LEARN AROUND THIS WORLD
THE CULTURAL APPRECIATION PROJECT: DO A DANCE
There are SO MANY KINDS OF VIDEOS you can contribute to the Cultural Appreciation Project, All Around This World’s ambitous 2024 effort to collect 1000 culture-celebrating videos to raise money to seed a fund to support traditional musicians….
THE CULTURAL-APPRECIATION PROJECT: YUM!
There are SO MANY KINDS OF VIDEOS you can contribute to the Cultural Apprciation Project, All Around This World’s ambitous 2024 effort to collect 1000 culture-celebrating videos to raise money to seed our fund to support traditional musicians….
SAMBA MEANS “TO PRAY”
Samba is more than just a form of Brazilian music or dance, more than just a way of celebrating Brazil's favorite holiday time, Carnival...it’s even more than just a way of life. The word “samba,” goes one of the many legends of the term’s origins, comes from an Angolan language and means: “to pray….”
WAN FRAGA NO’ MO’ HANGA DE
A song from Suriname that All Around This World finds fascinating is "Wan Boto," which celebrates the coastal nation's culture of boats and making a living from the sea….
OUR STORY MAY BE SAD….
One of our favorite tracks on All Around This World: Latin America is "Our Story May Be Sad," as recorded by Garifuna musician James Lovell. The song is our adaptation of the opening lines of a narrative Garifuna musical presentation (as captured on a Smithsonian Folkways field recording) in which the narrator informs the audience that the piece to come is going to be a sad one...but, in true Garifuna form, we will envelop the struggle in laughter and joy. Enjoy the track on Bandcamp.
WE CELEBRATE CUMBIA
This is All Around This World's friend Maricela who lives in Medellin Colombia and dances Cumbia. Cumbia originated on Colombia’s Caribbean coast as a ritual courtship dance of enslaved Africans, eventually developing into a glorious social dance and, today, in nightclubs and backyard dance parties everywhere around the Latin world. Follow Marciela on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, at @entredos_danzacolombiana.
“The Rhythm of Ecuador”
Meet our friend Jordan, a musician from Cuenca, Ecuador, who introduces us to Pasillo, the so-called 'rhythm of Ecuador." Pasillo is a Spanish-influenced music popular in Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela and Panama, often with a feel similar to the Viennese waltz. It’s a romantic music, often performed on a guitar or chrango, that accompanies an equally romantic dance.
RUBEN, HUGO AND CANDOMBE
Candombe is Afro-Uruguayan music that originated with enslaved Africans who arrived in Uruguay starting in the mid 1700s. “Candombe” was the generic name for their dances; the Africans called their drums, and the place they gathered to perform their music, “tangó….”
IT REALLY DOES TAKE TWO
This week we learn to dance the basic steps of Tango with our partners Marcelo Solis and Mimi Mehaouchi from Escuela de Tango de Buenos Aires (http://www.escuelatangoba.com).
¡LOS REBELDES!
In class this week we dance the Cueca, Chile's "national dance," with the help of Chilean dancer Orietta Sess. In our dance lesson video, Orietta invites other members of the Seattle-based Chilean dance group, Los Rebeldes de las Cueca, to demonstrate the moves she teaches -- Clap, Brush, and Tap! -- as they pair in to "roosters" and "chickens," cheerfully circling each other a they swirl white scarves.
WE SING “HOLA” TO LATIN AMERICA
This week in All Around This World’s livecast online classes we embark on a several month journey around Latin America. We will parade through Rio in a Samba bloco, adventure down the Amazon in a tip-prone canoe, play Garifuna drums to dance-away our sorrows and croon like Mexican mariachis. Join us!
ALL AROUND THIS WORLD TOURS INDIA!
This summer Jay is taking All Around This World on tour to India! Jay is currently teaching to kids and and playing concerts for families at schools in several Indian cities -- New Delhi, Indore, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Kanpur and Lucknow. Watch this space for Indian songs, dancing, food -- well, pictures of food -- and FUN!
The Danes Pop Back to Jorgan Igmann
Danish pop music has often been strong, and Denmark has often been a serious competitor in the Eurovision continent-wide song contest. Denmark has even won the main prize twice.
DANISH FOLK FIDDLINg
Danish folk ensembles may well feature the occasional accordion or guitar, but at the heart of Danish folk music there's always a fiddle. Unlike fiddlers found in other Scandinavian countries, Danish fiddlers most often wield the Danish fiddle in bunches, and they fiddle fast and furious.
DANISH MUSICIANS MAKE FINE FOLK
Danish folk music experienced a revival in the '70s, similar to the folk revival in the U.S., when contemporary artists revived and reinterpreted traditional songs, celebrating and simultaneously advancing ancient traditions.
GREENLANDIC RAP
When we say hip hop is everywhere, we mean everywhere. “Nuuk Posse” is one of Greenland’s most accomplished rap groups. They formed in 1985, have toured worldwide, and in 2004 were nominated for the distinction of “Messengers of Truth” by the United Nations. As we all do, thep rap in English, Danish and Greenlandic (Kalaallisut.)
THE FIRST THING YOU NEED IS AN AUGER
In Greenland, Iceland and other far North countries the winters are darned cold, and with darned cold comes icy ponds that are right for fishin'. After eons of fishing in the cold the Inuit have figured out what to do to conquer the thick ice that sits between all of us and our very chilly fish.
SWEDEN’S LONGEST DAY
In the middle of the summer far up north in Scandinavia the days grow longer and longer and people get ready for a party. Known in Sweden as ‘Midsommar,” this mid-summer holiday, celebrated some time between June 19th and 24th, marks the days of the year with the most daylight, the pagan celebration of the coming of summer and, not insignificantly, the beginning of the school vacation.