Dances

Tânia Santiago and Aguas Da Bahia

Dances

Orixas
Traditional dances from the African based Candomble religion. Orixas are spirits which personify the ocean, rivers, fire, wind, rainbows, storms, earth, plants and other forces of nature each with a variety of specific dances and rhythmns.

Samba de Roda
Improvisational folk dance of the African-Bahian people. Danced in a circle, with call and response singing, highlights include vying for a partner, a playful cat and mouse interplay between a couple or a spirited interaction between a single dancer and the musicians.

Samba Reggae
A fun popular dance to music which is a tumultuous marriage of samba and reggae and impossible to ressist.

Xaxado
(Sha-sha-do) A lively folk dance from the North East of Brazil in the Baião family. It grows out of life in the dry cangaço countryside. The name comes from the "sha-sha" sound of boots scraping the earth. The movements are brash and convey the enthusiasm of hard work and hard play. Aguas Da Bahia will be performing Xaxado in this years S.F. Ethnic Dance Festival June 22nd and 23rd. Dance Festival Info

Puxada de Rede
"Pulling the net" is a traditional fisherman dance. Movements imitate collective fishing and dancers sing about good fortune and the godess of the sea.

Maculele
An exciting dance involving sticks and machetes. Its roots are in the Cachoeira region of Bahia, where the economy relies on sugar cane.

Caboclo
This unpredictable dance acts out the free and untethered personality of the Caboclo, the spirit of the indigenous ancestors of Brazilians.

Frevo
Traditional dance from Recife, Pernambuco. Frevo is very athletic dance, in which dancers use umbrellas and jump and squat.
Tânia is avaliable to teach workshops which focus on a specific dance. Tânia also creates complete choreographies to be performed.
In her regular saturday class Tânia teaches Afro Contemporano which combines movements from different Afro-Brazilian traditions and styles. Tânia also spends some time on the above listed and other folkloric and popular rhythms and dances.
Contact Tânia
Workshop and class info
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