Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T18:56:44.408Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Dance of Resistance from Recife, Brazil: Carnivalesque Improvisation in Frevo

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 December 2019

Kathleen A. Spanos
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Frevo is an energetic dance from Recife, the capital of Brazil's northeastern state of Pernambuco. Frevo is a dance of resistance because it narrates complex notions of identity that contribute to social empowerment through strategic processes of liberation for marginalized groups. The dance originates from the Brazilian martial art of capoeira and it is carnivalesque because it is performed in crowded, often violent streets during carnival, when power hierarchies are disrupted. Through this ethnographic research, I consider how frevo practitioners engage in cultural resistance using a practice that I call “carnivalesque improvisation.”

Keywords

Brazilcapoeiracarnival frevoethnographyimprovisationresistance
Type
Articles
Information
Dance Research Journal , Volume 51 , Issue 3 , December 2019 , pp. 28 - 46
Copyright
Copyright © Dance Studies Association 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Works Cited

Aguiar, Wilson. 2018. Interviewed by the author at Casa Forte square, Recife, Brazil. June 25.Google Scholar
Albuquerque de Queiroz, Lucélia. 2009. “Guerreiros do Passo: Multiplicar para Resistir.” Monograph, Faculdade Frassinetti do Recife: Recife.Google Scholar
Albuquerque de Queiroz, Lucélia and Araújo, Eduardo. 2018. Interviewed by the author at the Guerreiros do Passo headquarters in Hipódromo, Recife, Brazil. April 18.Google Scholar
Almeida, Bira. 1986. Capoeira: A Brazilian Art Form: History, Philosophy, and Practice. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books.Google Scholar
Andrey, Marcus. 2018. “Governo de PE Aponta Redução Nos Índices de Criminalidade Durante o Carnaval 2018.” Globo.Com, February 14. Accessed August 3, 2018. https://g1.globo.com/pe/pernambuco/carnaval/2018/noticia/governo-de-pe-aponta-reducao-nos-indices-de-criminalidade-durante-o-carnaval-2018.ghtml.Google Scholar
Araújo, Eduardo (https://www.instagram.com/guerreirosdopasso/). 2018. “Você sabe o que é Cinquentão?” Instagram video, July 24, 2018. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bln7bpwjB1A/.Google Scholar
Araújo, Rita de Cássia Barbosa de. 1996. Festas: máscaras do tempo: entrudo, mascarada e frevo no carnaval do Recife. Recife: Fundação de Cultura Cidade do Recife.Google Scholar
Arrais, Raimundo Pereira Alencar. 1998. Recife, culturas e confrontos: as camadas urbanas na campanha salvacionista de 1911. Natal: Editora da UFRN.Google Scholar
Azoubel, Juliana Amelia Paes. 2007. “Frevo and the Contemporary Dance Scene in Pernambuco, Brazil Staging 100 Years of Tradition.” MA thesis, University of Florida: Gainesville.Google Scholar
Bakhtin, Mikhail. 1984. Rabelais and His World. Translated by Iswolsky, Hélène. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Bastos, Otávio. 2017. “Um Jeito Diferente de Dançar o Frevo: Cinquentão!” Produced by Mexe Com Tudo. Accessed December 17, 2017. https://youtu.be/61gC0b52gB0.Google Scholar
Bastos, Otávio. 2018a. “Frevo Cinquentão: Uma Forma Divertida e Diferente de Dançar Frevo!” Mexe Com Tudo, Facebook, July 22. Accessed July 24, 2018. https://www.facebook.com/canalmexecomtudo/photos/a.1933424633573421.1073741828.1924314271151124/2070481809867702/.Google Scholar
Bastos, Otávio. 2018b. Interviewed by the author at the Paço do Frevo, Recife, Brazil. June 28.Google Scholar
Born, Georgina, Lewis, Eric, and Straw, Will, eds. 2017. Improvisation and Social Aesthetics. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Breda, Omri Ferradura. 2017. “Capoeira: Violência, Sexo e Fofoca.” Capoeira Rio de Janeiro, June 21. Accessed August 14, 2018. https://capoeirariodejaneiro.com.br/violencia-sexo-e-fofoca/geral/.Google Scholar
Browning, Barbara. 1995. Samba: Resistance in Motion. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Buckland, Theresa Jill. 2001. “Dance, Authenticity and Cultural Memory: The Politics of Embodiment.” Yearbook for Traditional Music 33: 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buckland, Theresa Jill. 2006. Dancing from Past to Present: Nation, Culture, Identities. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Caillois, Roger. 2001. Man, Play, and Games. Translated by Barash, Meyer. Reprint. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Canclini, Néstor García. 1995. Hybrid Cultures: Strategies for Entering and Leaving Modernity. Translated by Chiappari, Christopher L. and López, Silvia L.. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Capoeira, Nestor. 2002. Capoeira: Roots of the Dance-Fight-Game. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books.Google Scholar
