In 2009 I was awarded a scholarship from the International Cultural Service Program (ICSP). As an “ICSP” I attended a training course of cross-cultural dialogue and cultural diplomacy to broaden international networks and create alliances within local communities.
By receiving this scholarship, part of my duties are to develop cultural services in the community to promote awareness about my native culture, as well as to foment the appreciation for the international cultures.
Our work is developed in many different spaces with special emphasis to schools, local events and at the university. Through the ICSP I have been developing art performances and promoting the Brazilian culture, performing and teaching dance (samba), general cultural information and issues, and promoting the Portuguese by leading a conversation group at the Language Circles.
Organizing the art shows is also a way I encountered to bring the ICSP students together to share their culture through their folkloric performances.
The requests are made to the International Affairs Office and we may have these students enriching many events and multicultural projects in town.
Here are some materials
Global Views War and conflicts
Click here to request an ICSP student.
Dance
Dance is a very important part of my life and it is directly related to my cultural background. Rio de Janeiro is a cosmopolitan city well known by its cultural music scene. Brazil is a dancing country. Whenever you go you will discover music and dances that you have never seen before. Attached to that passion is my soul. I dance since I was in my mothers belly and samba was my first school.
In Eugene I have been teaching samba workshops in public schools through the International Cultural Service Program and private classes during the Summer.
I studied classical and modern dance in Brasil and now I am studying modern and tap at the UO. I dance samba since my childhood, and this is very common among many cariocas. I learnt how to dance samba in a Samba School in Rio, a very popular one called Salgueiro.
Brasil is a huge country and despite the many variations of samba, many people don’t know how to dance samba because we have different cultural and folkloric manifestations.
Samba has an African origin and it was modified in Brasil. It has to do with happiness and community ideals of freedom and identity expression. The main places where it is manifested are in the states of Bahia, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
I will teach the samba from the place where the samba and I were born. I was born in a neighborhood where the first sambas were created at the end of the XIX century. Gamboa square is in the heart of downtown Rio and it is a historic port area where the main political and economic happenings took place at that moment of the country’s history. Gamboa was a “quilombola” community, a place where the slaves leaved and carried out their freedom and cultural expressions.
I define this course as an introductory experience that may go further if the public get really involved and committed with.
I use to say that, a “Master or a PHd Degree” in Samba, just in a Samba school. Fly to Rio and have fun! (smiles)
