What is Zouk?

History of Zouk Love

Zouk in the Netherlands?:

Extra Zouk info:

Zouk Revolution is a dance, that got very popular the last year. Zouk Revolution is a sensual, gracious, spicy and nice dance to see....also named the modern form of Zouk. You will notice in this dances the wavy, dreamy movements mixed with spicy, faster movements .
Zouk Revolution is not only nice to see, but also nice to dance! It gives you a good body excercise. At this moment Zouk Revolution is very popular in Holland and Brasília-Brazil.

 

 

History of Zouk Revolution.

Zouk Revolution in the Netherlands?

Joao Gilberto watched Cláudio Gomes and Renate Nijland dancing a Zoukshow in Porto Seguro on a Zouk R&B-Reggaetonmix in december 2004 . He invited Cláudio and Renate to give workshops for his students in Brasília. Cláudio and Renate became also inspired by Joao and his way of dancing (Zouk Revolution and Samba de Gafieira) and invited him to give workshops in the Netherlans. Joao came in the winter of 2005 for the first time to Holland and that was the birth of Zouk Revolution in the Netherlands.

Samba is moving your legs, your feet, swing your hips and let your total body fly on the beats of the Samba drums! Be able to dance and have fun with the Samba music wherever you go! As a couple with the Samba de Gafieira and Samba de Pagode and ‘’alone’’ with Samba de Pé.

History of Samba (Rio de Janeiro en Sao Paulo)

This vibrant and exciting culture is still evolving and is expressed in different ways in various parts of Brazil. It is important to note that what we in Europe call samba dance or Samba music‚ is often an umbrella-term encompassing several different forms of music (samba‚ samba-reggae‚ afro bloc‚ maracatu‚ baio‚ etc.). No one is sure where the term samba originated. Some say it comes from the word semba‚ a Congo/Angola expression used to describe a traditional African dance brought to Brazil by slaves.

 

 

Samba de Pé in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo

Today’s samba schools are descendants of the neighborhood blocos - groups of poor Rio residents who came together to sing and dance to the accompaniment of percussion music-. Blocos celebrated carnival in their own neighborhoods and visited neighboring favelas.

Samba came to the attention of white Brazilians with the advent of radio and record players and the first recorded sambas appeared from 1917 onwards.
The first samba school Deixa Falar (Let Them Speak) was formed in 1928.
Quickly‚ many other samba schools were formed such as Mangueira (1930)
and Portela (1935)‚ all of which exist to this day!
The term samba school refers to the fact that many of these early groups rehearsed in school yards.

A typical samba school can number 3000 to 5000 members‚ although not all members will perform for carnival. The most important event in the life of a samba school and her people is the carnival parade! Carnival is celebrated each year just before the Catholic feast of Lent and‚ as such occurs in February or early March.

A sambaschoolcarnival-entry will typically include;

• Singers (puxadores) ‚
• Musicians‚ including a drumming section called the bateria‚
• Dancers‚
• Giant puppets‚
• Several floats and flag bearers‚
• All ornately decorated or wearing colorful costumes.

As well as the performers‚ there will be an army of people behind the scenes‚ building props and floats‚ making costumes‚ designing elements of the entry‚ doing the administration for the sambaschoolcarnival etc.

Samba schools will begin their preparations for the carnival as early as mid July. Samba school members compose songs and submit designs for costumes‚ floats‚ etc.

The samba enredo (winning song) will be selected and becomes the key song and determines the overall theme (Every samba school has to have a subject which they show at the carnival with the whole group) This can be different subjects for that year's entry. Then‚ the intensive rehearsals follow‚ float construction and costume making commences which will continue right up to the beginning of carnival! The people work hard for this parade! The results are beautiful to see!: Amazing clothes, beautiful dressed ladies dancing samba, music that goes straight to your heart, and so on! It´s really worth to see this at least one time in your life!

History of Samba Salvador de Bahia

In Salvador de Bahia‚ carnival traditions developed differently and are closely linked with the black-consciousness movement of the 1970’s. Taking on board the same influences as Rio samba‚ and mixing them with music from other black artists of the period (soul‚ funk and reggae) ‚ new Afro Blocs formed.

Afro blocs celebrated the African heritage of their (mainly black) membership and set about educating people about African cultures while speaking out about past and present injustices and inequalities in Brazilian society. Their music contains a stronger African influence than Rio samba.

The first Afro bloc was Ile Aiye‚ formed in 1974. Ile Aiye took the controversial step of excluding whites and mulattos from their ranks and specializes in provocative‚ pro-black lyrics.

