Samba
The
Samba was originally from Brazil, there are many different types of
Samba, the elegant salon dancing, and the wild Samba in the carnavals.
Carmen Miranda is usually credited with bringing Brazilian rhythms to Northamerica and Europe, since then the Samba has become stylized and
standardized. Samba has very varied rhythms occurring simultaneously in
every song, which brings exitement in the listening.
In
the 16th century, the portuguese imported slaves from Congo
and Angola into Brazil who brought their dances like the catarete,
batuque and embolada, who were considered sinful by Europeans as the
involved touching of navels, the batuque become so popular that they
passed a law forbidding it.
In
the 1830’s the dance envolved, combining plait figures, body rolls, and
sways. Later carnival steps Were added like the copacabana, gradually
the high sociely in Rio accepted it, but modified it to be danced in
closed ballroom dancing position.
In
1885 the dance was then called the Zemba Queca “ a graceful
Brazilian dance Later became the Mesemba from which some say the
name Samba originated.
The
dance was later combined with the maxixe from Brazil, a round
dance described as a two step, the maxixe was introduced in north america
at the turn of the century.
After a demonstration in paris in early 20th century the
dance became very popular in Europe, it was described having cuban
habanera music and polka steps, the present day Samba still has a step
called maxixe, (chasse and Point).
In
1934 a form of Samba was revived in Europe called the Carioca
meaning (from Rio de Janeiro). Popularised by even more from her
films.
In
1956 Pierre Levelle formalised the Samba for internatinal propagation,
the current Samba international form still has figures with different
rhythms. Betraying the heterogeneous origins of the dance like the Boto
Fogo is danced to a 1 & 2 Quarter beat rhythm but the natural rolls to
a simpler 1-2&
Half
beat rhythm, it still retains a hip movement on the half beats between
steps (Samba tic) danced with weight forward on to bent standing leg. |
