SJC Brooklyn students learned about the roots of Samba dances during an interactive Hispanic Heritage Month event on campus last week.
A small group of musicians and dancers from Manhattan-based performance company Samba New York! taught students about Samba and performed inside the Tuohy Hall auditorium.
Philip Galinsky, Ph.D., founder and director of Samba New York!, explained that the music is a Brazilian genre and dance style, with African rhythms woven throughout. The group of four musicians played samples of each rhythm on their traditional drums before putting the beats together in the performance.
During the show, a pair of dancers — Candace Tabbs and Constance Nicolas Vellozzi — moved eloquently across the stage to the beat of the music. By the end of the act, the dancers had students out of their seats moving around the auditorium to the rhythm and taking on the Samba dance.
Raymond Castillo, a sophomore mathematics and computer science major, and the president of Poder Latino, said he enjoyed watching the event.
“I thought it was a great and amazing performance,” said Castillo, who never saw a Samba performance before the event.
He worked with Kean Hawker, coordinator of multicultural student life, to bring the performers to campus for Hispanic Heritage Month — a nationally recognized month that runs from Sept. 15 – Oct. 15, recognizing the histories, cultures and contributions of Americans with Hispanic roots.
Each year during Hispanic Heritage Month, Hawker works with students to plan an event that focuses on a different aspect of Hispanic culture. The Samba event was sponsored by Poder Latino and the Council of Multicultural Clubs & Organizations.
