photo: Tayná Sampaio

RuaC do Passinho

The group RuaC do Passinho emerged from a movement workshop of contemporary dance dancer Flora Mariah, held at Lona Cultural Herbert Vianna, in Maré, in March 2014. The workshop, offered free of charge, lasted 3 months and was aimed at children and youth from Maré who were interested in deepening and exploring their knowledge of dance.

Throughout the workshop, many aspects of movement and dance were worked on, such as body and space awareness, stretching, muscle strengthening, different qualities of movement, and improvisation. The latter was the aspect that opened space for the students to explore their movement skills, bringing up Passinho as the predominant language among them.

After the 3 months of workshop, a group of students was formed and became really interested in continuing the work, as well as the teacher Flora Mariah, and also the Lona's manager, Geisa Lino. RuaC do Passinho was created, a dance group composed of seven young dancers between 13 and 18 years old, which aims to explore the potentialities of Passinho as a language, added to other urban and contemporary dance techniques.

During two years, the group performed in several events inside and outside Maré such as the Travessias festival, Ocupa Escola, shows at Lona Cultural, at AMARÉFUNK, and a participation in the Abayomy Afrobeat Orquestra's show at Circo Voador, in the Fela Day event.