international dance day: free samba lesson

International Dance Day:Free Samba Lesson

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Introduction

We have created this dance lesson for schools to use to celebrate International Dance Day. The lesson is based on a Samba dance and there is a video which is broken up into short teaching sequences that you can use alongside these teaching notes.

The lesson has been produced for 2Simple by Ella Mesma, who is an established professional artist with over 15 years of experience in dance and movement. Ella is of mixed heritage and was born in Kent, now based near Leeds, where she studied politics, and her hometown Bristol. Ella began her dance career dancing salsa in clubs, and training samba in Brazil where she paraded in carnival as a Passista in 2006. As a trained dancer, performance highlights have included Russell Maliphant Company, Lea Anderson (The Chomondeleys), Olympics Opening Ceremony, Southpaw and Uchenna.

Her love for Rumba has led to her creating and touring the International Roots of Rumba Festival since 2013.

You can also download some selected dance units, yoga and mindfulness resources from Striver here.

If you use this lesson we would love to see you sharing your work with us on Twitter or Faceboook using #InternationalDanceDay.


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History of Brazil and Samba

Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. With over 211 million people, Brazil is the world’s fifth-largest country by area and the sixth most populous. The word “Brazil” likely comes from the Portuguese word for brazil wood (Pau Brasilia or Paubrasilia), a tree that once grew plentifully along the Brazilian coast.

Close to 4 million slaves were captured and brought to Brazil from the African continent. They belonged to two major groups: The West African and the Bantu people. The West Africans were sent in large numbers to Bahia. They mostly belong to the Ga-Adangbe, Yoruba, Igbo, Fon, Ashanti, Ewe, Mandinka, and other West African groups native to Guinea, Ghana, Benin, Guinea-Bissau and Nigeria. Afro Brazilian dances include samba, capoeira, and the dances of the Orixás from the religion Candomblé. Candomblé (meaning dance in honour of the gods) is a religion found primarily in Brazil that incorporates some religious aspects of Yoruba, Bantu, and Fon African societies, and some characteristics of Catholicism as well.

Samba is frequently identified as a musical expression of urban Rio de Janeiro, where it developed during the first years of the 20th century. The word ‘samba’ is thought to be derived from the Kimbundu (Angolan) term ‘semba’, which referred to an ‘invitation to dance’. Artists used samba music to express their opinions on the social, economic and political issues in the country. In the 1870s, politicians attempted to prohibit samba on the pretext that folkloric dances shamed Brazil’s national image, but it is widely believed that artists were censored during the country’s dictatorships for disguising protest messages in songs. By the 1980s, samba became associated with a more ethnically aware political movement, aligned both with the Black Power movement in the United States and the Caribbean as well as the Pan-African movement in Africa.


History of Brazil and Samba continued

Capoeira is a martial art developed initially by African slaves that came predominantly from Angola, Mozambique and Nigeria to Brazil, mainly in Bahia, where there was a high concentration of black Africans. A popular conception of cap¬oeira is that it was developed as a means of self-defence (disguised as a dance) for slaves hoping to escape to independent black communi¬ties or quilombos. A game, a fight, and a dance, capoeira is composed of kicks, acrobatics, and traditional Kongo dance movements. One doesn’t speak of dancing or fight¬ing but rather of playing capoeira ( jogar capoeira).Brazil

Carnival is the most popular holiday in Brazil and happens in February. Festivities are intense, day and night, Rio de Janeiro’s carnival has around 4.9 million people attending! The Carnival parades in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo take place in their sambódromos, located close to the city center. In the Rio Sambódromo, the parades start at 20:00 or 21:00 (depending on the date) and end around 5:00 in the morning.

A samba school is a dancing, marching, and drumming club. They practice and often perform in a huge square-compounds and are devoted to practicing and exhibiting samba, an African-Brazilian dance and drumming style. Some of the most famous Samba schools in Rio are Imperatriz, Portela, Beija-Flor, Uniao da Ilha, Salgueiro, Grand Rio, Porto da Pedra, Vila Isabel, Sao Clemente, Mocidade, Mangueira and Unidos da Tijuca.

A 2012 research about Brazilians’ passions stated that the top 2 things Brazilians love the most are football, and Carnaval. Although England invented football, there is a very popular saying in Brazil, in which is the “country of football” (país do futebol).Brazil is the only team to be part of every World Cup competition ever held. It is also the only nation to ever win the World Cup five times, and most people consider Pelé the best football player of all-time. As well as practising Football drills, in Brazil we have samba drills using a similar set up.


Samba Lesson

These teaching notes go alongside the videos. View the videos here. For the playlist, click here. 1. The Basic StepTeaching Point: Back Step Slide• Back step is on the Surdu beat• The surdu is a big bass drum and for every beat we will complete the ‘123’ of a samba

step• Arms always move the opposite way to the legs

Claps: 2s, 1s, nonesMusic: Onda Leve Grupo Batuque

2. Travelling BackTeaching Point: Back on the spot on the spot• Walk forwards however you feel you can/need to• Go down on the 7 of the music and up and pose on the 8

Music: Batucada Marcelo Oz or Vai La Vai La Fundo de Quintal

3. Samba RaceSet Up: Set up the space with two lines of students either side, facing inwards to look at the competitors. Once four have moved up to the top of the line they will ‘race’ travelling backwards (look back sometimes to check the finish line). Have someone to check who arrives first (no cheating!)

Awards: Fastest to do the step and the most stylish

Teaching Point: Back on the spot on the spot, use your hips and arms and try to dance to the music too!

Music: Batucada com mingo




https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1QHT1TOwxTqc44x7VrHs0r?si=75c41c328fd84bcd&nd=1

Samba Lesson continued

4. Samba DrillsSet Up: Set out cones as you would for football drills. Participants will line up and set off to drill each movement one at a time. You can also get creative and add your own moves.

Grapevine: Out behind, out in front

Triplets: 123

Passos marcados: walk walk step tap

Passos marcados: walking turns: turn turn step tap

Music: A increvil bateria Mestre Marcal

5. Samba De RodaSet Up: Make one big circle. Participants outside step tap and clap. Take it in turns in groups or one at a time to go in to the centre and show what you have learnt.

Teaching Point: Use all the moves you have learnt so far!

Music: Pega eu Marcelo D2


Portuguese Words

Roda = Circle

No pe = Of the feet

Passos = Steps

Marcado = Marked

País do futebol = Country of football

Paubrasilia = Brasilian Wood

Capoeira = A Brazilian martial art

Samba = A Brazilian dance


international dance day: free samba lesson

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