MOSCOW – The Palouse is treated to a taste of Brazil when the music and dance group Ache Brasil performs at 7:30 p.m., Thursday April 23 at Moscow High School Auditorium. The performance is the last in this season’s Festival Dance Great Performances Series.
Ache Brasil has played to enthusiastic audiences and critical acclaim throughout North America receiving a recent nomination for “Live Performers of the Year” at the West Coast Music Awards. The group was founded by director Mestre Eclilson de Jesus, originally from Pernambuco, Brazil. “Ache” stems from a Yoruba word meaning “all things positive,” and the ensemble has brought their dynamic and positive outlook to such events as the Vancouver International Jazz Festival and the 2001 World Figure Skating Championship.
Ache Brasil represents the culture, the traditions, the beliefs, the music and movement of the people of Brazil. Equal parts dance, music and spectacle, the groups’ performances include such dynamic forms as Samba, Maculele, Afoxe, and the famous Brazilian dance martial-art, Capoeira, which is a display of acrobatics performed to the rhythm of the berimbau, an ancient sacred bow-like instrument..
In the late 1500s, men and women from the West Coast of Africa were captured by Portuguese slave traders and brought to what is now known as Brazil. Almost immediately they began dreaming of ways to gain their freedom and so developed a martial arts style that would eventually become known as Capoeira. In order to hide this fighting style from their masters, the African slaves combined dance, music, ritual, acrobatics and martial arts into what appeared to the slave owners to be a harmless game a game that would eventually help the slaves gain their freedom. While dancing, leaping, spinning and striking at each other, two players move effortlessly within a circle of people who clap and sing. With its fluid movement, flashing kicks and spine twisting acrobatics, Capoeira continues to win fans all over the world and can be seen today in places as diverse as Israel, France, Japan, England, Argentina, Portugal, Canada and the US.
Another breathtaking dance to be performed is the Maculele, which was originally created in the sugar cane fields by the slaves while they were cutting the cane. Utilizing sticks and machetes, Maculele imitates the movements of the cutters and is choreographed to a special rhythm especially for this dance.
The colorful and exciting performances of Ache Brasil introduce audiences to a wide diversity of musical instruments such as the tambourim, the pandeiro, the shekere, the agago, and the birimbau. Traditionally Ache Brasil concludes their performances by inviting audience members to join in the dancing.
Tickets for Ache Brasil are priced from $12 to $18 and are available through the Festival Dance Office, Paradise Ridge CD’s and at the door. Local sponsors are KQQQ and Northwest Public Radio and Western States Arts Federation. The group will also present two free performances for area students assisted by funding from Moscow Mardigras, the U.S. Bancorp Foundation and the Idaho Commission on the Arts.
Go to: www.festivaldance.org to have a sneak peek at the show. The video show the excitement and energy of the show.
