Author Archives: AliG

Beginners’ dance workshops start Sunday 27 May 2012

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Learn to dance Brazilian samba!

We are pleased to announce that our 2012 beginners’ dance workshops will start at 12.45pm on Sunday 27 May, and will run till 3pm. There will be 6 workshops in total, and costs are $60 for the series if paid in full, or $12.50 per workshop. The workshops are run at our usual practice space, Thistle Hall, which is on the corner of Arthur and Cuba Streets.

The dates for the workshops will be Sunday 27 May, Monday 4 June (Queen’s Birthday), and Sundays 10, 17, 24 June and 1 July. Each workshop will run from 1 – 3pm, apart from the first which has the earlier start time of 12.45pm, to allow for the registration process.

We run our beginners’ dance workshops at the same time as our beginners’ drumming integration sessions, which gives aspiring Wellington Batucada dancers the opportunity to get their groove on to live drumming right from the start. Our dance director Arawhetu Berdiner and senior dancer Hillary Reid will guide you through our dance moves and choreography, all of which are linked to the various rhythms, patterns and breaks played by the drummers.

To find out more, check out our Join page. The page includes a form to fill in if you’re interested in taking part – and please pass this message on to anyone else you think might be interested.

Jambalaya 2012 – Fred and Budi

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Fred and Budi at their samba workshop during JambalayaThe best thing about the Jambalaya samba immersion course is the chance to learn new breaks and patterns from samba Mestres. New Zealand is a long way from pretty much anywhere, so to have Mestre Fred Turuka from the London School of Samba and Wicked Aura frontman Idham Budiman (aka Budi) from Singapore come all the way here to share their knowledge with us was a real honour.

I thought you might like to see just how awesome these guys are.
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Jambalaya 2012 – immersion

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3 days of samba immersion with Mestre Fred and Budiman

The Jambalaya Festival has the nicest atmosphere, it’s really well-run (massive props to the organisers who did an amazing job!) and the immersion courses are absolutely fabulous.

Fred and Budi funking it up with the samba immersion class

21 members of Wellington Batucada made the trip up to Auckland this year to take part in the 3-day samba immersion course with Mestre Fred from the London School of Samba and Budiman – teacher of Samba Masala and front man of Wicked Aura. We were joined by members of Auckland’s AKSamba, Hamilton Samba, Tauranga Samba, Samblasta from Rotorua and Samba de Sol from Nelson.

Each day Fred and Budi taught us so many new breaks and patterns that our heads began to spin with the sheer volume of new information. Their normal playing speed was somewhat faster than we generally play during rehearsals back home, and at times it was all I could do to keep up (and quite often I didn’t!).

It was such a privilege to learn from two such talented and enthusiastic Mestres – and even though at times I thought I’d never remember the new breaks (or keep up!), it’s amazing how much you improve when you’re immersed in drumming for three days straight.
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Jambalaya 2012 – Wellington Batucada gig

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Quite possibly the best gig EVER

Jambalaya isn’t the biggest festival in New Zealand, but it’s certainly one of the most participatory. A large percentage of the people at the festival are there to take part in one of the immersion courses, which means they’re most definitely up for a bit of participation – and that “up for it” attitude seems to rub off on everyone else, turning virtually every gig into madness and mayhem on the dance floor.

We’d seen a bit of it first-hand on the Friday night when AKSamba played an awesome gig on the main stage. The crowd went nuts, dancing like mad things, and it was altogether rather impressive. I reckon there were probably 50 band members performing – some of whom had been at the immersion course with us – they were wearing their brightly-lit LED costumes and even had the word “AKSAMBA” spelled out in lights worn by a line of drummers at the back.

AKSamba differ from Wellington Batucada in that you have to be invited to join the band – so only the best drummers get an opportunity to stick around after their beginners classes are over and rehearse with the main group – and eventually, if they’re good enough – to perform with the band. This means that technically they’re pretty awesome, and they also play at speed – quite a bit faster than we do down in Wellington.

Having experienced the might of AKSamba in concert, I have to confess I was somewhat intimidated and a wee bit nervous about our upcoming gig the following night. Only 21 of us, our basic (though very cool) black uniforms (no pretty lights!) and Darren our director only just back with us after about a year of travelling the world with his band, Batucada Sound Machine. It was going to be a hard act to follow…
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