Zouk Nation » Interview

Interview with Featured Instructor Shani Mayer

Nicholas Bambo — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 20:00:29 +0000

For the last Featured Instructor of this year, we thought it might be nice to cast the light on a Zouk instructor who is teaching within the United States. L.A. Zouk’s Shani Mayer instantly came to mind for all the amazing work she has been doing out on the West Coast, having a hand in creating not only a Zouk community in Los Angeles, but in San Francisco and Sacramento as well. Her endless energy and boundless enthusiasm for Zouk has resulted in her often being compared to an “energizer bunny” by her colleagues. Join me as I sit down with Shani to talk about her career as a dancer, how she first became enamored with Zouk, and some of the challenges she’s faced in starting a Zouk scene in the United States. Click here to read full interview.

Interview with Nelson Freitas

Nicholas Bambo — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 19:33:29 +0000

He is one of the biggest names in the Zouk recording industry with a long list of hit singles under his belt including, “Deeper” and “Rebound Chick.” He is also the owner and producer of Ghetto Zouk Music, one of the most successful Zouk record lables around today. Join me as I sit down and talk with the legendary Nelson Freitas.

Click here to read the full interview.

Interview with Romina Hidalgo

Nicholas Bambo — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 18:59:54 +0000

In a few weeks the “Buenos Aires Zouk Lambada Congress 2011,” the first Zouk Congress to be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, is scheduled to take place. In honor of the occasion, Zouk Nation has selected Romina Hidalgo to be the site’s newest Featured Instructor. Join me as I talk to her about her career in dance and and what staging a congress in Buenos Aires means to the local community.

Click here to read the full interview.

Interview with Claudio Gomes

Nicholas Bambo — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 19:09:19 +0000

Claudio Gomes was among the first supporters of Zouk Nation when it first started out a few years ago. So when it came time to decide who would be the first Featured Instructor on the site, he seemed like a natural choice. The following is an interview I did with Claudio a while back, one in which he talks about life growing up in Brazil, the early days, when he first came to Holland, and some of the challenges he faced when trying to establish a Brazilian dance scene there.

Click here to read the full interview.

Interview with D. Lopes

Nicholas Bambo — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 17:40:09 +0000

He’s recorded songs with some of the biggest names in Zouk, including, Nelson Freitas, Nilton Ramalho and Marcia. His song, “Don’t Keep Me Waiting,” has been a monster hit in the Brazilian Zouk dance scene, but odds are you don’t know his name. Join me as I sit down with Zouk/Rap artist D. Lopes, the self-appointed “Ambassador of Cape Verdean Culture” from Broxton, Massachusetts for a very special interview.

Click here to read the full interview.

Interview with Nilton Ramalho

Nicholas Bambo — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 20:48:37 +0000

He is probably the Zouk artist I’ve received the most questions about. For months now you people have written me suggesting I interview the man. As they say, your wish is my command. So join me as I sit down with Nilton Ramalho and talk about growing up in Holland, being a member of the award winning band Quatro+, and some of the challenges one faces when making the transition to a solo career.

Click here to read the full article.

Festo DJ Interview

Nicholas Bambo — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:45:12 +0000

The first time I encountered Festo DJ’s music was when I heard his stunning remix of Chris Issak’s, “Wicked Game.” I liked it so much I ended up adding it to the third episode of the Zouk Nation Podcast. I have since become familiar with a lot of his music and many of his songs are now among the most requested in the New York Brazilian Zouk dance scene. I recently sat down with Festo DJ to talk about his career, how he finds his music, and the challenges one faces in being a DJ.

