Analyzing Ocean Pollution

Ocean Pollution was the theme of our group. The name of the group was Sub-Zero. Our theme basically consisted of the water god Oxum and Omolu the pollution god. The plot of the dance was the two gods marching in the front of the parade; the fishes were behind along with the starfish and me as the shark. All the fishes that were following were the pray and the shark was the predator in the ocean. When the march started we were swimming because we are in the ocean, eventually we do the water dance where we put our hands together to form a cup and swerve left to right. We calculated how many times we were going to do that until we hit our mark and start stomping. We stomped as a group together six different sets and then we spin our music starts and we go under the arms of the two gods to form a circle. The song we used was by “Kid-Cudi She came Along,” As soon as the lady said “She came Along,” the two gods came in to dance their dance. While the ocean creatures circled them and walked around them. After a while the gods start fighting and Oxum gets knocked out of the circle while Omolu starts killing the fishes.

After she kills all the fishes, but the shark, the shark has nothing to eat since his food was gone and dies of starvation. After a while Oxum comes back and kills Omolu and starts saving all the fish from death including the shark, after they all revive we leave and start marching back to the end of the parade.

The whole idea of the theme Ocean Pollution came from the way Omolu spreads the smallpox, but in this case she’s spreading pollution. In our history of pollution, the ocean is one of the environments that suffer the most deaths because of pollution. These deaths include many different types of fishes, turtles, stars, and even sharks die. Oxum is the water god who keeps all these animals safe by providing them with water, but Omolu is the pollution that is thrown in the water and crosses the ocean life.

My part in the parade was to choreograph the whole routine along with another choreographer. I decided that the start of the march should consist of us to be swimming. After we hit the corner we would lock arms with the person next to us and skip together as a group. After we all came together and decided to knit. The importance of that in our group was for the knitting to capture our memories of the enjoyment we had swimming. From knitting I decided that we should samba to a certain point to show that we are still happy as a group. Once we hit the two yellow poles on the way to the stage we started to do the water dance to show that we have water, after that the music starts which happens to be a song that I choose and fitted perfectly in our parade. Once we got to our mark where in practice we practiced it too many times to not know where it was, but we got it right and started to march down to the stage in fancy style I believe.

Our performance started as soon as we got to the front of the judges. The two gods united to let the fishes swim under the bridge they formed. The fishes started doing a dance; the females did a different dance from the males. During this the song is playing in which the two gods circle each other around the circle while locking eyes and staring each other down. Once the song said “She came along,” the two gods go in and do their own personal dance while the fishes as me swim around them. Eventually they start fighting and pollution wins the first battle and starts polluting our water and kills all the fishes and only I the shark is left, but end up dying of hunger because there were no more fishes left. Oxum comes back and kills Omolu and revives all the fishes including the shark. All the fishes start to dance around Oxum while the shark which is me swims around the whole ceremony. At the end the two gods pick up a poster saying not to pollute the ocean. We then march our way out until we finish the parade.

Don’t Kill Fishes!

Our teams theme for the parade performance was Ocean Pollution. When we came up with this theme we originally wanted to perform in a swimming pool. We actually wanted to pretend that we were fishes and so that it would get our message across more efficiently. Sadly though we were taken out of the water because we had to perform live. Even so I believe that our theme and our idea came though exactly as we hoped for. Our music as in sync with our dancing and our costumes portrayed our fishes. For our costumes we came up with the idea of everyone portraying the fish they represented. I was a cute little turtle. We also wanted to put small messages on the backs of our shirts saying don’t kill fishes, stop polluting, trash kills; when we died we would have turned our backs to the audience and they would have seen our point more clearly. This proved to be difficult because we did not have paint or time to make everything look nice. I think that all the elements of our dance went well together and successfully represented out theme. Our dance moves were smooth and water like and our music went along with the dance moves.

My job in tem sub zero’s great performance was to be in charge of the music. I can not say that it was all my idea because it was a group effort in choosing the song. Our first idea was to mix a few different songs so that we knew different elements of the dance. Our theme of ocean pollution need the song to be soft, slow and soothing in the beginning to symbolize peace and happiness among the fishes. It also needed some excitement and cheerfulness to express the fishes happiness toward their goddess Yemanja. Another element of our parade was sadness and distress for the part when Omolu comes to kill Yemanja and the fishes. Our song needed to consist of all these elements at the same time, so we thought it was best to mix songs to get good results. But like many things in life things never go according to plan. We found out that none of us knew or had the equipment necessary to mix songs together. Our plan B was to listen to songs that sounded "fishy" in order to get the results we wanted. What we ended up doing was listening to Edgar’s Ipod and finding the perfect song. The song we used in our performance was "She came along" by Kid Cudi. It had most of the elements we needed and I believe it helped get our message across. It was slow and peaceful in the beginning and moved into a more upbeat and fast rhythm. The song also became slow and mellow towards the middle which was perfect for our fishes untimely deaths. This song was a good choice because the lyrics had the perfect cues to our dancing. When the song said she came along our Orisha’s came into the circle. The song also gave us perfect transitions to our movements. When it said rain, we made movements of rain. Over all I believe the song and our dance went well together. One of the songs that we were thinking about using in our original plan was "Under the Sea" from movie "The Little Mermaid" . I think that that would have been an funny and cute way to let the audience know what we were doing

This experience was very knew to me but fun at the same time. At the beginning I was very reluctant to do it because I prefer to dance when no one is watching but I knew it had to be done. I really enjoyed working with people who I would have never thought I would work with let alone become friends with. I had not worked with a group of people in a long time but it did bring back memories of my day’s of being in JROTC and working in teams. I was very surprised with myself because I realized I am very creative. I am happy to say that once I got used to the idea that we were going to parade around in front of people I had good ideas to bring to the table. Normally I stay quiet when it comes to voicing my opinions but this project helped me learn to speak freely because people will listen.

Save the Sea Animals!!

