“There are choreographed
passinho steps, but they can also dance alone, as long as it’s charme!” reveals Simone Criolla, an administration student and producer responsible for the selection of the team of models and dancers.
Dream Team do Passinho
:The idea is to do it once a month,” guarantees Jerônimo Machado, producer of artists like Fernanda Abreu and also the one responsible for the party. “With the advent of the
UPPs (Police Pacification Units), I thought about putting into the community a proposal of the
baile black (black dance), that I attended for a while, and bring fun to the community that was deprived of
bailes funk (funk dances), so as not to get that story of the
traficante (drug dealer) who left and nothing else happens. I distributed 400 tickets to the people of Rocinha and another 400 for the guys there from Madureira,” says Machado, who took advantage of the event to celebrate his 53rd birthday.
Michel, Madureira’s resident DJ for more than 20 years
History
At 57 years of age, Marco Aurélio Ferreira, aka DJ Corello, is preparing a book recounting his long history of experience in the dances. “I’m writing, I want to release it this year still. I’ll talk about
the influence of black American music in Brazil, telling the story of the sound teams of names like Big Boy and Ademir, and I will also speak of the transformations that radio went through,” describes Corello.
Baile charme of viaduto Negrão de Lima
An authority on the subject, he makes a rant about the myth surrounding the
baile in ‘Dutão’ (as the Viaduto Negrão de Lima is affectionately called). “Madureira is not like the people of south zone think. The dance brings together a satisfactory number of people, but it could be triple, with caravans coming from the south zone, only that it doesn’t have sufficient bathrooms, no structure. It’s worth improving, but it needs large companies that look after the motion,” he suggests.
Actors
Débora Nascimento and José Loreto portray Darkson e Tessália in the novela ‘Avenida Brasil’. The club scenes were inspired by Madureira
It was in late summer 2012 when much of the Brazilian viewing audience began watching a new saga on primetime TV. The
novela would soon grow its the audience. Set in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro, the story by writer João Emanuel Carneiro,
Avenida Brasil, became a public phenomenon until the last chapter, in October of the same year.
Pedro, Leandro and Felipe have a good time in Madureira
At that time, DJ Michel could hardly suppose that the Madureira neighborhood known for its diversity of cultural movements, would enter the list of tourist destinations of the city and the
novela multiplied the number of visitors of the famous
baile charmebeneath the Viaduto Negrão de Lima, the old Madureira overpass, where Michel has resided for twenty years.
The ladies of Madureira
Proud to operate one of the most highly rated dances for supporters of “passinho do charme”, Michel ensures that the ball of the overpass already appears as a cultural reference of Madureira, perhaps every suburb. “The dance was stopped for three weeks because of a reform to improve onsite security. A frequenter stopped me in the street and said he was getting sick of not being able to go to the Viaduto on Saturday nights. It was then that I realized the importance of my work and this space.” He believes that, from a cultural standpoint, for Madureira the dance is as important as the samba schools Portela and Império Serrano, in addition to Jongo da Serrinha.
Leonardo Balbino de Paula, 25
In the
novela, “Baile do Divino”, a fictitious name for the dance, the character Darkson (José Loretto) is one of the dancers of
charme and a resident of Divino, inspired by the Madureira neighborhood. The actor took classes with dancers to make the character a “charmeiro” (attendee of
charme dances). DJ Michel account that after characters like Darkson began appearing on the scene, the number of visitors has risen gradually. “Before the
novela, we had an audience of 90% of natives and the remaining 10% were visitors. After the dancing began to appear in the
novela, the number of visitors rose to 40% and the local people who hadn’t returned for some time came back.” Adriano, 37, an attendee since the age of 15, confirms the words of the DJ. “I came straight to the
baile charme, but I stopped for while. I went back after it started coming on the
novela.”
In the Carnival of 2013, the Portela samba school featured Madureira as its theme and the overpass, of course, could not be left out. The school had a wing and a float dedicated to the movement, with great influence of black culture in the United States.
Under the overpass the straightening iron is out
Party under the overpass
It’s not hard to find girls with an innovative look and a “Black Power” (afro) hairstyle under the Negrão de Lima overpass. Some say that the
charme dance is where the blacks of Rio truly find themselves. Accepting
cabelo crespo (kinky/curly hair) is more than an attitude. It’s facing prejudice directly, without fear of criticism. At this dance, the
chapinha (hair flattening iron) is out. “Out there I feel a certain prejudice for I having natural hair. I’m another one who
threw the prancha (chapinha) out and decided to wear a hairstyle with more roots. Here I feel at home. We are family. Everyone knows and respects each other,” says Ana Paula, who is a technician in radiology.
Ana Paula, Kirse e Paloma – frequent attendees
Student Kirse Lima has attended the dance for four years. She met her boyfriend there. She notes that, historically, it’s the suburb where one finds the largest number of Afro-Brazilians. And at the
charme dances, which take place in ghettos, the tendency is most blacks being among the regulars. But the presence of other races doesn’t bother her, she says: “The interaction between different tribes is characteristic of the space.”
Learning the various
passinhos to the sound of American rhythms such as R&B and Soul was a challenge for the student Paloma. Not that it was difficult, she explains, but because there are some that require practice. “There are many
passos (steps). The best school for learning them is practicing here every Saturday.”
Source:
O Dia,
Viva Favela,
Catraca Livre,
Delas iG
doubt it. From my experience wit dem black p.rican and black Dominicans, a Black Brazilian would be highly offended to e referred to as black or mistaken for an afr. American.
u talking to somebody that grew up rounn all a dat. ALL OF IT. So kill dat shyt about how much they love us and love our culture nikka u talking to somebody who actually KNOW
n try dem 'we are one' ducktales on a muthafukka dat didn't have to grow u roun Haitians n p.ricans.
I only used Haitians as an example. Like 
or are u just trollin me 