Cassoli, Camilo, Falcão, Luiz Augusto, Aguiar, Rodrigo, and Carbonnier, Henrik. 2007. Frevo: 100 anos de folia. Brazil: Timbro Comunicação.Google Scholar
Consejo Ciudadano para la Seguridad Pública y la Justicia Penal A.C. 2017. “Las 50 Ciudades Más Violentas del Mundo 2017 + Metodología.” Seguridad, Justicia y Paz, March 3. Accessed July 20, 2018.http://www.seguridadjusticiaypaz.org.mx/biblioteca/prensa/download/6-prensa/242-las-50-ciudades-mas-violentas-del-mundo-2017-metodologia.Google Scholar
Crosby, Jill Flanders. 1997. “The Dancer's Way of Knowing: Merging Practice and Theory in the Doing and Writing of Ethnography.” Etnofoor 10 (1/2): 65–81.Google Scholar
Da Matta, Roberto. 1984. “Carnival in Multiple Planes.” In Rite, Drama, Festival, Spectacle: Rehearsals Toward a Critical Performance, edited by MacAloon, John J., 208–39. Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues.Google Scholar
Da Rocha Mulatinho, Isa. 2018. Lecture for Escola de Capoeira Perna Pesada, Encruzilhada, Recife, Brazil, June 30.Google Scholar
Da Silva Irmão, José “Ferreirinha.” 2018. Interviewed by the author at the Paço do Frevo, Recife, Brazil. May 6.Google Scholar
Dantas Silva, Leonardo. 2000. Carnaval do Recife. Recife: Prefeitura da Cidade do Recife, Fundação de Cultura Cidade do Recife.Google Scholar
David, Ann. 2013. “Ways of Moving and Thinking: The Emplaced Body as a Tool for Ethnographic Research.” In Performance and Ethnography: Dance, Drama, Music, edited by Harrop, Peter and Njaradi, Dunja, 45–66. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar
Davida, Dena. 2011. Fields in Motion: Ethnography in the Worlds of Dance. Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.Google Scholar
De Oliveira, Valdemar. 1985. Frevo, capoeira e “passo.” 2nd ed.Recife: Companhia Editôra de Pernambuco.Google Scholar
“Decreto No 847, de 11 de Outobro de 1890.” 1890. Câmara dos Deputados. Accessed August 2, 2018. http://www2.camara.leg.br/legin/fed/decret/1824-1899/decreto-847-11-outubro-1890-503086-publicacaooriginal-1-pe.html.Google Scholar
do Passo, Nascimento. 2015. “Nascimento do Passo, o maior passista do mundo.” Interview with Antônio Carlos Nóbrega. Estudio Case. Accessed April 8, 2018. https://youtu.be/30BD2oGyytM.Google Scholar
Dossar, Kenneth. 1992. “Capoeira Angola: Dancing Between Two Worlds.” Afro-Hispanic Review 11 (1/3): 5–10.Google Scholar
Downey, Greg. 2005. Learning Capoeira: Lessons in Cunning from an Afro-Brazilian Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Duarte, Ruy. 1968. História social do frevo. Rio de Janeiro, RJ: Leitura.Google Scholar
ECU Internacional Rhône-Alps. 2016. “E Você o que é, Capoeira ou Capoeirista?” ECU Internacional Rhône-Alps, Facebook, February 24. Accessed August 30, 2018. https://www.facebook.com/12604115806/posts/e-você-o-que-é-capoeira-ou-capoeirista-ouvindo-os-mestresem-um-certo-evento-esta/10153230785480807/.Google Scholar
Foley, Catherine. 2001. “Perceptions of Irish Step Dance: National, Global, and Local.” Dance Research Journal 33 (1): 34–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
“Frevo Patrimônio Cultural Imaterial Do Brasil: Dossiê de Candidatura.” 2006. Prefeitura do Recife. Accessed March 23, 2018. http://portal.iphan.gov.br/uploads/ckfinder/arquivos/Dossie%20Frevo.pdf.Google Scholar
Gaztamide-Fernández, Rubén A., Kraehe, Amelia M., and Stephen II Carpenter, B.. 2018. “The Arts as White Property: An Introduction to Race, Racism, and the Arts in Education.” In The Palgrave Handbook of Race and the Arts in Education, edited by Kraehe, Amelia M., Gaztamide-Fernández, Rubén A., and Stephen II Carpenter, B., 1–31. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Goldman, Danielle. 2010. I Want to be Ready: Improvised Dance as a Practice of Freedom. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goretti Rocha de Oliveira, Maria. 1993. Danças populares como espetáculo público no Recife de 1970 a 1988. Recife: Fundação do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico de Pernambuco/Secretaria de Educação, Cultura e Esportes.Google Scholar
Goretti Rocha de Oliveira, Maria. 2017. Frevo: A Choreological Performance. Recife: Richard Veiga.Google Scholar