My group, Subzero, choreographed and performed based on the theme water pollution. As a group we decided that we wanted to demonstrate how pollution affects the sea animals. We came up with this theme, as we decided research about what is affecting the ocean and the living species in it. We saw pictures of animals cover stuck with trash and oil covering them. This problem affected us and we wanted to show people how pollution can affect the sea animals. The overall idea of the dance was to show that trash can cause the death of the sea animals. In the choreography we included a pollutant, the water god lemanja, and animal fishes. For the animal fishes, we included: a turtle, jelly fish, beta fish, clown fish, and a shark. We wanted to show a variation of sea animals. The shark represented the predator. The choreography began with the sea animal going through a bridge that the pollutant and lemanja made. This represented the animals going inside the polluted ocean. Lemanja represented the water and the pollutant the pollution. While going in the sea creatures were swimming through the bridge. Once inside the people representing the fishes starting dancing. They dance some African American and Samba moves. This represented the fishes being happy in the ocean. Then the pollutant and Lemanja walk around them. They just looked at each other in a bad way. They made dirty looks to each other. Then the fishes made a circle and the pollutant and Lemanja went inside the circle. Each of them introduced themselves with a dance. The pollutant was represented by the goddess Omolu. Lemanja and Omolu danced in the middle of the circle and introduced to the audience what they do. Omolu performed the dance of spreading out diseases, but in this situation trash. Lemanja, performed the dance of water and the bracelets. Then, Omolu and Lemanja fight each other, Lemanja losses the fight and gets out of the circle. Then the fishes continue to swim around, but Omolu is also going around. As she goes around she is throwing trash and every time she throws trash to a fish, the fish dies. Omolu goes around killing the fishes. The last one to survive is the shark. The shark does not die of pollution, but instead of not having anyone to eat. The shark shows his starvation to the audience by rubbing his stomach and making a sad face that he has no food. The shark represented the Life Cycle. Then he dies. After all the fishes had died, Lemanja comes back in and fights Omolu. She revives all the fishes again and they swim out. Omolu stays on the floor dead. Our costumes were simple, but it helped people understand more about our theme. We bought colorful shirts that will help represent the color of the fishes. In the shirts we put the name of the fish and drew a picture of it. The shark put a red bandana on his face, to show that he was the predator. Omolu, dressed all in black and had a skull painted in her shirt, with other words printed. It had words like disease, pollution, and death. Yemaya, wore a white skirt and a baby blue color shirt to represent water. In this process of making the parade I also got the opportunity to learn more about myself. I learned that working as a team can be fun and easy to do. Before I would be the shy one of the group, but this time I wanted to get out of my comfort zone and decided to speak more and give my opinions to the group. Another thing I learn is that working as a group makes things easier. Also, I did not think I had creativeness, but I sure did have it inside me. This parade turned out to be a unique and fun experience. In overall, I learn many things from this parade and class in all. At the beginning of the course we learn about the Oxiras. I learned that each dance that the Orixas performed represented something. Also, samba moves were interesting to learn because it is part of the history of Brazil. Samba helped Brazil bring together the mixture of races. Also, because Samba is still performed in Brazil and has been part of many other places. While working on the parade it was interesting seeing how everything we learn was going to help the group make a statement about our theme. As an assistant director, I was involved in every part of the parade. The things we learned in class helped us come up with ideas that would help the audience understand about the pollution in the sea. Doing the parade made me understand that dance can be more than just moves. Dance has a deep meaning for something. In this case the Oxiras helped our parade have a meaning and helped the audience understand about what was going on in our dance. If I could continue this piece, I would incorporate different styles of dancing. I would add more samba into it and some hip hop. Also, I would add more formations to the dance and have other people perform. I would put more people, so that there can be more fishes. I would put more fishes because the ocean is full of different sea animals. Also, I would give the pollutant more and different kinds of trash. This way people can see the different ways a fish can be polluted. Another, thing I would do is make the piece longer.

Save the Ocean!

The theme of our final performance was ocean pollution. We chose this theme because we thought that we could create a clear message about the negative impact that pollution can have on the ocean and the animals that inhabit it. The group also realized that this theme would allow us to incorporate some of the water movements that we had been learning in class. I believe that our theme was successfully interrogated by our performance, and I also believe that our message about the negative impacts that arise from polluting our oceans came across quite clearly.

In my opinion, the two main reasons that our performance was able to convey our theme so clearly was due to the dance’s characters and choreography. In the dance we had two Orixas: Lemenja, who represented the water goddess and the protector of the ocean, and Omulu, who we chose to symbolize water pollution. Originally our antagonist was a mere ocean polluter, but the group decided to change this character to Omulu since he is the god of disease. We had the two Orixas introduce themselves by using moves that were unique to their characters, and once it was made clear who these two Orixas were, we had them battle one another. Omulu was the victor and Lemenja was banished, which allowed Omulu to begin to infect and pollute the ocean. This is where the various sea creatures that had been swimming around during the battle came into play. We had ocean creatures such as the shark, jellyfish, turtle, clown fish, beta fish, and crab. Each fish character used moves that represented swimming to help make it clear that they where sea creatures. These characters played a crucial role in helping us getting our theme across, since their deaths represented the destruction that can be brought on by ocean pollution. Omulu would give each fish a piece of trash, which represented pollution, and the fish would then die until only one loan shark remained. The shark didn’t die because of the pollution directly. Instead the shark died of starvation that resulted from the lack of live fish that remained in the ocean after the pollution had spread. Afterwards, Lemenja returned and defeated Omulu and was able to heal the damage that the pollution had caused. Once the balance was restored, the sea creatures then danced around her using some of her own dance moves to show their happiness of her return.

