The Rocket

Issue date: 4/1/05 Section: Entertainment

On Monday night, the sound of drums brought a gymnasium full of Slippery Rock University students to their feet. The Nego Gato Music and Dance Ensemble, a group of artists who teach and perform dances from the Afro-Brazilian culture, came to Slippery Rock to teach their style of dance to two dance classes before giving a performance later that night in the West Gym. They managed to impress the audience with feats of strength and flexibility including flips, splits and jumps.

"The performance is designed to show the beauty and diversity of Afro-Brazilian culture," said Mestre Nego Gato, the founder and artistic director of the company.

The performance showcased several different dances that originated from the traditions of African slaves brought to Brazil to work harvesting sugar plants. To keep their beliefs intact in their new environment they established a dance tradition which the Nego Gato Company continues today.

The seven performers danced and played percussion instruments, sometimes simultaneously. Throughout the performance Nego Gato engaged the audience by explaining the various instruments and inviting audience members to try them.

In one series of dances, the Dances of the Orixas, the dancers represented various deities who embody forces of nature. The dances included traditional costumes that obscured the faces of the dancers.

"The dancers represent the forces of nature and their identity is obscured," Nego Gato said.

The dancers portrayed Ogum, the god of war and technology; Oxum, the goddess of fertility and love; Omolu, the god of health and the elders; and Iemanja, the goddess of the ocean and maternity.

They also portrayed various aspects of the deities through their movements. The dancer who portrayed the god of war used fierce, angular arm movements while the dancer of the goddess of love used a soft, swaying motions.

The final dance the company performed was the Capoeira. This dance was a means for the slaves to practice fighting skills and build strength in order to escape. Many did escape and were able to build communities in the hills of Brazil called Quilombos.

At the end of the performance, a group of students demonstrated what they had learned from the Nego Gato dance company in class earlier that day. It was obvious that the dancers enjoyed the movements, and their grasp of the technique was impressive.

"It was amazing to see the passion that Nego Gato had, both as a dancer and as a teacher," said Trista Newcomer, a freshman dance major who had taken her class earlier in the day.

The company then invited the audience to try some of the moves for themselves. Pretty soon more than half the audience members in the auditorium were on their feet, clapping and dancing in time to the drums. It showed that the appeal of the dance was not specific to the Afro-Brazilian community but is universal.

"Anyone can dance capoeira, you don't have to be from Brazil, you just have to love the dance," Nego Gato said.

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