The entries to this blog are meant for the wonderful UW-Milwaukee students who took this Study Abroad trip, and to the teachers and cultural artists with whom we spent our time. I accompanied trip, assisting in various ways the leader, Professor Simone Ferro of the Dance Department, the Peck School of the Arts, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. I also served as self-appointed documentarian and informal blogger, trying to reflect the main themes of the trip.
The students themselves provided ongoing personal comments on social media; this blog is, for the most part, not about those personal experiences so much as the group activities and our contact with Afro-Brazilian culture in Northeast Brazil.
Though there will be some additions to the individual entries as there is more time for reflection and feedback, the basic posts are in place.
Several of the individual posts include video clips of dance classes or festival performances. The video clips are linked below as well for anyone who would like to see them all together.
Drumming classes with Afro-Brazilian samba-reggae group Olodum, Salvador (Bahia), June, 2015
Dance classes in Salvador (e.g., orixa dances, Maracatu, Frevo), June, 2015
Dance classes in indio/tapuia movement typical of the Baixada style of Bumba-meu-boi da Floresta, Sao Luis, June 2015.
Dance classes in the heritage Afro-Brazilian dance Tambor da Crioula, with Bumba-meu-boi da Floresta, Sao Luis, June 2015.
Zabumba group Boi Unidos Venceremos in performance, Sao Luis, June 2015
Batizado (baptism) of the boi/ox, Bumba-meu-boi da Floresta, Sao Luis (Maranhao), June 23-24, 2015
Meredith W. Watts Milwaukee Wisconsin, July 2015