Festival Performance of Dance at São Paulo

Extract

The Festival performance of Brazilian Folk Dancers concluded the International Folklore Congress and Folk Music Conference held at São Paulo. It had been arranged by Dr. Renato Almeida who had represented his country at the London Conference on Folk Music in Education in 1952. Dr. Almeida was particularly anxious that his European colleagues should not miss seeing the Brazilian folk dances, so many of which were like the Morris dances he had seen in London, and we naturally hoped for several opportunities to investigate the local music and dance traditions, but each day was filled with conference sessions and formal entertainment. Eventually it became clear that the great Festival performance was to be our only opportunity and we must make the most of it. This was to take place in the grounds of the Exhibition on the evening of the opening day. Early that morning the Congress met for its last plenary session in the Exhibition grounds and then the members were free to inspect the excellent folklore exhibits of the different Latin-American countries. Throughout the morning public attendance at the Exhibition had been very thin; but when the Congressisti set out on the evening visit the coach drove out of São Paulo into a vast traffic jam. The whole population had decided to visit the Exhibition.