Brazilian troupe ignites audience

ORONO – Take the MTV Video Music Awards. Add a little culture. Subtract Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. Substitute Brazilian beats for pop and rock. Keep all the flash, the beautiful bodies, the sinewy dancers and the wild, revealing outfits, and there you have it: the Bale Folclorico da Bahia.

Brazil’s only professional folk dance company burst onto the stage at the Maine Center for the Arts on Wednesday night and energized the audience with its exuberant dancing. By the end of the nearly two-hour performance, people in the crowd were on their feet, clapping their hands and dancing – old, young, men, women not just bopping their heads, but really dancing.

The 32-member troupe of dancers, musicians and singers draws from the major influences in Brazilian culture: African, Portuguese and indigenous Indians. The result is a high-energy display of vibrant color, extraordinary athleticism and pure joy.

The dancers came in with bells on – literally. The thin strands on their ankles and wrists chimed as they leapt and spun around the stage, which at times seemed too small for the big performance.

In the “Puxada de Rede,” or “Fishermen’s Dance” a woman in a voluminous skirt that looked like a sparkly cabbage softly danced onstage bathed in green light. Other dancers entered the stage, spinning around her and as she pulled a fish net from the giant skirt, catching the women in the net.

Sparks flew from clashing swords and the men battled in the “Maculele” martial-arts routine, which originated with slaves in Brazil’s sugar cane plantations.

One highlight of the show had nothing to do with dancing, however. One dancer manipulated the single-stringed “berimbau de corpo,” which consists of a wire stretched on a long bow with a gourd at the end for resonance. From the single wire, he made beautiful, reverberating music, including a Jimi Hendrix-like rendition of the “The Star Spangled Banner.”

The energy continued to crescendo during the “Afixire,” or “Dance of Happiness.” The men, dressed in candy-striped pants, bound across the stage in back flips and contortions that brought roars of applause from the audience. The women, clad in long, wavy wigs and breast-baring leis that looked like big, sisal coasters strung together, celebrated their culture in a sensual, vivacious dance.

The dancers went into the audience during the finale, “Samba Reggae,” and coaxed people out of their seats. It took a minute, but pretty soon, the whole crowd was clapping, standing and finally dancing along with the performers.

On this rainy, dreary night, the dancers’ exuberance and endless smiles brought a little bit of warmth to Orono, and the audience let down its hair, let loose and danced. As the crowd poured out of the MCA, not even the chilly, damp air could bring their spirits down from the contagious joy that the Bale Folclorico da Bahia brought to town.