The music also helped our performance move along smoothly. Our group chose to use the song “She Came Along” by Kid Cudi. The song may not have contained any special meanings, but it seemed to fit our dance almost perfectly. We were able to use the song’s lyrics as cues to begin our dance moves. The very first time that the song says “she came along” was when we had the Orixas first enter the circle, and the part were rain was mentioned was when we had the fish begin to raise their hand up and down while wiggling their fingers to represent rain.

My job in this performance was to design the costumes and to decide what props would be best to use to help portray our theme. Due to a lack of money, I decided to make the costumes somewhat simple. I had each person wear a solid colored shirt that matched the creature that they were playing. The turtle wore a green shirt; the clown fish wore orange and so on. As a group we also decided to draw our creature onto our shirts to help the audience understand exactly what creature we were portraying. The only character that didn’t have a symbol on the shirt was the shark. Instead I had the shark wear grey and a small piece of red clothing to show that he was a predator. I think that these costumes really helped to show that the ocean is full of diverse and unique animals. The Orixas also wore similar shirts, but Omulu’s shirt contained symbols that represented death and sayings such pollution. I also had Lemenja wear a shirt and colorful bracelets to amplify her beauty. The only issue that I had with the costumes was with the Orixa’s costumes. If we had continued with the dance performance, I would have made their costumes a little more intricate and eye catching. The only props that I chose to use were the pieces of trash that Omulu gave the fish to represent the pollution that was infecting the ocean. The props were just simple objects such as a small bag, a soda can, and a jello cup, but I believe that they worked well in showing the spread of the pollution.

This dance performance helped me realize that I could in fact be a creative person. I was able to offer small ideas, such as Omulu grabbing Lemenja’s wrist while she was dancing to signify the beginning of their battle, that the group liked and added into the performance. This helped me to be more willing to speak up, which is something that I’ve always had trouble doing. I also realized how a group can feed off each other’s ideas and can then create something amazing. This performance also managed to help me overcome my fear of dancing in public. After the dance, I couldn't help but feel that if I could dance like a dying fish, then I shouldn’t have any problems going swing dancing!

By Clarissa Morales

No to Ocean Pollution

The theme of our parade was “Ocean Pollution.” It took us a long time to finally settle on this theme because we wanted to choose an issue that each and every individual felt strongly about. Some of my group members felt strongly about the endangerment of animal species, others about water shortages, and finally there were those who felt strongly about pollution. We decided to take all these issues and combine them into one, which eventually gave us our theme. After we had chosen our theme we moved on to other elements of the parade such as: music, costumes, and choreography, which helped get our message across. Overall, I believe that we were able to successfully interrogated our theme by our performance.

The first thing that we chose after the theme was our music selection. At first we wanted to make a mixed CD of songs, but we soon came to the conclusion that this would not fit our theme. We wanted our music to flow like the ocean itself , and not have awkward breaks in the middle. We also wanted our song to be slow, soothing, but at the same time upbeat. In the end, my group and I ended up settling on the song, “She came along,” by Kid Cudi. I personally think that this song fit our theme perfectly. It is slow and soothing enough that it fit the choreography of the fish and it had a fast enough beat to not make things too dull.
Also, the name of the song “She came along” and lyrics, were supposed to represent the surprise attack of Omolu, which was played by myself. Omolu in our parade was supposed to represent pollution, disease, and ultimately death.

After we chose our song we moved on to the costumes. At first we planned on buying body glitter because we wanted everyone in the group to represent a fish. The body glitter would look like fish scales from far away. However, this proved to be too much of a hassle and we wanted variety in our parade so we decided that everyone in the group should represent a different sea creature. In order for us to be told apart we decided to buy colored shirts and draw the sea creature we were supposed to represent in the front the t-shirt. I, was not a sea creature, but I did write “Omolu” on my shirt and drew a skull to represent death. I also wore brown shorts because the color brown is associated with Omolu. In Addition, Blanca who was Yemaya, and who was supposed to cure the fish of the disease, wore a baby, blue shirt in order to represent the colors associated to the goddess. Overall, I really had a fun time decorating the t-shirts and helping make them.

When it comes to the props, we didn't really have that many, but the ones that were used fit the theme accordingly. I was the only one who really had to carry the props. The props consisted of actual trash, to represent all the waste that gets carried out to the ocean every day. During our performance I carried a plastic bag filled with a water bottle, a candy wrapper, a soda can, and an empty “jell-o” cup. I ended up passing out all of these objects in order to show the spread of disease to each creature. At the end of the performance both Fatima and Carissa also held a sign saying, “Save the Ocean” in order to let the audience know that something should be done about this issue. All in all, I think the props were very effective, and it made things easier when it came to showing that pollution causes the death of many sea animals.

When it comes to the actual choreography, it also revolved around our theme. When it came to my own and Blanca's choreography it was pretty simple. We each decided to perform the dances that are associated with each God. I, for example, did the hand movements for the spreading of disease. When it comes to everybody else in the group, they incorporated a lot of hand movements in order to depict the movements of the sea animals. Also, the group incorporated different formations in order to depict the movement of the waves, up and down, right to left. As a whole, the choreography really matched our theme very well, and I think we were able to show this through our performance.

I definitely learned a lot about myself through out the entire process. I learned to manage my time, and I learned that in order to really do well I had to practice a lot. In the beginning, I really didn't think I would be able to pull of the role I was playing, since there were high expectations from my group members. I had to perform a dance that I couldn't change or manipulate, and it had to be right on point. However, I studied the dance a lot and all of the different moments that make up the dance itself, and in the end I think I did a pretty good job. I also, think that we did a very nice job as a group as well. I really enjoyed watching the dance of rejoicing and celebration when Yemaya revived the animals. All in all, I had a great time and in then end it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be.

The Dancing Experience

For our presentation during the Carnival that we established for our Brazilian Dance class, we chose to do our parade performance on the theme of Water Pollution. It was a theme that we all agreed on because of the Orixias that we thought would be excellent to portray in the dance. The characters in the dance were all types of fishes such as a shark, clown fish, crab, turtle, beta fish, and a jellyfish. The two main characters in the dance were the two Orixias Omolu and the water goddess Iemanja.  We chose the theme of water pollution because we believed that it was a problem that the world is facing today and it also related to our dance moves and the Orixias.