Interview

NB:	When did you first become interested in music?
Festo:	It’s funny you should ask that because I tell everyone that I was born with music. My mom told me she put a radio next to me in the crib every time I went to sleep. So I think music is part of me. When I was just a kid I was already starting to make my mixed tapes with the music from the radio stations. Before Cds became popular, I already had a good collection of vinyls and always liked to listen to different kinds of music.
NB:	Can you remember the first album you purchased?
Festo:	Honestly, I can’t remember the first album I bought, but it might have been one of Michael Jackson’s.
NB:	What originally attracted you to becoming a DJ?
Festo:	From early on I was fascinated by how DJs could mix different songs, to where it seemed like magic. Putting together songs with different BPMs (beats per minute), and different beats, and all different scratch techniques they would use. Until finally I decided, I want to do that!
NB:	How did you first start working as a DJ?
Festo:	I basically started out working at friends parties. birthday parties, weddings, etc.. In 2000 I took a DJ course and it was there I learned the basics of being a dj, how to mix different beats, different rhythms and how conduct an event in order to keep the crowd moving out on the dance floor. The DJ who taught the course was Sylvio Dib, who is still active today and a great person and very charismatic.
NB:	How many years have you been working professionally as a DJ?
Festo:	If you were to count since I finished the DJ course, it would be 10 years.
NB:	Do you make your living entirely working as a DJ?
Festo:	No, after I finished taking a DJ course, I spent a lot of time unable to find work. During that time, I went to college and graduated with a degree in Graphic Design. After that, I worked for several years in a consulting office and attended a dance studio where for two years I learned how to dance. Today, in addition to working as a freelance designer, I work as a dance instructor. I teach beginning courses in Forró, Bolero and Gafieira.
NB:	Who are some DJ’s work that you admire?
Festo:	I admire the work of many DJs. I really like Tiesto. I think he’s a super producer. His songs create certain emotions and are great for dancing to. I also admire Fatboy Slim. That guy is a real showman. David Guetta is fantastic. Every song he releases turns into a hit on the dance floor. In the Zouk Community I admire the work of Mafie Zouker, Nyx and Max Blacksoul. They have a great selection of songs and several very powerful remixes.
NB:	Is there a particular set up that you prefer to work with?
Festo:	I almost always prefer professional DJ equipment, CD players, mixers. I prefer to use a Pioneer CDJ 400 CD player and a DJM 400 mixer. I also use laptop as an accessory so I can search for different songs. As for headphones, I like HDJ-1000, but I also use Behringer. I think what makes one brand or model superior over another is durability, reliability and good response to commands. A DJ depends on his equipment and if the equipment fails him, it can be a very big problem. So as a DJ you must use equipment that will not let you down.
NB:	When you are deejaying an event what is your main objective?
Festo:	My goal is to make people have fun and dance. The environment must be pleasant and a lot of that is the DJ’s responsibility. I know I’ve done a good job when people like my choice of music, when the dance floor is always full and at the end of the event when someone comes to praise me or thank me for playing the music. It feels good at then end of an event when I can say to myself, “Wow, I loved it!”
NB:	What separates a great DJ from one who is just average?
Festo:	I think what separates a great DJ from a DJ that just average is when the DJ has an excellent set, he knows how to play the right music at the right time. A great DJ is charismatic, he has the ability to read the audience. He has a good knowledge of music and different sound mixing techniques. An average DJ has a pre mixed set and leaves it playing without looking at the dance floor. A great DJ has to keep his eye on the dance floor all the time. It is also important to have one’s own style. DJs that have their own style are easy to distinguish from others.
NB:	How would you describe your style?
Festo:	I think the way to describe my style is I’m very eclectic and I want to make people dance. I’m always trying something different and I don´t follow anyone else’s style. It’s hard to describe oneself, but I think it’s something like that.
NB:	How do you know which song should follow another? Is this something you’ve figured out beforehand, to where you have a rough idea, or is it something you decide on the spot?
