Art
Brasil
Dance
Funk Carioca
Hip Hop
Music
Society and Culture
Funk Carioca: Starting a Critical Conversation Through Sounds and Dance by Cindy Herrera
9:14:00 PM
As a class, we visited a town in Rio called Lapa. It is the go-to place for night-life. We all hopped onto the bus that took us that from Copacabana through other bairros and we arrived at Lapa. As each of us got off the bus, there were swarms of people. The area is jam-packed with dancing bodies, people drinking and laughing with one foot on the sidewalk, the other on the busy, bustling streets. Professor Vianna guided us and we headed to the first restaurant, almost as if it were admission to what the rest of Lapa had to offer.
The tables were filled with people dining on feijoada, delicious dishes of camarão and the local beer. We sat down where the hostess had seated us and found ourselves cozily among other party-goers, hoping to fill their bellies before they drank anymore.
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| Arcos da Lapa in the daylight. |
We were not exactly sure where to go next but I remember before our trip to Rio, in preparation, I had come across a dance that was popular among the younger age groups and reminiscent to hip hop and rap. It was Afro-Brasilian music and when we passed by this club, with predominantly Afro-Brasilians and looking like a lot of fun, we decided to check it out. We had gone inside and there was a live band playing, the people were packed like sardines, dancing joyously in front of the loud drums. The crowd was swaying their hips to every beat of the congas. Rhythmically moving, we made our way past them, to the bar. We ordered our drinks and decided to explore this dance hall’s upstairs area. We shimmied our way through and headed for a much different and distinct sound. It was slightly emptier, it may or may not have anything to do with how baking hot it was. It did not matter for the party-goers knew how to have a good time.
The moment I went onto the dance floor I had already spotted two men engaging in what I ignorantly calling “Brasilian twerking.” Yes, I am aware of how short sighted that sounds. During some more research I had come to find the music was actually a genre of funk carioca. The Museu de Arte do Rio we visited as well, showcased the residents of favelas dancing and even competing! The museum did not allow for any photography but it had a wonderful, lengthy, and informative explanation of what Carioca meant. Carioca means to be a local of Rio de Janeiro, a resident, and all Rio embodies.
This Brasilian funk also known as “baile funk” is directed towards a young demographic and is similar to what we know as being hip hop or rap (Benfield). I did not find this kind of music playing in the more richer parts of Rio or where the wealthy and elite frequent. What I learned from the dance was that it involved a two-step from side to side and in-and-out movements of the rear, which would go down all the way to the floor and back up. In our course pack provided by Professor Martinez, there is a chapter titled Rio de Janeiro- City Without Titles, from the book Shadow Cities by Robert Neuwirth. In this excerpt, focused on the favelas of Rocinha, Neuwirth tells us about the parties that were “crowded and humid inside” and the music being “hard-edged rap and hip-hop” while “synchronized dance movements” took place (39). It was incredible to compare my experience with Neuwirth’s. It’s fair to say that this isn’t exactly what I have seen in the states. These two young men were repeating the same dance moves as I complimented them as well as hoping to learn. This music is thought to be vulgar and looked down on from the upper class. This is music that came from the favelas and the everyday people of Brasil. According to AJ Samuels of the online publication Culture Trip, favelas tend to be thought of going hand-in-hand with drugs, gang members and other criminal activities. I believe these people are criminalized because they tend to be of African descent and simply because they are poor. In another excerpt titled, “An Introduction to A People’s Guide to Los Angeles,” this particular section explains how people and the poor tend to be criminalized and which ways this is succeeded. “A People’s Guide” claims to “refocus our attention on those people and places that are systematically left off the map,” as well as “center on the analysis of power and inequality” (6). Through this, we “question common thinking about what places are desirable and worthy of time, money, and attention” (6). These communities are left with nothing and from this, they create a dance and music, art, their culture, and it is looked down upon. Maybe all the neglect leaves a community with little options and means of surviving. Baile funk has easily become something enjoyable for me. No, I do not condone misogyny and violence, but this funk has a deeper and stronger meaning and background. It is always easy to condemn a whole kind of people and their space instead of asking why they got there and praising them for what they have managed to make for themselves. What the residents of Rio and communities in the favelas have built for themselves is immense and full of culture that should be explored by all. One may ask themselves, how does watching people dance give insight and understanding of a culture? Well, dance is an integral, a social integral part of culture. It is unique to a country’s or town’s way of being. According to Michael Glassman, “it is social history, and, most important, the tools developed through our social history that helps to determine our everyday culture (Vygotsky & Luria, 1993). The social interlocutor stands as a mediator between tools developed through social history and individual human inquiry. The interlocutor uses everyday culture, which itself is a product of social history, to guide the thinking of the neophyte”. And in this case, I consider myself the neophyte to the amazing things Brasil has to teach and that it has taught me. Dance is social and connects human beings and expression while perhaps fighting off oppression. Funk Carioca is a social tool that helps define what it is to be Carioca, it opens up a dialogue. If people are not pleased from the sounds of the funk, there will be so many questions as to why and it is answered in the way the music is played to the kind of people that attend. This dancing is more than its physical movements, it is telling us something, something important so we better listen as we watch too.