 

            The story of out performance or the setup was about two major powers colliding and it affected the living things around them and in our case, the fish. Fish would be living normally in the ocean and then Omolu would come in and make the water around the fish dirty and eventually all the fish would later on die. Also having the predator (shark) swim around the ocean without his food (fish), really made it hard for him to survive so he also died as the fish did. Then when the fish were all dead, Iemanja came in and fought with Omolu and killed her and then she revived all the fish. Then once the fish came back, they started worshiping her.

 

            We were able to put the whole story line into our performance very well mostly because of the dancing styles that samba brings. Since samba can be danced with many styles of music, it was easy for us to find a song that would work with our performance. For the dance we chose the song “She Came Along” by Kid Cudi.  The song does not relate to the story line but the beat or the bass line really did help us out because of the movements we were doing. It all contributed greatly and the dance was able to work well with the song.

 

            My job for the Sub-Zero group was the job of looking for our locations in which we practiced and where we had our meetings. For the most part we had our very first meetings at the University Village and then in Diego’s apartments. At first we began to talk about how everything is going to be. Since we just needed to talk, I decided to go to places in which we were able to talk about how we were going to make the dance. Once we began actually practicing the dances, we practiced at the UCR dorms. After getting the entrance, we began to practice at the actual parade route after we were shown how the parade was going to be. In the last few days, all our meetings were at the actual parade route. That was basically my whole participation in the group other than buying some shirts for some group members and giving a few ideas for the dance.

 

            We had to cut some things from the performances in order to make it shorter because at the practice parade it was too long. But everything came out perfect for the final performance. I had a lot of fun in the class because I would never pictured myself actually dancing in a parade in front of people in school. It was a new experience for me because I was usually a very shy person. Being able to dance during lecture was very enjoying because in the beginning I did not know what I was getting myself into, but throughout the course I guess I could say that I actually changed. Before I went into class I basically only knew about Brazil from their soccer based views and the land of very beautiful woman. But I was able to learn more about the carnivals and their whole traditions and gods. It was very interesting. The whole course ended with a bang because of the parade we did. I would actually laugh if anybody told me that I would dancing in a parade in front of the school months before. But I truly believe that dancing in with the whole class and being able to enjoy it made actually get enough strength in order to dance in front of the school. Overall it was really great class that I enjoyed, I am not just saying that because I would like to get a good grade for my final. But I really mean it that I had a lot of fun and I met a lot of people and it was great experience, I loved it.

Choreography: SAVE THE OCEAN!!!!!

The theme of the performance was water pollution and its effects on animals in the ocean. In addition to the theme, we included characters/animals like jellyfish, crab, clownfish, turtle, shark, beta fish, and the two main Orixas which were Lemanja who represented the water goddess and Omolu who represented water pollution and the spread of diseases. The theme we chose and the dance moves we came up with represented how water pollution can cause damage to fishes or animals in the water, and how we need to save the ocean by not throwing trash or substances that may cause harm. In my opinion, we interrogated the theme and our dance movements successfully.

As a group, we decided to pick a song that had a good rhythm and beat that we could dance to. We used “She Came Along” by Kid Cudi. Even though the song did not have a specific meaning, it worked well with the dance moves and we felt comfortable with the song. At the same time, in order to represent each character in the story, we used bright colored t-shirts with the name of our fish painted on them in order to distinguish ourselves from each other. For example; yellow or orange would be for the clownfish and black would be for the Orixa Omolu. In the use of props, we chose to have signs in the end in order to spread the message in which said, “Save the Ocean”. Additionally, Omolu carried a bag with trash in order to give to each fish as the spread of pollution. One of the main gestures that we used were hand and arm movements such as stroking or bringing our arms up and down to make it look and symbolize waves.

My job as a choreographer was to position the characters in their spots. I decided to incorporate some African dance moves that I had performed in my elementary school dealing with swaying of the hands, bringing hands together going from side to side and the movement of hips and feet in the direction of half circles. Additionally, we added water movements like stroking of the arms to represent swimming and positioning our hands like bowls and moving from side to side as if we were holding water. As well, we incorporated the movement in which you bring your hand down and then up, wiggling your fingers in order to represent waves. Furthermore, while practicing the dance routine it occurred that we had been making a lot of circles and we were repeating some of the same routines, I decided to take away some part of the movement and change it. Instead of going in a lot of circles, the Orixas would step in the front and have their battle and the rest would line up with each other on whichever side they are positioned and do a form of line dance in order to switch sides. As for the dancing of the Orixas, I had positioned both of them to be in the middle because they were the main characters that would explain the significance of the theme and send a message through their dances. The group decided that both Orixas should be fighting/battling because since Lemanja is the goddess of water, she protects the fishes and the overall ocean and Omolu the god of sickness spreads diseases to the ocean and pollutes the water in bringing trash and death. In Omolu’s dance, she gave each fish a piece of trash in conveying that they are being polluted and eventually die. The shark on the other hand, does not die of pollution but of starvation, because as the food cycle, all of the food that the shark eats are dead. After a few arrangements of the dance routine, we finally decided that it was good. Our dance performance clearly stated the theme of water pollution and demonstrated how it can kill living organisms in the ocean.

If we were to continue with our dance performance, I think I would incorporate some hip-hop or merengue into it, because it would look interesting to see different kinds of dancing all in one show and it would be an interesting idea to try out. I do not think that I would subtract anything from the dance, but to let each character in the group have their 5 minute part or solo so the audience could also get a feel of what the character is all about.

