This week, the breeze of tropical Bahia will pass through winter-chilled Rochester, brought to town by the New York-based music and dance ensemble Ologundê. Performing as part of the Eastman School of Music's renowned World Music Series, the ensemble will offer dance, percussion music, and songs drawn from the Afro-Brazilian repertoire of the candomblé, the capoeira, the maculêlê, and the samba de roda.
The candomblé involves an Afro-Brazilian religion, in which African deities called Orixas are evoked through music and dance. Specific percussion instruments play a large part in the ceremonial practice. A core of required drums known as the atabaque (the lé, the rum, and the rumpi) are augmented by the agôgô (a double-headed bell struck with a stick or metal rod), and the singing of praise songs addressed to various gods and goddesses.
The capoeira, the maculêlê, and the samba de roda, while not grounded in spiritual practice like the candomblé, nonetheless stem from the same cultural roots. The maculêlê is a secular dance requiring the participants to display their skills with swords and knives. The capoeira uses the percussion instruments of the candomblé, but adds the birimbau (a one-string musical bow with a gourd resonator) to the ensemble.
The samba de roda was once the feminine counterpart of the male capoeira, but now both genders participate in the dances. Flirtatious in nature, the samba provides an arena in which males compete for the attention of a female, trying to deceive or out-wit one another in the process. It uses all the core instruments on the other dance forms, but can also add a fuller range of percussion instruments, a guitar, and sometimes even wind instruments.
Ologundê performs Tuesday, March 25, 8 p.m. at Kilbourn Hall, 26 Gibbs Street. Tickets cost $8-$18. For more information call 454-2100 or contact esm.rochester.edu/concert.