Today at Polo Timbo community center where we are working, the locals taught us three Brasilian dances: forro, samba and capoeira. My inner dancer always envies countries and regions that you can easily associate a dance with: ie. Philippines - tinikling, parts of Latin America - salsa, Argentina - tango, Spain - flamenco. It always gets me reflecting about what is the culturally defining dance of the US. One could argue that the US doesn´t have readily identifiable national dances because of the diversity of the population or because of its sheer enormity; but Brasil is equally diverse (African, indigenous, European lineage) and large (same size as the continental US) and yet most Brasilians can dance forro, samba and capoeira and define these dances as uniquely Brasilian.
Anyway back to my story...When the Brasilians finished showcasing their dances they were rightfully beaming with pride. Then they asked the US students to teach one of our national dances. We racked our brains for a US dance that transcends generation gaps, socio-economic divide and regional disparities. Appalachian clogging? No. Square dancing? Not so much (as the name implies, that´s a dance for squares.) The Macarena? No, gracias.
So what great all-American dance did we teach them?
The hokey-pokey.
Anyway back to my story...When the Brasilians finished showcasing their dances they were rightfully beaming with pride. Then they asked the US students to teach one of our national dances. We racked our brains for a US dance that transcends generation gaps, socio-economic divide and regional disparities. Appalachian clogging? No. Square dancing? Not so much (as the name implies, that´s a dance for squares.) The Macarena? No, gracias.
So what great all-American dance did we teach them?
The hokey-pokey.
Dance divas
1 comment:
I should learn the hokey-pokey music piece and do the hokey-pokey. Are the Brazilian dance divas expert in the hokey-pokey now? Oh what fun.
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