Samba Tremeterra is a bateria formed by the Brazilian Cultural Center of New England. The BCCNE is dedicated to the promotion, preservation and advancement of Brazilian culture, especially Afro-Brazilian culture and the performing arts. The center is home to two long-standing performing entities,
Group Capoeira Camara Angola and
Samba Tremeterra. The Center provides instruction in Capoeira Angola and Samba drum and dance, as well as traditional instrument making. The BCCNE also offers training and rehearsal space for a full range of other martial arts and performing arts, including African and Latin dance and percussion.
The Brazilian Cultural Center of New England is led by Deraldo Ferreira. For the past 20 years, Deraldo has been organizing the work of the Brazilian Cultural Center as well as teaching capoeira at the Center and in a number of local schools and colleges. Deraldo has been drumming since early childhood and since the mid 90's he has also been giving regular samba drumming classes at the Brazilian Cultural Center of New England.
In 1998, he joined with some of his students and started a professional samba group that would from then on provide the music for the regularly occurring samba parties at the Center as well as events in the entire state. By now, the group has grown in number and in experience and can at larger events put on a powerful show. In addition to the parties at the Center and a few other local venues, the group has performed in various other states and collaborated with a number of local and international artists.
Deraldo brings to the BCCNE a twenty-five year tenure in Capoeira and a similar lifetime involvement and commitment to samba drumming, musical composition and choreography. Of equal importance is Deraldo's talent and experience as an instructor.
He has trained children, teens and adults in his own academy in Santos and in his teaching throughout New England and Canada for the past fourteen years. Deraldo Ferreira began studying Capoeira at the age of 14. In 1984 he was awarded certification as a Mestre. Following his success in Brazil he came to North America and became one of the first Capoeiristas to bring the artform to the United States.
Capoeira is a martial art form that originated in the sixteenth century among slaves brought to Brazil from African nations such as Angola, Congo, and Guinea. The New World slave masters, anxious to keep their captives under their strict domination, imposed harsh prohibitions and restrictions on parent forms of capoeira, often referred to as "N'golo".
To ensure their survival, the traditional forms were infused with dance and a new musical accompaniment. Capoeira's deadly potential was hidden from the slave-masters by its dance-like elegance, baffling acrobatics, and the engaging rhythms of its music.
For the African slaves, capoeira was a literal and symbolic means of survival. It became a tool of escape and defense, making freedom attainable and affirming strength, self-reliance and self esteem. Subsequently, it was banned in Brazil for 400 years, yet flourished underground-reinforcing its ritualistic elements and its African substructure. In 1937, capoeira was legalized and recognized as a national folkloric art by the Brazilian government. Capoeira is a testimony to the indomitable spirit, ingenuity, and unique expression of Brazilian culture.
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