FINLAND / FRANCE / PORTUGAL / SWEDEN

Member of Samba Résille since 2014, I had the chance to participate in many mobilities. In Liverpool first (x2), then Rotterdam, Lisbon, Cape Town in South Africa, Porto and Helsinki. From a personal point of view, the common pleasure in all these adventures was first the moments of musical sharing. Whether in the preparation of the carnival parades, the workshops with exchange of pieces and songs with our different partner, the barriers of language disappeared to make room for the urge to let live this so great drumming flow.

It’s by telling these mobilities to my family that I measure each time more the chance I have to go in these conditions, to discover what is being done in other countries through music.

These mobilities are also a good opportunity to discover the other members of the association (… surprise guaranteed!). It’s then possible to lean on this new complicity to enrich our musical practice when we play together in Toulouse.

Once again a great mobility, waiting for the next. Kiitos!

« Virade » click in an air-raid finish shelter

Under a porch, in a street in Helsinki, a heavy door leads to a gallery, approximately cut in the rock. White inscriptions made with a stencil remind times of war. The labyrinth leads to a big arched room; it’s the rehearsal room of Papagaio samba school.

Very ideal, in 2019, to contain the sound of a bateria de samba, this place was used as an air-raid shelter for kids of a kindergarten near it. It was for protection, when the European countries were at war.

We participate in a batucada master class led by Marcus, one of the leaders of Papagaio. Each one of us takes his instrument. I take a tamborim. I used to play the snare drum when I was in Samba Résille band (now I’m in the pagode group).

Papagaio plays samba carioca. This rhythm from the south of Brazil accompanies the Rio de Janeiro carnival. The tamborin are played with a fast rotation of the wrist called a “virade”. Mastering the virade distinguishes the good player of tamborim. This movement, not really worked in Samba Résille given a preference for the rhythms of the north of Brazil, always seemed to me impossible to realize.

Wishing to make a good impression in front of Marcus who is showing us the rhythm to work, I first make clumsy virades. Kindly, Marcus shows us the movement again. Then Herisao takes the time to explain that we need to anticipate the movement of the wrist, just before hitting the instrument.

And then, it’s the click! I can do it! I needed to go to Helsinki to finally understand the good movement for the tamborim, which I thought was inaccessible for me.

Well, I should stay modest. I still need to practice a lot for the movement to be written in my brain and become a reflex. But the more important part is done and I live it as a victory. I know the movement and I can repeat it whenever I want.

What Finnish people do with samba, what samba does to Finnish people… And what I learned from samba in Finland.

In a big disused building, in the quiet suburbs of Helsinki, men, women and children are really busy; they finalize the floats, they polish the costumes, they review the dance moves, they tune their instruments… Outside, begins the general rehearsal of Papagaio for the big parade of the carnival happening during the weekend. What we notice in this first day of the mobility, it’s the similarity with Rio, the costumes, the music style, the structure of the parade: free figures, standard-bearer, influence from Bahia, dancers, the bacteria accompanying the puxador and the cavaquinho, the “old” guard at the end… Everything is here! This carnival has, like in Rio, its king and queen, competing very seriously.

This impression of wanting to be really close to what’s happening in Rio, I will find it many times during this week, witnessing the performances of the groups during the “Noite das fantasias” on the stage of the Apollo Club, or during the rehearsal of the GRES Samba carioca in Turku. The costumes made of feathers, colors and glitters, seem to be from the Brazilian carnival. The pieces are accorded to the songs, sophisticated breaks and technically advanced variations give relief, richness and diversity. Unity of style, unity of universe… Big contrast with us, batuqueiros and batuqueiras of Samba Résille, with our “free style”, our diversity of musical types, and our freedom taken with the carnival codes. Big contrast too with the batucadas from France, where dancing and singing play a limited part. But like in every trip, impressions will be soon surpassed.

On the second day, seminar about samba in Finland and in France. Toni Ström tells its story and his desire to dedicate its life to this universe. For him, it’s a real “way of life”. All the members of its family play samba! Harri Engtrand, who had several positions in Papagaio, never missed any carnival since 1991. In Finland, samba is made by passionate people! Toni and Harri spend a lot of energy since the 90’ for their school and for the influence of samba in Finland and abroad. Here, subsidies don’t exceed 10 % of the budget, so they have to find funds, partners and solutions to rent or borrow rehearsal spaces, to pay the electricity, the security during the carnival… Every member of the school pays to parade.

On the musical side, more of passion, it’s important to talk about demand of level. On top of the rehearsals, musicians train watching Brazilian videos on Youtube. In the Turku school, a player of chocalho wrote a musicology thesis, and the tamborims participated in a workshop with a mestre from the prestigious Mangueira school in Rio. Sami Kontola, who leads one of our masterclasses, got admitted in this school, in Brazil, it was then one of the first European player to get into their bateria. And we find this desire for excellence when he asks us to play really slowly and soft to distinguish the rhythms and focus our attention on harmony. Because the demand of quality is also collective. For that matter, after each carnival, members of the schools debrief joyfully watching their performance to analyze it.

In a little waiting room in the rehearsal place in Turku, I meet Taru, florist and mother of 5 children, who spends her free time making costumes. She shows me pictures of her work: headdresses more than 3 meters high, big dickeys, a dress that she spent more than 80 hours making! Near her, Mari is gently mocking her, telling that during a diner in her house, Taru kept working on one of her piece while watching her saucepans… We understood it, on the costume side, the commitment is also impressive! Every member has to make his own, and the parents are responsible for the costume of their child. The forms and colors lean in the parade theme, determined by a committee, even if each person can bring its ideas.