Gottschild, Brenda Dixon. 2003. The Black Dancing Body: A Geography from Coon to Cool. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenfield, Gerald. 2009. “Lampião, Luiz and Padim Ciço: Three Icons of the Brazilian Northeast.” Memory Studies 2 (3): 393–410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hahn, Tomie. 2001. “Singing a Dance: Navigating the Musical Soundscape in ‘Nihon Buyo.’” Asian Music 33 (1): 61–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hahn, Tomie. 2007. Sensational Knowledge: Embodying Culture Through Japanese Dance. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Huizinga, Johan. 2006. “Nature & Significance of Play as a Cultural Phenomenon.” In The Game Designer Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology, edited by Salen, Katie and Zimmerman, Eric, 314–28. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Lewis, J. Lowell. 1992. Ring of Liberation: Deception Discourse in Brazilian Capoeira. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Linger, Daniel Touro. 1992. Dangerous Encounters: Meanings of Violence in a Brazilian City. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Mantovanini, Ricardo. 2018. EDSON. Accessed May 2, 2018. https://vimeo.com/264134593.Google Scholar
Mello, Frederico Pernambucano de. 2004. Guerreiros do sol: violência e banditismo no Nordeste do Brasil. 2nd edition. São Paulo: A Girafa.Google Scholar
Merrell, Floyd. 2005. Capoeira and Candomblé: Conformity and Resistance in Brazil. First Markus Wiener Publishers edition. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nahachewsky, Andriy. 2006. “Shifting Orientations in Dance Revivals: From ‘National’ to ‘Spectacular’ in Ukranian Canadian Dance.” Narodna Umjetnost 43 (1): 161–78.Google Scholar
Ness, Sally Ann. 2004. “Being a Body in a Cultural Way: Understanding the Cultural in the Embodiment of Dance.” In Cultural Bodies: Ethnography and Theory, edited by Thomas, Helen and Ahmed, Jamilah, 123–44. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar
Olímpio, Laércio. 2018. Interviewed by the author at the Casa da Cultura in São José, Recife, Brazil. May 23.Google Scholar
Olson, Laura. 2004. Performing Russia: Folk Revival and Russian Identity. New York: Routledge Curzon.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Owen, Craig, and De Martini Ugolotti, Nicola. 2017. “‘Pra Homem, Menino e Mulher’? Problematizing the Gender Inclusivity Discourse in Capoeira.” International Review for the Sociology of Sport 54 (6): 691–710.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Real, Katarina. 1967. O folclore no carnaval do Recife. Rio de Janeiro: Campanha de Defesa do Folclore Brasileiro.Google Scholar
Reed, Susan A. 2010. Dance and the Nation: Performance, Ritual, and Politics in Sri Lanka. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Rosa, Cristina F. 2015. Brazilian Bodies and Their Choreographies of Identification: Swing Nation. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sarmento, Luiz Eduardo Pinheiro. 2010. “Patrimonialização das culturas populares: Visões, reinterpretações e transformações no contexto do frevo pernambucano.” MA thesis, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco: Recife.Google Scholar
Scott, James C. 1990. Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Sklar, Deidre. 1991. “Five Premises for a Culturally Sensitive Approach to Dance.” In Moving History/Dancing Cultures: A Dance History Reader, edited by Dils, Ann and Albright, Ann Cooper, 30–33. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.Google Scholar
Suárez, Lucía M. 2013. “Inclusion in Motion: Cultural Agency through Dance in Bahia, Brazil.” Transforming Anthropology 21 (2): 153–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Talmon-Chvaicer, Maya. 2008. The Hidden History of Capoeira: A Collision of Cultures in the Brazilian Battle Dance. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, Diana. 2003. The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, Victor. 1986. “Carnival in Rio: Dionysian Drama in an Industrializing Society.” In The Anthropology of Performance, 103–24. New York: PAJ Publications.Google Scholar
UNESCO. 2012. “Frevo, Performing Arts of the Carnival of Recife.” UNESCO Cultural Sector-Intangible Heritage. Accessed June 22, 2016. http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/en/RL/frevo-performing-arts-of-the-carnival-of-recife-00603.Google Scholar
Vicente, Ana Valéria. 2006. Fervo. Teatro Apolo, Recife Antigo. September 14–29.Google Scholar
Vicente, Ana Valéria. 2009. Entre a ponta de pé e o calcanhar: reflexões sobre como o frevo encena o povo, a nação e a dança no Recife. Recife: Editora Universitária da UFPE.Google Scholar
Vicente, Ana Valéria. 2018. Interviewed by the author at interviewee's home, João Pessoa, Brazil. May 1.Google Scholar