This Brasilian funk also known as “baile funk” is directed towards a young demographic and is similar to what we know as being hip hop or rap (Benfield). I did not find this kind of music playing in the more richer parts of Rio or where the wealthy and elite frequent. What I learned from the dance was that it involved a two-step from side to side and in-and-out movements of the rear, which would go down all the way to the floor and back up. In our course pack provided by Professor Martinez, there is a chapter titled Rio de Janeiro- City Without Titles, from the book Shadow Cities by Robert Neuwirth. In this excerpt, focused on the favelas of Rocinha, Neuwirth tells us about the parties that were “crowded and humid inside” and the music being “hard-edged rap and hip-hop” while “synchronized dance movements” took place (39). It was incredible to compare my experience with Neuwirth’s. It’s fair to say that this isn’t exactly what I have seen in the states. These two young men were repeating the same dance moves as I complimented them as well as hoping to learn. This music is thought to be vulgar and looked down on from the upper class. This is music that came from the favelas and the everyday people of Brasil. According to AJ Samuels of the online publication Culture Trip, favelas tend to be thought of going hand-in-hand with drugs, gang members and other criminal activities. I believe these people are criminalized because they tend to be of African descent and simply because they are poor. In another excerpt titled, “An Introduction to A People’s Guide to Los Angeles,” this particular section explains how people and the poor tend to be criminalized and which ways this is succeeded. “A People’s Guide” claims to “refocus our attention on those people and places that are systematically left off the map,” as well as “center on the analysis of power and inequality” (6). Through this, we “question common thinking about what places are desirable and worthy of time, money, and attention” (6). These communities are left with nothing and from this, they create a dance and music, art, their culture, and it is looked down upon. Maybe all the neglect leaves a community with little options and means of surviving. Baile funk has easily become something enjoyable for me. No, I do not condone misogyny and violence, but this funk has a deeper and stronger meaning and background. It is always easy to condemn a whole kind of people and their space instead of asking why they got there and praising them for what they have managed to make for themselves. What the residents of Rio and communities in the favelas have built for themselves is immense and full of culture that should be explored by all. One may ask themselves, how does watching people dance give insight and understanding of a culture? Well, dance is an integral, a social integral part of culture. It is unique to a country’s or town’s way of being. According to Michael Glassman, “it is social history, and, most important, the tools developed through our social history that helps to determine our everyday culture (Vygotsky & Luria, 1993). The social interlocutor stands as a mediator between tools developed through social history and individual human inquiry. The interlocutor uses everyday culture, which itself is a product of social history, to guide the thinking of the neophyte”. And in this case, I consider myself the neophyte to the amazing things Brasil has to teach and that it has taught me. Dance is social and connects human beings and expression while perhaps fighting off oppression. Funk Carioca is a social tool that helps define what it is to be Carioca, it opens up a dialogue. If people are not pleased from the sounds of the funk, there will be so many questions as to why and it is answered in the way the music is played to the kind of people that attend. This dancing is more than its physical movements, it is telling us something, something important so we better listen as we watch too.
References:
Benfield, Edward. "A Photographer Infiltrates the Rio Funk Scene." Proof.NationalGeographic. National Geographic Partners, 03 June 2015. Web. 08 Aug. 2016.
Glassman, Michael. "Dewey and Vygotsky: Society, Experience, and Inquiry in Educational Practice." Educational Researcher 30.4 (2001): 3-14. Web.
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