The best-known Afro bloc of all is Olodum‚ who are generally considered to have invented samba-reggae.

What is de Gafiera? Samba de Gafieira is een Brazilian ballroom dance, very nice to dance and beautiful to see! This dance as a couple. In Gafieira you have a combination of elegance, creativity and rythm in the movements.

Extra info Samba de Gafieira

Samba de Gafieira lessons in Holland by: Joao Gilberto, Adilio Porto, Renate Nijland, Marcelo and Naushad.

What is Axé / Sambaerobics? Axé /

Axé Bahia still leads the Brazilian pop charts with its upbeat combination of African, Caribbean and funny rhythms and sounds!

Smiles, Happiness and No Stress are the rules of Bahia Carnival, where the Axé music and dance is one of Bahians wonderful culture!

Afro-Brazilian beats will keep you’re the people moving as they dance.

Olodum, Timbalada, Ilye Aiye are a few of the afro blocos that will bring the rhythms of Afro Bahia. The festive music of happiness of Carnival in Bahia keeps people in a party mood as they dance with on Axé Bahia music!

 

 

History of Axé / Sambaerobics

Axé (Ahh-shay) Music takes its name from an Afro-Brazilian term meaning "peace be with you") and originated with the percussion of the Afro-bloco Carnival groups. Axé music does not really have an "official" birthday. However, in the late 1980s, a new pop form that a journalist decided to name the style of music that was rapidly evolving throughout Bahia and Pernambuco as Axé music, hit the record charts. Axé combines samba reggae with rock, jazz, salsa, and other Latin rhythms. Many of the blocos afros formed subgroups of bandas who play Axé in pop concerts and on the massive trios elétricos. The hugely influential frevo music from Pernambuco gave fricote/axé music its fast tempo and beat. This influence can clearly be seen today as bands continue to increase the tempo and the music gets wilder and wilder. Before Axé music took over Bahians Carnival, frevo was the music of choice for most blocos.

Today Forró is making its way into Brazilian pop culture. Radio stations all over the country are alternating pop-rock and samba tunes with the exciting and clever tunes of the progressively better looking Forró bands and trios.

 

 

What is Forró?

It is a happy, dancing music, danced in pairs and especially played during the Festas Juninas (June festivals). You can hear and dance Forró in whole Brazil! Everywhere in Brazil they have a different style of dancing Forró, but the thought behind dancing on the Forró-music is for almost all Native Brazilians the same…..HAVE FUN and MOVE YOUR BODY!

History of Forró

The origins of Forró are debatable. The most familiar story: As the tale goes, a group of English settlers in Pernambuco (another Northeastern state) provided a tavern that hosted dances welcome to everyone in the area regardless of class or gender. They called the designated dances, "For All", which was adopted by the Portuguese speakers as Forró (pronounced fo-HO with a soft O-sound). This was the tale told my most Forró musicians of the Twentieth Century. The other explanation was offered by a cultural historian named Luís da Câmara Cascudo. Cascudo suspects that the term comes from an African word, forrobodó, which would mean party, or high jinks.

Regardless of the origin, the spread of Forró undeniably occurred in the 1940s when legendary Luiz Gonzaga, the son of an accordionist in Pernambuco, moved to the South and recorded the songs so beloved in the Northeast. The lyrics of most traditional Forró recordings have a distinct theme of struggle, drought, pains of the heart, as well as praise for the vida sertaneja, or life in the interior. This poetry depicting the tougher life is put to lively, celebratory music to which its listener is defenseless. It is a happy, dancing music, danced in pairs and especially played during the Festas Juninas (June festivals). The purpose of Forró is not unlike that of the blues in the United States, when the plaintive lyrics are worked out by the infectious beats of the music.

Today Forró is making its way into Brazilian pop culture. Radio stations all over the country are alternating pop-rock and samba tunes with the exciting and clever tunes of the progressively better looking Forró bands and trios. Fan clubs are filled to the max for popular musicians such as Falamansa, Chama Chuva, and Colher de Pau. Most of these bands hail from Bahia and other Northeastern states where the music is most certainly on fire.

These days, what is found in Salvador is what the rest of the country, North, South, urban or rural, cherishes on the sound waves. Forró is now almost as popular as when Luiz Gonzaga introduced it all those decades ago.

Perhaps it is a quest for what is true, tangible, and significant in young Brazilian identity. To remember the past, use it, and add to it with modern ideas is one of the most emotional ties a person can have to his land. In such an increasingly urban society, a connection to the music to call your own is in itself a connection to the people you share it with.