Sambaliscious: A tale of Colour and Sound in Brisbane

The Latin community participated of the shows and joined the group to create a perfect atmosphere of big social dancing on the street.

July was an important month for Sambaliscious. The group, formed by Australian dancers who perform the original Brazilian Samba, recorded, live, a new promotional video during its performances on the Queen Street Mall to celebrate the World Cup. A film crew followed the performance and registered great moments for the final video.

The project of the World Cup Celebration started after Sambaliscious received an invitation from Brisbane Marketing.  They wanted to offer an atmosphere of Brazil, as the host of the biggest soccer competition in the World. The performance, which went on for several Fridays, offered Rio Carnival Samba Shows, live Brazilian drumming and Capoeira Martial displays.

Mishel Finlayson, director of the group, explains that Sambaliscious usually includes Brazilian Bartucada in its presentations, which showcase the authenticity of Brazilian Samba and make the audience feel that they are in Rio at the Carnival. “Capoeira is a beautiful art form, and we love including it in our performances as it showcases the incredible acrobatic skills of its performers and compliments Samba really nicely. It is also great to showcase both male and female performers who are fit, healthy and passionate about Brazilian culture”, she adds.

An interesting part of the show was when everybody got the chance to learn Brazilian dancing. It happened after the girls’ performance. The Latin community participated of the shows and joined the group to create a perfect atmosphere of big social dancing on the street. “We hope to encourage more people to get involved with Brazilian dance and Capoeira as it's fantastic for your body, spirit and social life”, emphasized Mishel.

Sambaliscious

The trajectory of Sambaliscious starts 8 years ago, when Mishel came back to Australia from an intense period of dancing studies in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Her intention was bringing women together to learn how to dance, improve their fitness and also make new friends. “We began as a dance school, and then as the girls technique improved and when we were well prepared, we began to do performances at local festivals and events”, explains the director of the group.

So far, the preparation has been intense. The Australian dancers visit Brazil once a year to train with the Samba Queens and perform in the Rio Carnival parade. They also rehearse regularly, go to the gym to keep fit and invest a lot of time and resources to create authentic Carnival Samba costumes for their shows. For each performance, they spend long time in artistic make up, hair and body paint/ glitter. “We do our best to create a real atmosphere of Brazilian Carnival”, says Mishel.

The dedication and passion for her job gave Mishel a unique opportunity. This year, she was invited to perform as the very first Australian Samba Queen for a Rio Samba School. For her, it was an enormous privilege and honor. “Representing Australia and being part of such a recognized and respected international event, which is the Rio Carnival, was a great prize for me”.  

“We hope to encourage more people to get involved with Brazilian dance and Capoeira as it's fantastic for your body, spirit and social life” :  Mishel.

Projects

Besides the Sambaliscious World Cup Celebration in Queen Street Mall, the group has another projects and plans. Mishel tells they are now the resident entertainment for Navala Churrascaria on Eagle St, performing Samba and Batucada every weekend. After the World Cup, they will begin to focus on new choreographies and shows, and prepare themselves for the Woodford Folk Festival in New Years Eve and the  Rio Carnival parade in February 2015, where Sambaliscious will take a tour group. Mishel adds the dancers are also filming the series "Brazilian Body": online fitness videos which will be part of an 8-week challenge where people can win a trip to Rio for participating in the challenge. This project will be launched in Spring 2014.

By Tatiana Vieira