This demand for quality contributes to develop strong relationships, more than a team spirit, a family spirit. In Turku again, they invite us to watch the pictures of the school, funded in 1986, and they offer us the catalogue they made for the 20^th birthday of the school: extract of articles from prestigious newspapers, pictures of their participation in carnivals, but also pictures of weddings of members who met at the schools, birth announcement for the babies born of these unions… and everywhere smiles, conviviality and fun.

In the Finnish schools of samba, all the generations are present. During the rehearsals for the carnival, children help to make the costumes, follow the steps of the dancers or play with a ball. Some classes are especially made for them, led by members of the school, and they participate in the parade. Sometimes, boyfriends of the dancers, worried to see them parading lightly dressed, integrate the bateria. And like in every family, new people are coming every year, others leave, others come back or change their role, dancers become musicians, musicians help with the administrative part…

In Finland, samba is more than a copy-paste of the Rio Carnival. Style born from of mix of cultures, this music and its universe produce new cultural mixes, like a virtuous web of artistic and human inventiveness, with connections multiplying endlessly.

Because if the music uses the samba carioca codes, the songs, like the one of Papagaio “Aika” (time) are composed in Finnish. In Turku, they try to adapt the theme of the parade to the local environment. This year, the organizing committee chose the artificial intelligence, to link the carnival to the presence of many students in high technologies in the city. And even if they choose not the be politics or religious, themes around the environment were also chose in the past. Regarding the weather, it produces constraints for which they find solutions. In winter, artificial leathers are used because of the humidity and cold, while animal leathers are used for the performances.

During our visits and the masterclasses, I feel the effervescence, the pressure, and what’s at stake during the competition of the carnival. But conviviality is the key word: the desire to share musical moments, to exchange on the cultural practices from a country to another, the good mood during the rehearsals, the energy of the dance. And this is maybe the essence of samba that we can find in Samba Résille, this pleasure to be together with music, these rich relationships between individuals. Probably our part of Latinity, whether we are from France, Brazil of Finland… A universal component of humanity?

A gain in transversality…

I was particularly involved in the organisation of the mobility in Porto, for which I was in charge of building the programme of activities and coordinating the groups of participants and international partners. This type of project is particularly interesting because of the combination of skills it requires: artistic and pedagogical skills to define the objectives of the mobility, but also organisational and logistical skills, coordination and animation skills, linguistic skills (two working languages: Portuguese and English).

The Constructeurs de coopérations multiculturelles project acted as a catalyst for the evolution of my professional profile: initially a graduate in musical training, I am progressively acquiring project development skills. I think that this increase in skills and transversality corresponds perfectly to the current evolution of cultural professions, which require more and more versatility and autonomy, in the sense that the cultural actor, artist or pedagogue, is increasingly expected to acquire the skills that allow him to build the spaces and events where he will be able to disseminate and promote his practices.

…Secured by a methodology of cooperation

Obviously, you cannot combine all the skills, and what is interesting is the ability to work across the board while ensuring that each person can at the same time retain and develop their own area of expertise.

This type of project, where the team mobilises and coordinates itself to live an enriching collective experience, is an ideal space to set up or at least refine cooperation methodologies such as the RACI method (responsible, accountable, consulted, informed), which makes it possible to define the role of each person while avoiding the false idea that one must be an expert in everything; This helps to develop a spirit of solidarity and collective responsibility in achieving objectives by avoiding the confinement of each person to his or her own tasks and ignorance of those of others.

A masterclass desenvolvida em conjunto com o Samba Resille, em Outubro de 2020, revelou-se de extrema importância para o percurso profissional dos Samba Sem Fronteiras.

Os músicos que compõem o grupo lidam mais frequentemente com a área artística e criativa, envolvendo a criação de músicas novas, gravações em estúdio e concertos ao vivo. Neste sentido, esta masterclass constituiu uma excelente oportunidade para desenvolverem competências de transmissão de conhecimentos e experiências, contribuindo para a integração dos músicos na área educativa e para a melhoria da sua organização interna enquanto grupo de trabalho.

A troca de experiências e vivências com as pessoas de Samba Résille, permitiu-nos perceber que cada um tem a sua visão específica e « modo de estar » na música, em particular no samba.

A masterclass constituiu assim uma porta de entrada para o desenvolvimento de projectos futuros, em parceria com entidades com objectivos semelhantes aos dos músicos, contribuindo também para a divulgação do seu trabalho fora de Portugal.

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The masterclass developed together with Samba Resille, in October 2020, proved to be extremely important for the professional path of Samba Sem Fronteiras.

The musicians that make up the group deal most frequently with the artistic and creative area, involving the creation of new songs, studio recordings and live concerts. In this sense, this masterclass was an excellent opportunity for them to develop skills in transmitting knowledge and experiences, contributing to the integration of the musicians in the educational area and to the improvement of their internal organisation as a working group.

The exchange of experiences with the people from Samba Résille allowed us to realise that each one of them has their own specific vision and “way of being” in music, particularly in samba.

The masterclass was thus a gateway to the development of future projects, in partnership with entities with similar objectives to those of the musicians, also contributing to the dissemination of their work outside Portugal.