Lambada
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Lambada () is a fast, sensual Brazilian dance for couples or groups, typically performed with the stomachs touching. The dance became internationally popular in the 1980s. The exact origin of the dance is in Brazil and has forerunners such as the forró, sayas, the maxixe, and the carimbó.
Origins
Carimbó dance
Since the time Brazil was a Portuguese colony (which happened between year 1500 a.c. till 1822 a.c.) there was a common dance in the north part of the country called Carimbó. It was a loose and very sensual dance in which the woman tried to cover the man with many spins and rounded skirts. The music was played mainly among beats of drums made of trunks of wood, thinned by fire.
As time passed by, the dance changed as did the music itself. It had many influences from the Caribbean music due to its geographical proximity, and a reminder of this is that even today one can listen to Caribbean radio stations when at some north states of Brazil like the Amapá state. This strong relation also generated some new rhythms like the Sirimbó and the Lari Lari, and so it changed forever the way the Carimbó was danced.
The word Lambada
After a while, a local radio station from Belém (Pará's capital city) started to call these new type of music as "the strong beated rhythm" and "the rhythms of Lambada" (Lambada is another word in local language for a strong hit). This last name "Lambada" had a strong appeal and began to be associated with this new emerging face of an old dancing style.[1]
The word Lambada is an obscure Brazilian Portuguese word, and refers to the wave-like motion induced in a whip. This flowing wave motion is reproduced by the dancer's bodies, and is one of the main elements that distinguish Lambada from other Latin dances.[2]
Two-beat dance style
Around 1983 the Carimbó dance started once more to be danced in couples, in a 2-beat style, something very close to Merengue, but with many spins.
The Lambada music
Aurino Quirino Gonçalves, or simply Pinduca is a Brazilian musician. He is a very well known singer at the north of Brazil (Amapá and Pará area), where it is strongly believed he is the true father of the Lambada music.
Pinduca is a musician and composer of mainly Carimbó. He is the singer and composer of the "King of Carimbó" (as it is affectionately known) and he created rhythms, such as: Sirimbó, Lári-Lári, Lambada and Lamgode.
The musician and composer of carimbó, Pinduca, launched in 1976, a song entitled Lambada (Sambão), track number 6 of the LP No embalo of carimbó and sirimbó vol. 5. It is the first recording of a song under the label of Lambada in the history of Brazilian popular music.
Some support the version that the guitarist and composer Master Vieira, the inventor of the guitarrada, would also be the creator of the Lambada music. His first official disc, Lambada of Quebradas, was recorded in 1976 but officially launched two years later, in 1978. [3]
In the 1980s, the fusion between the metallic and electronic music from Caribbean brought again a new face to the Carimbó. This style started to be played throughout the north-eastern region of Brazil (a place well known for its tourist approach), although this new Carimbó went with the name of Lambada.
Lambada in Bahia
Lambada dance a four-beat dance style
As the Lambada traveled through the coast until reaching Bahia (the elder Brazilian state) it started to receive some influences from the Forró dance (another strong beated and old Brazilian style of dance), and finally it became a 4-beated dancing style, in which we can definitely say it was different from the original Carimbó.
The way of dancing this Lambada was with arched legs, and the steps were done from one side to the other, and never from front to back. This was also the time in which the short skirts fashion were up, and both things (the dance and the fashion) got too close to one another. Still today, at some places like the Lambar (a night club in São Paulo) this match of a girl in a short skirt and a man in long trousers still has it appeal on an outdoor.
Bahian carnival
During the 1980's the Carnival from Bahia was increasing in popularity, and so every summer a new kind of dance arose, only to disappear during the year due to lack of tourists, and the arising of another dancing style and rhythm on the following summer. A few years before the Lambada, we had the Fricote and the Ti-Ti-Ti among others dances, which truly disappeared to never be remembered anymore.
Among with the "Trio-eletricos" (Big movable trucks covered with speakers, on top of which musicians play during the Carnival in Bahia), in 1988 the Lambada started to become popular in Bahia, and established itself in the city of Porto Seguro. Still, in this first boom of the Lambada, the south-east region (the most economical evolved region of Brazil) despised the rhythms which came from Bahia on a regular base (those were believed to be only summer hits).
Although it was recognized to have became a summer-fever, the Lambada was far away from having its true world-wide success. The many first lambaterias (a place to dance Lambada) which opened in 1988 couldn't stand the low tourism of the winter season and closed a few months later.
