Our own AliCat – as well as being a talented tamborim player – is also a Zumba fitness instructor. This year, she invited Wellington Batucada to play for the participants in the annual Party in Pink, raising awareness and funds for Breast Cancer Research.
This is how it went down…
Click on any thumbnail to see the larger version. All photos by Alison Childs:
This was the first time we’ve done anything for Wellington Phoenix in aaages, and we were really pleased to be asked to take part in their new pre-match waterfront parades.
We gathered at Queen’s Wharf and waited for the parade of schoolkids to arrive from Civic Square. Once they reached Queen’s Wharf, we hopped onto the tail-end of their line, and together we all marched along the waterfront to the Stadium. It was a pretty big crowd, all very excited and enthusiastic about seeing the Phoenix in their first home game of the season, as were we. Continue reading
We were rather pleased to have been invited to take part in the Island Bay Playcentre Fundraising Gala this year – our smallest ever audience (haha!).
A very small and select group of Batucadans (is that a word? It is now…) was chosen to play this gig – I think the organisers were a bit worried that we might be too loud for the little ones if there were too many of us… and a lovely time was had by all. Here’s a video and some pics: Continue reading
Wellington Batucada has a bunch of different uniforms for different occasions – there’s the official black uniform (recently updated to cotton rather than synthetic – bliss!), the old official white uniform which I think has been retired (it really wasn’t very flattering, to be honest), and various T-shirts and hoodies – I especially like our dark blue teeny tiny T-shirts we wore for the Cuba Street Carnival.
All of these uniforms are available to Batucada members once they get signed-off to perform – in fact earning your uniform is an important part of the process. But we haven’t had any items of official Batucada clothing that you can buy before you get signed-off – or to wear if you’re a fan, rather than a Batucada member.
Until now!
So – without further ado we present the Official Wellington Batucada Hoodie and Vest Collection – otherwise known as “We love the band, but we’re not quite in the band (yet) – if you see what I mean…”
From L to R: hoodie (front), hoodie (back), hooded vest (front), hooded vest (back)
Both the hoodies and vests are a generous shade of red(ish), and have the Batucada shield logo on the front and our big Batucada star logo across the back. They’re lovely and warm and snuggly. The hoodies have sleeves that are slightly shorter than normal, so if you’ve got long arms you’ll probably prefer the vests!
Cost: $30 each
Styles: Red hoodies and red hooded vests
Sizes available: Men’s S, M, L, XL and Women’s 10, 12, 14, 16
Contact: our fashionista Phillip Rendle at rendlep@gmail.com if you’d like to buy one.
Wellington Batucada was asked to play at this year’s annual World Fair Trade Day, when the World Fair Trade Organisation and its members promote global awareness of fair trade. It’s a great cause, and we were happy to play our part.
In Wellington the event is part of Fair Trade Fortnight – an opportunity to celebrate Wellington’s Fair Trade City status, and show the huge support of Wellington businesses for Fairtrade. Continue reading
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.
The 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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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.
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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