Overall, from the experience that I have gained in taking this class and through the explanations of the history of Brazil and dance moves, I did not know what Orixas were and that they had their own dance movements in order to represent themselves. As well, through the different forms of movements like walking or sitting; how they can be incorporated as kinds of dance maneuvers. At the same time, I did not know about the different dances in Brazil like Samba or Capoeria. Furthermore, I learned that teamwork and sharing ideas can help everyone understand what they are doing, as well to come up with a dance that everyone had fun making up. Additionally, I witnessed that if you put effort and have fun in what you do, you feel more confident and you bring out your true identity. I also learned that you can integrate Brazilian dance to any kind of music depending on the rhythm and the beat it has. Dance is a way to express oneself and spread a message through movements and body language. I had fun getting involved and experiencing a new culture and how a true Brazilian parties!

Picture up top: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3262/2684254993_259226a18b.jpg?v=0

SAVE IEMANJA!

The theme for the SubZero group final was ocean pollution. We wanted to make a statement to inform an audience to take precaution of what pollution does to the ocean and the creatures that live in it. In my opinion, we successfully interrogated the theme of saving of the ocean. The story line for the performance took a bit of a turn, but the theme stayed the same. The first story line was to have two orixas; which were Iemanja and Omolu. Iemenja is the patriot of Brazil, therefore being the deity of the Ocean. Omolu is the deity of disease, and he could either cure or spread disease. The group and I wanted to have fish as well, so we incorporated sea creatures as well. As we began, we had Iemanja as the center of attention, and the fish swimming around her freely and peaceful. Omolu would then come and pollute the sea killing all the fish. We found this performance too short so we added more events to it to get the theme of the protest across in a more efficient way.

When Iemanja would be in the center and the fish swimming around freely, Omolu would come and battle Iemanja to only defeat her. Omolu would also give each fish a piece of garbage, which would represent the pollution. Omolu would eventually kill all fish leaving only a shark behind, but he would die as well after not being able to find any pray. At this point the theme of our performance has reached its climax. Omolu had spread its pollution, which would then cause the fish to die, making diseases such as mercury spread throughout the ocean creating a chain of deaths. But to the rescue came the patriot, Iemanja, to clean the water and save the fish. She would then come back to battle Omolu and defeat him and save the fish and the ocean. After Iemanja’s cure, the fish followed her as they threaded in great appreciation of her work.

At the beginning of the performance, when all the fish had gone under the bridge Omolu and Iemanja had made for them, all the fish lined up facing each other. As the fish lined up, Omolu and Iemanja walked around the fish staring down at each other. Then when the song sang “she came along,” she meaning Iemanja, both Orishas stepped to the center for a battle, which started the elements of the theme. During their battle, all the fish swam around them looking at what was occurring. The fish circled them swimming back and forth confused of what was happening to Iemanja, their Goddess. Once her presence had left and Omolu took over by spreading its pollution, the fish spread out losing order and dying. This is why when Iemenja came back, the fish showed their obsession towards her by dancing for her. When the song sang “rain,” all the fish got rained on by Iemanja, and all the fish made rain drop arm gestures.

After the performance when our peers came to talk to us, many of them said repeatedly that our message was clearly stated. Many said that the message was more emphasized when Omolu gave each fish a piece of trash. Then others said they found that part being sad, especially because of the fact that it actually occurs to some sea creatures in reality. A friend of mine also said that the costumes we wore helped get the message across very well. All of the group members, except for the shark and orixas, had the colors of the fish they pertained to or at least came close to. For example a crab wore red, a turtle wore green, and the shark wore gray and red, and etc. The shark wore red to represent that he was a predator, and gray to represent the color of a shark. Other fish were; a clown fish, and a star fish to name a few. Lastly, there were pictures drawn on our shirts to demonstrate which fish each group member was. The orixas only wore their color, with the exception of Omolu who also wore black. Omolu wore black for this performance to foreshadow death, and brown for its deity color. Iemanja wore blue to represent herself and the ocean she was trying to protect.

In the end, the performance was extremely fun. When we started brainstorming ideas, the group and I never thought we would be able to come up with what we had finished with. At first it was hard to figure out a perfect time that suited everyone’s schedule, so we ended up meeting at different times. The absent members would get filled in of what we talked about the next day, or next meeting. For practice the same issue crossed our path. The best time for everyone was past nine at night, so for the most part, we would practice around ten at night. Even then nothing stopped us from practicing; we did the buddy system, especially the girls for safety reasons. Practicing at ten worked out fine for all. We were done with the day’s work, and all we had left to do was to be creative and dance. At this time of the day the school was not as busy because it was not during the day, so we were not in people’s way or interrupting classes in session.

This performance made me realize how creative I could be, and how much teamwork helps make a great performance. My business class mentioned how our American culture likes to work alone, and how the Japanese culture likes to work in groups. These two country’s economies are always being compared because they both have great products to export, but the only difference is that Japan works in groups; therefore, not having to work as hard. The jobs get evenly distributed, which was similar to how we distributed our jobs in our parade group. For example; Edgar and Fatima were the choreographers, Daisy was in charge of the music, Alan was the locator, and ect. Because of our hard work and creative minds our performance had a great impact with a successful interrogated theme.

CARNAVAL!!!

The feeling of excitement that you get when you are in the middle of a big, colorful, parade in Brazil with people wearing different types of costumes and feeling the music going through your veins, is one of a kind. In participating in Brazil’s festivals, you can experience the country’s national pride in samba, in demonstrating the musical genre and dance form. “The origin of Brazil’s carnival goes back to a Portuguese pre-lent festivity called “entrudo”-chaotic event where participants threw mud, water, and food at each other in a street event that often led to riots" in which conveys how the first festivities began to come out.

