Festa Brasil, an event promoting Brazilian culture, is happening this weekendhere at the University of Wyoming.
Festa Brasil will take place on Saturday, March 31, organized by Partners Campus, Wyoming Partners of the Americas and ASUW.
President of UW Partners Campus Nicolas Arizaga said, “As an organization, Brazil has always been our main partner for all of our projects and we have hosted them here at the university and at public schools in Laramie. So, we wanted to organize this event to promote Brazilian culture within our community.”
The UW chapter of Partners Campus’ main goal is to provide students with opportunities to exercise their creative skills and design their own projects and fundraisers.
During the event, there will be various workshops where professional artists will help to give a glimpse of Brazil. Their workshops consist of Samba Dancing from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., Brazilian percussion from 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. and Capoeira (Brazilian Martial Art) from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
The workshops will be followed by an evening full of various performances.
“We have professional performers coming in from Brazil for this special night,” said Arizaga. “We have famous singers such as Lupa Mabuze, coming in from Sau Paulo, and also a Capoeira group. We have percussion groups coming in from Denver and Fort Collins and a Samba dancer from Boulder, along with Tony Moreira, from Tennessee who as a Ph.D. in music. We also have students from the university performing authentic Brazilian music.”
Arizaga also added, “We have people coming in from our main office in D.C to help us out with the logistics and give us some insider advice.”
The night will end with a dance party featuring DJ Jaggadon, a student at UW.
Brazilian appetizers will be served throughout the evening, which will be catered by a restaurant named Little Brazil out of Denver.
The main idea for their event is to give the students a slightly different experience than usual. They don’t want to only showcase the Brazilian culture but also want students to take part in it and learn from it.
“I am really excited for this event, especially to learn Capoeira and Samba dancing,” Partners Secretary and Human Resource Manager Juan Vintimilla said. “Capoeira is a mix of Latino and African culture and it has a very rich history, which you can learn more about when you join us for our workshops.”
Arizaga said, “I think our students can expect to learn a lot from this event and break stereotypes. It is something for them to learn about culturally while having tons of fun.”
“Come to live the real Brazilian experience with us!” Vintimilla said enthusiastically.
Tickets are free and are required only for the dinner. Registration for the workshops can be found at https://goo.gl/UNSDHX.
