Dance History
History of the Ten Competitive Dances
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Samba
The first dance in the Latin-American program. A dance with almost bicentennial history full of interesting facts, moments and names...
Samba - a short history of the dance
Samba
Beat: 2/4.
Temp: 50-52 measures per minute.
Count: "1 - (a) - 2", "slow - quick " and other variations.
Danced competitively since 1956.
Before I go into any further explanations I must say that the information presented on this page is as compact as possible. This comes from the impossibility to put the entire history of a dance which kept on developing for over 170 years.
In addition - and from historical point of view - there are many different periods that could be traced in the evolution of the dance. This makes the choice of facts, suitable for presenting here, even harder.
I apologize in advance for any information in the text that you may find difficult to understand, disorderly presented, or in short - too comlicated or bulky.
Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world and is the birth place of the Samba. Much of the music in the heavily populated coastal areas shows a remarkable combination of African, Native Indian, and Iberian influences.
Modern Samba was developed from an earlier Brazilian musical style called Choro. Both Samba the dance and music can take many forms, from the vivacious call response of samba de enredo, the music of Carnaval to samba-cancon or song samba, a more relaxed guitar and rhythm variant. Bossa Nova, which translates to New Wave, hit America big time in the Sixties with "The Girl From Ipanema". This song by the legendary composer Antonio Carlos Jobim became a classic in jazz and elevator music.
In the 16th century, the portuguese discovered on the east coast of South America, a place they called the January River (Rio de Janeiro). Colonists soon settled and as the colony prospered, slaves were brought from south-west Africa to work in the plantations of Bahia, in the north-east of what became Brazil.
To adherents of the Afro-Brazilian religion, Candomble, Samba means to pray, to invoke your personal orixa (god/saint).
The African rhythms enveloped in Latino music came from the Yoruba, Congo and other West African people, who were transported to the New World as slaves. In their homeland the rthythms were used to call forth various gods.
Candomble preserves these rhythms to this day! It is these rhythms that has heavily influenced Brazilian music making Samba a unique genre of music.
The native dances were considered sinful by the Europeans and at different times the authorities tried to suppress their popularity.
Still, many in the colony became popular amongst both blacks and whites.
The Batuque described as a circle dance with steps like the Charleston done to hand clapping and percussion, became so popular that the prtuguese emperor Manuel I who fled to Brazil during the Napoleanic Wars, passed a law forbidding it!
A composite dance was developed in the 1830's which combined the plait figures from these Negro dances and the body rolls and sways of the indigenous Lundu.
Later, carnival steps were included. This dance was modified and began to be performed with the dancers holding each other in the European way (closed dance position).
Around 1885, it was adopted by high society in Rio, and popularised as the Zemba Queca. It was modified again and called the Mesemba.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Mesemba was combined with another Brazilian dance, the Maxixe and was popularised in the U.S.A and Europe.
It has been described as having the steps of the Polka done to the music of the Cuban Habanera (from Havanna). The present day Samba still contains a step called the Maxixe, consisting of a chasse and point.
(On the picture - basic steps of the Maxixe for the man and the lady)
1928 was a special year for Samba. A French dance book published by Paul Boucher in 1928 included Samba instructions, this helped popularise the dance in Europe but more importantly, on August 12, 1928 the first samba school was established at Estacio.
In the 1930s, a form of the Samba called the Carioca was revived in U.K and spread to the USA. Movies helped popularise it, with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers performing it in their first film together.
In 1941, its popularity was boosted by performances by Carmen Miranda in her many films.
Under the name Samba the dance was introduced in the U.S. in a Broadway play called "Street Carnival" in the late twenties. In the 1950s Brazilian musicians heard the "cool jazz" of the US and adapted it to a gentler samba rhythm syncopated on the guitar. The result was the reflective, romantic music called Bossa Nova(with its hit single "Girl From Ipanema").
The Ballroom Samba, while maintaining elements of what the Brazilians consider the true Samba, was formalised in 1956 by Pierre Lavelle. Since then, various forms of Samba have been developed to fit the mood of modern music.
A typical dance history of Samba will always mention the dancers Manuel Diniz ("Duque" - the duke) and Gaby, two Maxixe dancers resident in Paris, who are credited with creating the ballroom version of Samba (the dance) and introducing it to Europe.
New forms of Samba (more or less lasting in time) developed in time always trying to adapt to the contemporary style(s) of music.
In general the Samba is a progressive dance. As many of the other dances, Samba has also lost its close realtion with its predecessors. Partially this happened because of the need to give the dance a more competitve character.
Amateur couples dance the Samba as a first dance in their programme, while professional couples perform it as a second one.