During the yearly carnaval (Brazilian carnival), samba has to came to symbolizes racial and social harmony between the Brazilian people. “The word samba is derived from the African Bantu language known as Kimbundo, brought to Brazil by slaves taken predominantly from Angola, the word “semba” signifies “naval bump” in which brings out the intimacy and invitation to dance”. As well, it is a common feature in many Afro-Brazilian forms. “The musical form of samba rose in popularity in the 1920’s, establishing itself as a firm favorite for Carnaval Brasileiro. In the 1930's, they added a samba parade..in which got a permanent home- The Samdorome". Samba was a way in which people communicated through dancing as well it was like the universal langauge in Brazil, because everyone understood it. Even though you experience the true spirit of Brazil in attending these main street parades, the history of Carnival festivities and where they originated from are the main aspects in understanding the Brazilian culture and how they began.

Carnaval-Rio de Janeiro

The most famous of Brazilian carnivals is Carnaval de Rio de Janerio in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. During the parade, are amazing floats followed by thousands of dancers, singers, and drummers that parade through the Sambodromo stadium, dressed in colorful and unique costumes that attract crowds of people. These events begin on the Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, because during these parades people enjoy the music, food, drinks and sex before lent. And for 40 days of lent, they can be able to reflect on themselves, practice abstinence, and fast until Easter. The word “carnaval” comes from the latin word “Carne Vale” or “Farewell to the Flesh”. This quotation signifies how the festivities show how much a person can enjoy in going to one of these carnavals and as a result repent on their sins. “The first carnival festivities in Rio date back to 1723, in which dance groups or Blocos, paraded the streets in groups of no more than 50 people. The parades also evolved into competitions in which the best group would show off to the crowd, with their rhythmic dance expressions and elaborate costumes”.

->The popular dance done in many carnivals would be samba. In the book "The Mystery of Samba" Hermano Vianna explains the history of samba and how it has changed throughout time. He conveys on how samba has become a very popular dance in Brazil, he says,“Samba is also the centerpiece of Rio’s world-famous pre-Lenten carnival, when samba dancers, who are predominantly black, from the city’s poor neighborhoods parade all night under the glare of sophisticated all-night telemedia, broadcast nationwide” (Vianna, preface) This quotation signifies the popularity that this dance has brought to Rio de Janeiro’s famous carnaval and its people. In addition, there are certain types of samba in which musicians would play in carnavales, “The samba de enredo comprised the theme songs of Rio de Janerio’s Carnaval-batucadas (large percussion sections), as well as the singers and dancers comprising the escolas of samba (samba schools which first appeared in 1928), marched in street parades to samba de enredo, and frequently, samba cancao”. Through the use of samba music and the movement of dancing, samba schools have greatly impacted these festive carnivals, because they use unique costumes to motivate people about the Brazilian culture and traditions. Overall, the Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro is one of the most biggest and popularized carnivals held in Brazil, in which brings people together and from around the world.

Carnaval-Salvador da Bahia

“Salvador da Bahia was Brazil's first center of government (from 1549 to 1763), and remains its musical capital“. Like the Rio de Janeiro, the city of Salvador is known for its carnival. Even though Rio, is known for its samba schools, elaborate costumes, and huge parade in Sambodomo stadium, Salvador is popular because of its street carnival that lasts for weeks as well the different events that are happening on the streets and beaches. The music begins daily as early as noon and goes until 7or 8 the next morning. A tradition in Salvador which started in 1950 , when two Bahian musicians Dodo and Osmar performed with “trios electricos” (electric trios), which where massive power speakers in which people could hear the rhythm and beat of the music. The second component of the carnival in Salvador da Bahia are the Barrancas, they are similar to trios in such of the sound system and because they form endless parties among the streets of Salvador. In the festivals in Bahia, many people become attracted to the music coming from the loud speakers, because they are able to listen to the rythm of the music and hear the famous bands playing.

->There are different groups or blocos that people join to have fun and enjoy themselves. “Groups called Afoxi societies parade through the streets in fantastic outfits, presenting the sacred music and dancing of Candombli”. Bahia's carnival is the one of the world's largest open to the public festival, attracting crowds of three million people that dance through the night in Salvador's historic streets. Through the way the music is expressed to people and the way these street carnivals have exposed to people a new form of culture and identity, like Rio, Salvador has also shown the Brazilian pride of its people and their movement.

Fiestas, Culture, and Music

Overall, the experience and opportunity of going to one of these carnivals even if it is in Salvador da Bahia or Rio de Janeiro, you are able to witness the full on activities and come face to face with the traditions and culture of how real Brazilians like to party. The Carnavals are a way in which people in society come together and unit as a country and share something valuable that they have, which is their pride and their famous samba dance. I would like to finish off the blog with a quote from the book, "The Mystery of Samba" by Hermano Vianna, it says, “It’s nothing like they say. Samba moved to the favelas later on. Anyway, it went wherever we went: Wherever there was a party”! -Donga


Work Cited

Vianna. Hermano. The Mystery of Samba. Chapel Hill & London

The University of North Carolina Press, 1999

http://worldcentral.org/article.php/20040720105726323

http://www.ipanema.com/carnival

http://braziltravelinformation.com/brazil_carnival.htm

http://www.andetur.com.br/us/brazil/festival.htm

http://www.afropop.org/multi/feature/ID/33/

Samba Dancing!

Samba and its movements

Anyone can dance Samba! Samba originated many years ago and continues to be a great influence to dancing today. Samba also came from the dance Lundu that was brought to Brazil by slaves. The word samba originated as the word “semba” which is defined as praying to their dieties. Samba is defined as a set of dances, instead of a single dance. Before 1914 it was known under a Brazilian name known as "Maxixe." According to Peter Fryer, in his book, Rhythms of Resistance, he states that Maxixe is a “second missing link in the prehistory of samba” (Fryer 155). This type of dancing came after the Lundu dance and before Samba had officially established in Brazil. Samba developed as a special kind of dance at the beginning of the 20th century in Rio de Janerio. “Samba de roda was a dance often performed in the morros de Rio de Janeiro, meaning in the slum cities or where poor people lived, surrounding Rio de Janeiro.” In the beginning when Samba arose, it was typically “danced in a ring of people singing, clapping their hands and playing drums and with light instruments.” Also in the middle of the circle two dancers would have a samba competition which could be seen as aggressive yet beautiful.