International popularity
Lambada hit by Kaoma
In 1988 a French entrepreneur, Olivier Lamotte d'Incamps, visited Porto Seguro and discovered locals dancing the tightly syncopated lambada to a melody that turned out to be Bolivian. With a lots of publicity, Olivier Lamotte d'Incamps originated a lambada dance craze, largely by promoting a European tour of Kaoma, a band formed from a Porto Seguro dance group Touré Kunda. He bought the musical rights of about 300 lambada songs. He went back to France, and created the Kaoma Band. They turned Lambada into a world-wide known style, reaching even the far east of Japan in which Lambada, where it is danced until nowadays.
Lambada entered the global mainstream when the French pop group Kaoma recorded a number one worldwide summer hit "Lambada" which sold 5 million singles in 1989. In Portuguese the Lambada song is called Chorando se foi which means the one who left crying.
In the music video, there were two young children, named Chico and Roberta, performing the lambada dance. They shortly thereafter started their own musical career.
The Lambada song was actually an unauthorized translation of the song Llorando se fue (1982) (which means: the one who left crying), from the Bolivian group Los K’jarkas.
Other Lambada musicians
Dozens of groups and several singers took ride on the success of Kaoma's Lambada song. For example: Beto Barbosa, Márcia Ferreira, Manezinho do Sax, while others were increasing their careers, as was the case with Sidney Magal, Sandy e Júnior, Fafá de Belém and the group Trem da Alegria.
Lambada in south-east Brazil
The world-hit by Kaoma was so strong that it brought something almost unbelievable: it came back to Brazil, but this time at the economically evolved south-east region (a region on which decades over, Brazil imported foreign music).
This re-insertion of Lambada changed the way people danced. For the first time in more than 30 years, since the Beatles, young couples started to dance together once more. Today in Brazil there are thousands of Ballroom dancing schools and lots of young happy people dancing together. This was caused by Kaoma's international success.
The international popularity of Lambada was had a great influence on Brazilian culture. Young people came back to the Ballroom dancing. The Lambada became internationally known as much as the Samba.
Relation to Maxixe
The association of Lambada and the idea of dirty dancing' became quite extensive. The appellative forbidden dance was and is often ascribed to the Lambada. This was largely due to
- its links to maxixe, the true forbidden dance of the early 1920s in Brazil is the Maxixe, because of its spicy lyrics and movements.
- the 1990 movies Lambada and The Forbidden Dance, and
- the short skirts, typical to the Lambada dance, that where in fashion around 1988.
Lambada has many links with Maxixe and also with Forro. They have many figures in common. For example:
- Balão apagado, a figure were the lady rotates her head while it hangs loose.
- Peão (also called boneca or toy doll), a figure were the lady swings her head from side to side.
The evolution of the Lambada dance
Early interpretations of the Lambada dance
With world repercussion, the dance reached far distortions. Due to a lack of fine Lambada dancers to make films and shows, most professional dancers started changing the way it was danced. Rock spins and steps were added, like those from Jive and East Coast Swing. Also some acrobatic movements became more common-placed.
In contrast, at Lambada contests at "Lambateria UM" (a place of Lambada) contestants were to be eliminated if ever they became separated during the dance.
The Lambada danced to different styles of music
After 1994 the Brazilian music style (also called Lambada), which gave birth to the dance, started to fade away, and the dancers began to use other musical sources to continue practicing the Lambada dance. Among these rhythms were the Flamenco Rumba (such as from the Gipsy Kings) and some Arabian music. Some very resistant dancers started to use other music styles to keep on dancing Lambada. Many of the Caribbean music like Soca, Merengue, Salsa, Kompa, and Zouk were used to dance the Lambada.
Finally the dance recovered most of its original way and style, with less acrobatic moves, smoother, intimate and closer contact. Some people like Israel Szerman and Jose Braz (Brazilian teachers) regred that nowadays the dance changed its name to Zouk-Lambada in most parts of Brazil. This is mainly because of its musical orphanage.
Zouk-Lambada
Today the majority of Lambada is danced to Zouk and Kizomba music and the dance has evolved a lot. There is an ongoing discussion as to whether this Zouk-Lambada style is a new type of dance or the natural evolution of the Lambada of the early 90s. Because the evolution of the type of music used by dancers, Zouk-Lambada today is divided in different styles. Style types include differences such as tempo, specific movements and stepping technique.
Popularity
The Zouk-Lambada style is very popular in countries such as:
- Brazil,
- Argentina,
- UK,
- Spain,
- Netherlands,
- Australia,
- Romania,
- Switzerland.
Zouk-Lambada style is coming-up in countries such as
- USA,
- Portugal,
- Denmark,
- Israel,
- Aruba,
- Japan,
- Poland,
- Belgium,
- France,
- Thailand,
- New Zealand,
- Germany, and
- Canada.
Films
- Lambada (1990) (Lambada: Set the Night on Fire)
- The Forbidden Dance (1990) (Lambada - The Forbidden Dance/Forbidden Dance Is Lambada)
Lambada media files
Lambada course - original style