Author Archives: AliG

Festas de São João 2019

comment

Celebrating a Brazilian festival at El Barrio Latino Bar

Wellington Batucada drummers at Festas de São João 2019 mini-gig. Photo by El Barrio Latino Bar.

Lucy (former Batucada tamborim player) owns El Barrio Latino Bar and was keen for us to do a small gig in June to celebrate the Brazilian festival Festas Juninas – also known as Festas de São João.

Keeping the volume down is a challenge in a small space, so we decided a mini-gig would work best, with 10-12 drummers instead of our usual 20-30. Our dancers came along and danced with the crowd, as there wasn’t space to do a dance performance. So – a bit of an experiment all round.
Continue reading

Wellington Batucada at CubaDupa 2019

comment

Live on-stage at the Opera House

Due to the recent tragic events in Christchurch, CubaDupa was moved offstreet this year.

Our Sunday Swan Stage show went ahead as planned – but on-stage at the Opera House (ooohhh!!).

Wellington Batucada drummers and dancers perform live at the Opera House, Wellington, New Zealand – as part of CubaDupa 2019. This year we celebrated the life and music of Mestre Moa do Katande, who was an inspiration to us all.

Continue reading

CubaDupa weekend 2019 – samba jam party

comment

Jamming with our samba-loving mates from around NZ

Due to the recent tragic events in Christchurch, CubaDupa was moved offstreet this year.

This meant, sadly, that all of the street performances planned by Wellington Batucada and our samba whanau from around the country could not go ahead. So instead, we decided to host a massive Samba Jam on the Saturday at our rehearsal space – the Cook Island Hall in Newtown.

Wellington Batucada host a samba jam party at the Cook Island Hall for all our samba-loving friends and bands from around the country. Video by Tom S Etuata.

Continue reading

Island Bay Festival 2019

comment

Fun in the sun by the sea

Wellington Batucada drummers and dancers perform in Wellington’s Island Bay Festival Parade. Video by Tom S Etuata.

Thank you from Island Bay Festival:

Hi everyone! Slightly belated, but still heartfelt thank you to you all and your groups for yet another fantastic parade!

Couldn’t do it without you all, and your enthusiastic participation, marching, singing, dancing, trike-riding, acrobat-ing, instrument playing and marshalling really makes it an awesome event. Please pass on my thanks to everyone from your groups who was involved. Til next year… Mel

Continue reading

The Menagerie Variety Show

comment

Fun and frolics on-stage at the Opera House

Wellington Batucada’s Menagerie performance – the official video. Video by The Menagerie Variety Show 2018.

Practising our active bitch faces for serious dancing (2) - photo by Sarah JaneThe last time we were on-stage at the Opera House was for the DANZdance20 gig back in 2013 – so it’s been a while.

25 drummers and 10 dancers from Batucada took to the stage for The Menagerie Variety Show – invited as the “intermission entertainment” – and a brilliant time was had by all.

It was a long day – beginning with a stage walk-through at 3pm. It’s always reassuring to be able to experience the stage and plan how you’re going to get on and off before you do a big gig like this one – and producer extraordinaire Rachel Rouge and her team made sure that every one of the multiple acts in this fabulous Variety Show were able to do just that.

The Opera House is such a beautiful old building – a perfectly grand and decorative old-fashioned theatre – with a veritable rabbit warren of dressing rooms on multiple levels behind the scenes. When you reach the bottom of the many flights of stairs from your dressing room you step through the door from the light-filled stairwell into a dimly-lit and cavernous backstage area. It’s another world.
Continue reading

Batucada beginners’ dance course starts 5 August 2018

comment

Who’d like a piece of the Samba action?

Arawhetu and Hillary lead the dancers at Newtown Fair 2018 - photo by Paul Taylor

Our next Batucada beginners’ dance course begins 5 August 2018.

You will get to dance alongside members of Wellington Batucada while our Dance Directors teach choreography from our Samba repertoire. No dance experience required and everyone is welcome (all genders).

The cost for the beginners’ course is $80 for 6 weeks. Or you can pay $20 per individual session.

Dance course dates

Venue: Thistle Hall, 293 Cuba St, Te Aro Wellington.

Our beginners’ dance classes will be held every Sunday for 6 weeks, in two 3-week blocks. Classes run from 1pm to 3pm as follows:

Week Date Time Venue
Week 1 Sunday 5 August 1-3pm Thistle Hall
Week 2 Sunday 12 August 1-3pm Thistle Hall
Week 3 Sunday 19 August 1-3pm Thistle Hall
NO CLASS Sunday 26 August NO CLASS
Week 4 Sunday 2 September 1-3pm Thistle Hall
Week 5 Sunday 9 September 1-3pm Thistle Hall
Week 6 Sunday 16 September 1-3pm Thistle Hall

Continue reading