The picture above shows people practicing modern samba in a studio. In many places people take classes to lean the art form of Samba. It is interesting to see how a dance that came from slaves in Africa, have come to be such a popular form of movement.
The picture below shows the normal type of person dancing samba during the carnivals.

There are basic dance moves that everyone can learn that require a lot of hip movements. Samba is usually done while walking to make it easier to walk in the parade and have fun at the same time. In a parade, there is very limited space available to move about. Any available space is precious because the closer, the more the culture is observed. Samba uses walking steps and side steps as the basic beginning movements of the dance. “The major characteristic of the Samba dance is the vertical bounce action. Steps are taken using the ball of the foot.” People who have been doing this for years make it look easy and carefree. They use knee action, body swaying and "pendulum motion" to make their dancing look as fluid as possible. The Basic step in samba is called a Volta. This movement is done by a crossing action in front of the body, where you step across with the bounce. The bouncing action will come from the knees. Hip movement is very important and even has a name. It is the Samba roll. This is done through a rolling movement that goes from the waist up and the upper body making your hips move in a circular motion. Botafogo is the move in Samba which consists of a traveling walk with a change of direction from left to right or right to left. Those are the basic moves of samba that anyone can learn and master with a little bit of practice. The very end of a samba dance has a variety of extended arm movements, and finally there is a movement of throwing the head back and putting your arms up as to say “ta da! I finished.”

In a parade the whistle becomes a very important instrument. Dancers and musicians wait for the blow of the whistle to start. For dancers, this means to start to marching forward. The parade consists of hundreds of people and it is interesting to see how a cultural knows what to do when a whistle is blown. Dancers with their decorated feathers and Tupi Indian attire, start dancing their national dance.
As seen in the picture, both the African and Native Indian influences are portray. The woman on top of the float is a Afro-Brazilian woman wearing a Tupi bikini.
Samba also consists of a variety of Orixa dance influences. Because samba a form of protest, a portion of the dance moves are to state a political issue. For example the Orixa Ogum, when the arm do a cutting action, which belong to him, it is to demonstrate that something is wished to be stopped. Vibrant bright colors and lots of feathered hats make up the basic costumes. These types of clothing allow the dancers to move about freely without much weight and a lot of swinging motions. It has been performed as a street dance at carnival for a long time and pictures like this help preserve the memories.

The picture above also displays a samba carnival at work. This picture also has bright colors to show the excitement in the atmosphere. There are always big floats with people dancing on them.
To sum up, Samba is a dance Brazil considers a nationality. Brazil receives many tourist and studies yearly. Curiosity makes people around the world come visit and see what Samba has to offer because of the exotic dance moves that trace back to Africa and Portugal. Samba has become a dance form full of numerous dance moves that come from different identities of the world.

The Locations of the Festivals

            Brazil is the biggest country in all of South America and one of the biggest in the world.  The whole country is 3,287,597 square miles long and it is the fifth biggest country in the world. Since they have so much space in a very big country, they have enough room to host the biggest parties the world has ever seen. Of course I am talking about the world famous Festivals in Brazil. The Festivals or carnivals in Brazil are celebrated two weeks before Ash Wednesday, which are celebrated on many days. But all these events are celebrated on the common ground, which is Brazil. Every location of the festivals has its meanings and how they all started.

            Since these huge parties are celebrated in many parts of Brazil, they are celebrated in four major parts of the huge country. The cities would be Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, and Recife and Olinda. But first of all, people are always thinking that the parades are just these huge parties and that people are just having a good time, even though that is true, the people are mostly making a political statement to the government and to all the people. They are protesting, that was the soul purpose of the whole idea of the parade but there is also nothing bad for also having a great time during the parades.

            Well the first city I wanted to concentrate in the parades would be the parade of Rio de Janeiro or “Carnival in Rio.” The city of Rio de Janeiro is located in the Southeastern side of Brazil. It is the more popular parade than the other three. The parade in Rio de Janeiro is very festive with a lot of different costumes and floats and neighborhoods become rhythm machines as more than 600 block parties and street parades send up a cacophony of drums, whistles, triangles, and yelping instruments. They have been celebrating carnavals in Rio de Janeiro ever since the 1800’s, so the city has much history under its belt with the famous parades. The parades and all the festivities are greatly inspired by Afro influence since Rio de Janeiro has history dating back to the Portuguese colonial period in Brazil and they have brought many African slaves into Brazil. So the dances culture and most of everything that has to do with the carnavals and parades have a huge Afro influence. A group named escolas de samba, which is school of samba in English, originates all the parades or festivals.

 

            The second city in which festivals are celebrated would be the city of Salvador. Salvador is located in the Northeastern side of Brazil. Salvador in the home of the biggest street party in world, it is proven in the Guinness book of world records. It is also the first center of government in 1549 to 1763 in Brazil and it is Brazil’s capital for music. In the past Salvador or Bahia was the Portuguese sugar industry and also their location for their slave trade, so there is a huge Afro influence in this city.  During the parades and street parties; there are many rituals that are being performed during the festivals. Religion also has a major part of the parades and the whole idea of the festivals. Also as in Rio de Janeiro, Salvador’s festivals have a huge Afro influence in their parades and in their whole culture. As years go by during the festivals, customs are being changed and new things are being used. Even though the dances are still traditionally practiced in the festivals there are things such as the parades that look different every year. Also all the rituals performed during Salvador’s parades are really attached to their roots, that they still sing in some places in African languages from their native roots from the past.

