ quarters and perhaps would not have developed further if left only to that environment.
Starting around 1814, capoeira and other forms of African cultural expression suffered repression and were prohibited in some places by the slave masters and overseers. Up until that date, forms of African cultural expression were permitted and sometimes even encouraged, not only as a safety gauge against internal pressures created by slavery but also to bring out the differences between various African groups, in a spirit of "divide and conquer". But with the arrival in Brazil in 1808 of the Portuguese King Dom Joao VI and his court, who were fleeing Napoleon Bonaparte’s invasion of Portugal, things changed. The newcomers understood the necessity of destroying a people’s culture in order to dominate them, and capoeira began to be persecuted in a process, which would culminate with its being outlawed in 1892.