I got to see my “old” samba troupe perform in Seattle a few weeks ago.
They were still jamming and sounding pretty good on that Brazilian beat. Memories of my formative best-time-ever moments came flooding back. Dancing with Vamola is one of the most satisfying things I have ever done. We samba-ed our butts off for the Seattle Folk life festival, Seattle Pride parade, Bumbershoot and a bunch of other things in the earlier part of the 2000 decade. Memories that include: our talented director Tom Armstrong (what ever happened to Quasi-Nada?), Kate our dance leader, dating a fellow Vamola-er, making a costume of red–one of which I have never been able to throw away. I am still carrying the feathers around. What do I do with them? I can’t throw them away.
We saw them at Brazil fest held at the Seattle Center which was sleepy compared to any Latino gathering in the Bay Area but we had a view of the Space Needle and it was still fun.
It is timely and has come full circle–as I hope to make it to Brazil this year after 23 years of loving Brazilian music and dance. Will I be able to keep up samba wise? I doubt it. I better start practicing.
(Vamola means let’s go in Portuguese)
And don’t forget to practice your Portuguese while you’re at it. 😉
I find going to class is a great motivator to study beforehand, and I always learn a lot while there — just listening to the professor speaking Portuguese stimulates my brain. Boa sorte !
I love Samba rhythms also, although my favorite rhythms are Cumbia. Do You already speak Portuguese? In Finland, we have every year in June Samba Carnival. It is awesome!
Oi Sartenda! I have studied a little Portuguese but I have a long way to go before becoming fluent.
I am sure that You will learn more Portuguese. Samba in Helsinki:
Samba Carnaval in Helsinki
Happy Friday!
Thank you for the link to Carnival in Helsinki. Great costumes! Are there Brazilians living in Finland?
Yes, there are many which live around Finland. For example, my Portuguese teacher is / was a Brazilian lady in Mikkeli. She was fantastic and her lessons were really interesting. It is due to her, because I started to make my posts also in Portuguese since two years ago. Some my followers have said that it is nice to see translations in English and Portuguese, because they study Portuguese.