 

            The third and fourth cities in which they celebrate festivals and parades have to be the cities of Recife and Olinda. Recife is located in the Northeastern side of Brazil and Olinda is located in the Northeastern side of Brazil, close to the Atlantic Ocean. Both cities are known for their more political and authentic parades in Brazil. They are more political with their parades because they are located on a very poor economic city in Brazil. All these groups in the city started their parades and all the political movements because in the past slave owners let slaves choose their own kings and other ranking within the slaves. They would run through churches and start to dance passed the churches. Ever since they were able to parade around and it later became a huge tradition. Their parades start when people start hearing the sound of drums going down through the streets of Recife and Olinda.

            All these cities are celebrated with the world’s biggest parties and festivals because they all have background dating back to the days of Portuguese rule. Even though some cities have more history to their names, the ones that are celebrated with the carnivals and festivals are the ones that began all the parades and rallying and showing their thoughts on political issues or anything else that they would want to protest. There are also other parts of Brazil in which they celebrate festivals and parades. The whole country is full of festival and it recognized by the whole world. Their movements are really taking affect because the world and their whole country are able to come together and celebrate one common purpose and that is to have a great time and also give a political statement. It is a tradition that common ground in which all the festivals have been celebrated on and all the people through out the years that have also celebrated, it is what brings everybody together.

 

 

 

 

Samba Music

During the twenty century, Brazil went through a social change. For Brazil, “Music is a passport to happiness.” It is a way to escape for the everyday routine. Samba, became the national rhythm. Before, Samba, Lundu and Modinha were the main Brazilian music. These dances brought the different social classes together. The Brazial elites and the lower class together became part in the history of music. Samba came later, after Lundu and Modinha. Samba was first looked, “as the stuff of lowlife rascals.” During the 1930’s samba was in its golden age.

President Getulio Vargas, transform the music of samba for political purpose. He used the radio, where samba music would play, to celebrated race mixture. Vargas did not want for Brazil to be seen as only white European people. With samba he showed the “blacked music.” This time of music is mixed race, the beats come from African American background. The lyrics came from European and black composers. Vargas use this to unified Brazil. Germany soldiers were listening to black Brazilian music. The acceptance of samba, caused for the middle class to listen to this type of music. However, they listen to the type of samba whose lyrics talked about the beauty of Brazil. One of the first solo composer/singer who sang about the beauty of Brazil was Dorival Caymmi. His music was calmer than the black Brazilian samba.

Brazil created school of samba to teach people about the history of Brazil, while at the same time learn how to dance and play the music of samba. The main purpose was for people to know more about the history of Brazil. Brazil history is connected to the rhythm use in samba. The African American beat is part of the slavery in Brazil. Lundu was first what slaves use to dance. Then later, samba became the rhythm.

Samba, uses different types of instruments. They range from drums to tambourines. These instruments area use in the Carnival. Each instrument adds a different component to the overall rhythm of samba. The material of the instruments also varied. Some are made out of wood while other or iron or steel. Playing the instrument is also different. The level they are played to. Some are played at a lower level while others are high. Some of the instruments are played with both hands, some with just one, and some use a stick or a type of clothing. In a Carnival, the location of an instrument varies. The louder once are put in the front. Some instruments, like the tambourine is use in small groups only because it’s a quite one. The Surdo is important because it helps keep the pattern of the music. This are some of the instrument use to make the fast rhythm of samba.

Repinique

It makes a high, piercing sound. It is played with a wooden stick in one hand and the hand itself. It has a smaller width than the caixa drum, but it is longer by several inches. It is carried with a strap in the shoulder.

Surdo

There are three kinds of surdos: first, second, and cutting. Surdo is the, “heartbeat of percussion samba.” It has a deep bass sound. It creates a pattern and keep the beat for the rest.

Agogo

It is made of iron and steel, it has two bells and is shaped in a U form. It makes noice when is hit with a stick against the bells.

Caixa

It has a cylindrical shape and can be played on both sides. It is either made of wood or metal. There are different kinds because they varied in sizes and timbres. It has 2 or 4 wires or cables on top of the drum. Also, it can be played in a lower level or higher level.

Tambourim

It’s a small one sided drum that can be held in the hands. It is played with a stick. Choreography is done at the same time playing the instrument.

Ganza

It is a shaker filled with beads, shells, or seeds. They come in different ways, singles, doubles, and triples.

Chocalho

A big strong shaker, it can be mad of wood or metal with steel jingles. It helps the caixas maintain the rhythm. It is use with choreography and it is played above head level.

Cuica

A drum that , the sound is, “produced by rubbing a stick inside the drum with a damp cloth, and pressing the outer head with the finger.” (2)The sound is higher the closer you press to the center.

Timba

A light weight drum that is played with both hands.

Pandeiro

A tambourine made of wood, goatskin, and five sets of jingles. It was introduce to samba as a rhythm base. It is consider a complete instrument because it has low, medium, and high timbres. "It’s a quiet instrument, that is use in small groups. The pandeiro is consider the national instrument of Brazil."

These instruments create choreography that performed in a fast movement. Most of the body movement is done from the belly and bellow. The legs move like if that person was marching, but it is done in a faster motion. The Hips move from side to side. The clothing is an important role for the performance.

Some of the modern music like, salsa, merengue, punta, and reggae have some of the basic samba beats. In today’s society samba is still a popular rhythm. It is dance in family parties, dance competitions, and of course in parades and carnivals. “Samba could exist without Carnaval, but Carnaval could not continue without samba.” They rhythm created by samba is a happy and enjoyable one. Whenever, the rhythm comes up in modern music it just makes people want to move. One of my favorite Samba song is, Magdalena by Sergio Mendez. This song shows up in family parties and makes people get up to dance. They lyrics are the once of celebration. In this song I am able to hear the instruments that are being use. At the end of the song the agogo can be heard.

Music can bring changes to society. Samba is an example of that change. It brought together class and race differences. It helped stop the separation between black and white. Also, it created fun Carnival that is still happening today. Samba is a dance that helped a country transform into a different one.

Work Cited
Vianna, Hermano. The Mystery of Samba popular music and National Identity in Brazil. The University of North Carolina P, 1999.