For this Chew On This, Mika Lior invites the WAC/D community to join her movement class, Samba Aesthetics: Loose (Solto) and Broke (Quebradinha). Loose and broken are aesthetic principles of Afro-Brazilian samba dances performed in popular and ritual settings. This class will explore movement techniques and dynamics from various styles of samba dancing, inviting students to play with and discover loose and broken aesthetics inside of samba’s particular movement techniques and styles. We will study samba’s polycentric and polyrhythmic body organization, practice the “ginga” or basic hip oscillation and upper body swing of the samba step, and experiment with a range of rhythmic expressions inspired by spectacular (Carnaval) and intimate contexts (the roda or circle) of samba performance. This class is geared to movers who identify as intermediate-advanced dancers because Mika is practicing teaching for a group of undergrad and grad dancers at a Canadian university in the following week. However you are also welcome to participate or observe regardless of your level of familiarity with studio dance learning.
Mika Lillit Lior is an artist-scholar who recently completed her PhD in Culture and Performance at WACD. Mika’s research addresses ritual, martial and popular choreographies from Bahia, Brazil as dynamic forms of knowledge production and socio-political expression. Her performance and teaching practices build on her training in samba, capoeira, dance lexicons from the syncretic Afro-Brazilian religion of Candomblé, and contact and ensemble improvisation.