24/07/2014 17:17
RIO DE JANEIRO -- The conflict happens in the midst of Rio's city center. Policemen are parading with their bulletproof vests, the crack smokers in their rags. A small, rebellious and shirtless troop, wearing brand new Nikes, is standing in front of them, dancing on the stairs.
It's only a short while before the curtain raise.
An enormous poster covers the facade of this cultural institution. On it, you can observe a title Na batalha, and a young man, his body stretched out.
We hear nervous laughter inside the theatre. They are just one girl and a dozen boys. "I am in this theater for the first time and, envision this, I'm going to perform," said Endrew Nobre, a young man with tiny braids and childish postures. "Nobody believed in this endeavor, not even my family. And now we're here."
Nobre isn't being pretentious: you can see tears in his eyes. Nobre fixes his measures to those of his coworkers. His moves are not only reminiscent of the capoeira but of the frevo, a dance and of breakdance. These measures are unique -- no one really knows where they come from.
Really were born in the slums.
The upper class is reached by a favela tempo
The outskirts are taking over the center of the town, just where they are most worried. Here, favelas are considered the ultimate repulsive place, an area of horror -- dramatized over and over by television.
It is a recent report -- the story of funk carioca and passinho. This is the story of an electronic music of a dance that grew in the exorbitant shakings of boundary walls, at the door of open-air nightclubs and that sprung out of Brazilian favelas.
Everything goes in Rio. Mateus Aragao, a nonchalant 30-year old Brazilian born in the upper middle class, found funk from his privileged window when he was younger. Younger was listening to the sounds of the favela perched on the neighboring hill.
Since then, Aragao has been organizing "bailes funk", or funk balls, in the upper-class districts of Rio's southern area.
"I was fascinated by this beat, so I decided to bring the favelas music into town as soon as the opportunity presented itself," he said. "I created the "Eu Amo Baile Funk" celebrations here. Rockers despised us. Yet they had to understand that funk was the beat of the carioca youth."
What exactly is currently hatching in Rio is somewhat similar to what took place in The Big Apple in the 1980s -- the rise of hip hop. Think of it. A jeered cu Cheap Air Force 1 Blue.tural movement from the suburbs captured Manhattan, subsequently the world. Here, everyone sees that narrative as a model.
And this first show in a 200-year old theatre in the midst of a city that hosted the World Cup, feels rather like a conquest.
Dancing v. public order
The experience is sponsored by the Ministry of Culture to give it credibility. The dancers are being dressed by Nike. These favela children cannot believe their eyes inside their shoes that are fluorescent that are new.
Everyo https://www.retailblazer.com/buy-nike-air-force-1-07-low-white-white-blue.html.e, literally everyone, is here: the favelas, that seem to have migrated to the town's lower places, the DJs that are headlining, and the media, ready to finally see this fresh, new blood. Even Coca Cola shot on a video featuring these young dancers for the World Cup. In the clip, you see the dancers presenting their passinho.
Has Brazil accommodated with its outskirts? Are favelas now hip? It takes no more than one hour and comprehend the scenario isn't that complex.
Gangs are guarding the entrance, and the military police are keeping watch on the other side. Gangs have exactly the same weapons.
A historical baile funk is back in the favela, after being banned for several months. The dances were a collateral casualty of the pacification effort that happened among several carioca favelas. Brazilian security forces appear to abhor musical buzzing as much as gangs despise drug trafficking. A special law, glorifying offense or being simply licentious, baned many funk tunes. Funk, in the thoughts of World Cup cleaners, is a risk to public order.
Yet the baile eventually resumes, under patrol examination.
A fresh life to the culture in Rio
Eddy Excelent is watching the opposite favela from a concrete roof looking out on Arvore Seca. He sees a multitude of Get More.small, lit-up houses in a still only broken by the sound of the dance.
Excelent does meticulous moves with his feet and arms, and can create astonishingly exact, frenzied and martial mixes. The young Brazilian looks like a samba dancer, plugged into the digital age.
"I live a little farther up, in the favela. The pacification prevented us from organizing any ball. We now have a mandate, so it needs to go well. Otherwise, this will be over."
These youthful dancers understand the morgue of those people who do not live on these hills, but also their neighborhood's violence. The young dancers faced the prohibitions of the happenings after publishing their videos. They understand that, with their agile measures, they have been giving a fresh life to Rio's culture. But in addition they understand that a return to normal, to exclusion, could happen very fast.
Confronting a fortress of loudspeakers, which could outdo Jamaican sound systems, Eddy, in his little, mischievous body, embodies the history of Brazil -- a fascination for America, some African somersaults, and the Atlantic audacity. Music is poor, but dance will prosper.
It is 4 in the morning. The Maracana stadium is a bulging darkness soldiers are drifting.
The Na batalha show went on at the Joao Caetano Theater until the World Cup final match. The favela dance got an instant of international visibility, an artform with origins in the U.S. was transformed into a local expression. These dancers that are ageless, genderless recover urban warriors, miming cabaret queens and their singularity.
As if nothing, not even Nike, could standardize this language from the hills.
