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SAMBA, MULATAS and the SOCIAL MEANING of CARNIVAL By

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SAMBA, MULATAS and the SOCIAL MEANING of CARNIVAL By SAMBA, MULATAS AND THE SOCIAL MEANING OF CARNIVAL By COREY A. C. DAVID DE SOUZA A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2015 © 2015 Corey A. C. David De Souza ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I thank my research partner, friend and soul mate Victor Souza for taking this journey with me. I thank my son, Rauã and my parents Heidi, Bill, Ken and Rebecca for their love, patience and support. I thank my advisor Dr. Faye Venetia Harrison for believing in me and taking me under her wing. I thank Drs. Joan Frosch, Florence Babb and Michael Heckenberger for joining my team and providing invaluable insight, and Drs. Larry Crook and Welson Tremura for sharing their expertise, especially in defining music terms. I thank the passistas of Alegria da Zona Sul: Joyce, Priscilla, Danika, Vanessa, Mayara, Pelezinho, Batata; Vila Isabel: Milena and Gii; Acadêmicos da Rocinha; Mangueira: Rafaela Bastos, Marcia Anjo, Evelyn Bastos, Luciana Ferreira, Carla Valente; samba specialists at the Centro Cultural Cartola: Nilcemar Nogueira and Vinicius Natal; Isnard Manso, Giovanni and all of the students and instructors at the Centro Cultural Carioca; sambistas of Bahia Dona Dalva, Gerônimo, Deise, and instructors of the Escola de Dança da FUNCEB for letting me into their world and for dancing with me. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................3 LIST OF FIGURES .........................................................................................................................7 LIST OF OBJECTS .........................................................................................................................9 BRAZILIAN-PORTUGUESE TERMS ........................................................................................10 ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................................15 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................16 2 RESEARCH METHODS .......................................................................................................24 2.1 Overview ...........................................................................................................................24 2.2 First Contact: Rio de Janeiro ............................................................................................27 2.3 Bahia .................................................................................................................................34 3 THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ........................................................................................37 3.1 Performance Theory .........................................................................................................37 3.2 Finding Passistas ...............................................................................................................42 3.2.1 Field Notes, July 2011. ...........................................................................................42 3.2.2 Anthropology of the Body ......................................................................................43 3.3 Visual Anthropology, Autoethnography and Embodiment ..............................................50 3.4 Samba through an Intersectional Lens ..............................................................................53 3.5 Samba as Living Heritage .................................................................................................57 4 IDENTIFYING THE SAMBA MATRIX ..............................................................................63 4.1 What is Samba? ................................................................................................................63 4.2 Before Samba was Samba ................................................................................................63 4.3 Syncopation: Occupying Negative Space .........................................................................71 4.4 Samba in Bahia .................................................................................................................73 4.5 Documenting Samba .........................................................................................................91 4.6 Samba Carioca ..................................................................................................................92 4.7 Bota Abaixo ......................................................................................................................99 4.8 Theme & Variations in Music & Movement ..................................................................100 4.9 Dancing Samba ...............................................................................................................104 4.10 Modernizing Forces ......................................................................................................108 4.11 Rise of the Passista and the Professional Mulata .......................................................116 4 5 CONFLICTING COSMOLOGIES ......................................................................................127 5.1 Dance and the Sacred Body ............................................................................................127 5.2 Dancing Outside the Lines ..............................................................................................134 6 VISUAL DATA ....................................................................................................................140 6.1 Videos .............................................................................................................................140 6.2 Photographs ....................................................................................................................150 7 THE REHEARSAL SPACE.................................................................................................154 7.1 In the Dance Laboratory .................................................................................................154 7.1.1 Field Notes: September 17, 2012 .........................................................................154 7.1.2 Becoming a Passista .............................................................................................155 7.2 What is Rehearsal? .........................................................................................................156 7.3 What is Choreography? ..................................................................................................158 7.4 Building a Performance ..................................................................................................160 7.5 Learning to Samba ..........................................................................................................163 7.6 The Rehearsal Season .....................................................................................................164 7.6.1 Field Notes: September 22, 2012 (Rehearsal at Mangeuira Samba School) ........165 7.6.2 Rehearsal or Performance? ...................................................................................167 7.7 Improvising Choreography .............................................................................................169 7.7.1 Field Notes: July 27, 2012 ....................................................................................171 7.7.2 Negotiation ...........................................................................................................172 7.7.3 Field Notes: October 1, 2012 ................................................................................172 7.7.4 Playing the Field ...................................................................................................173 7.7.5 Field Notes: October 13, 2012 ..............................................................................174 7.7.6 Invitation to Choreograph .....................................................................................175 7.7.7 Field Notes: October 15, 2012 ..............................................................................176 7.7.8 Field Notes: Sunday, October 21, 2012 ................................................................177 7.7.9 Making Enemies ...................................................................................................179 7.7.10 Field Notes: Monday, October 22, 2012 ............................................................179 7.7.11 Field Notes: Saturday, October 27, 2012 ...........................................................183 7.7.12 Seeking an Elite School ......................................................................................185 7.7.13 Field Notes: Saturday, October 27, 2012 cont. ..................................................185 7.7.14 Not such a Good Idea .........................................................................................186 7.7.15 Field Notes: Sunday, October 28, 2012. .............................................................186 7.7.16 Field Notes: Monday, October 29, 2012 ............................................................187 7.7.17 Field Notes: Monday, October 29, 2012, continued: .........................................188 7.8 Joining the Upper Division .............................................................................................189
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