Festo:	That depends a lot of the crowd, the event and the type of music you will play. You must have some idea about the kind of crowd and a basic idea of the songs you will play. But for the sequence you pretty much have to rely on intuition, how receptive the audience was to the previous song and what you are trying to achieve at that moment. For instance, there are times when the dance floor is crowded and you want to decrease the rhythm to play a slow song, and after that you want increase it again. So what I try to do is have a basic idea of the songs I will play. But if I see that it’s not going the way I imagined, I need to change quickly. When you are doing an event where you will play only one style of music, for example zouk, it is generally much easier because you only have to worry about playing one kind of music. Whereas, when you’re at an event and you have to play different kinds of music, then it becomes a bit more complicated. You have to think a lot more about the about the songs you will play in order to please the different groups of people. And then there are times people will ask you to play a song that does not fit in with what you had in mind.
NB:	What are some other challenges a DJ faces that most people are completely unaware of?
Festo:	Many people think being a DJ is just playing one song after another, dancing and having fun. But sometimes you have to play songs you do not like. Then there are times when you only have one copy of an album and CD player can’t read it. Or when your laptop does not turn on or freezes when it’s playing. There are times, the owner of the event doesn’t like the song you are playing and will ask you to change it, other times he will prohibit you from playing certain songs. Sometimes you only have a few seconds until the song is finished and you haven’t yet managed to find the next song. Sometimes you have to climb stairs with all the equipment on your back because the place has no elevator. Maybe someone is drunk and they’ll drop their beer on your equipment it’s playing. There are a lot of things that can go wrong.
NB:	When checking out a new venue, what do you look for?
Festo:	I think you have to look at the whole thing, if the location is good, if it has good acoustics, the right kind of audience.
NB:	A number of your zouk remixes are fairly obscure, such as “’Til the End of Time” by Delirium, a techno band from Canada. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about how you find music to remix.
Festo:	All of my albums represent some aspect of me. My tastes have always been very eclectic and it is my personal style in my remixes. When I first imagined creating the album “Soul’s Experiences” I wanted it to be something along the lines of NeoZouk. It’s a style of zouk that is very popular in Brazil and was first conceived and created by DJ . Mafie Zouker. The songs are based on ambient, chill out lounge style of music. So, I started researching songs in that style. Today with the internet, searching for music has become much easier, you do not need to spend hours in record stores listening to CDs to find a song you like. Using different search engines I can discover a large number of artists and songs in different languages. With “Soul’s Experiences,” I was already familiar with Delerium because of DJ Tiesto who remixed the song “Silence” which is one of my favorite trance songs. So it was easy to find other music by them. This process of listening to a large number of songs from different countries has allowed me to meet many new artists from different countries. It is in fact the basis of my new album, “Zouk Boundaries” (to be released in 2010), which will explore the incredible diversity of music in the world.
NB:	When you are considering remixing a song, how do you choose?
Festo:	The first thing I think is, do I like the song? If yes, that’s a good start. Usually, I consider certain aspects to determine whether it will make a good remix or not. Does it have a cool sound? Is it possible to change the rhythm or tempo of it? Does it have certain characteristics that would be interesting to use in a particular style of music, like Zouk, for example. The important thing is, I never believe that my remix will replace the original song. In my mind, I am just creating another version. I don’t disregard the original version of the song, because the fact I liked it is what made me do the remix in the first place. Mine is simply a different vision of what it could be. Sometimes I have also done remixes of songs that fans have asked me to do.
NB:	Do DJs ever get territorial about a song? Say that you remix a song like, “Wicked Game” by Chris Isaac. Then another DJ comes along and does his own remix of it. How would you feel about that? Is there some kind of rule that all DJs follow?
Festo:	It varies from DJ to DJ. There are those who get angry when someone does a remix of a song they have already done and there are others who do not care. There are some DJs who believe because they made the first remix version, others are not allowed to do the same. This in my opinion is nonsense. I have always liked House Music and one of the things I like about House Music is the fact that there can be several versions of the same song. Each DJ has a vision of that song and each can coexist with the other. Of course different people will like one version more than another, but there is nothing to prevent them from appreciating more than one version. A classic example of that is the song “Unfaithful” by Rihanna. There are several different Zouk versions of it, including mine, and while you might like one version more one than another, you can hear all of them. When I remix a song, I really try to make it unique, to do something that no one has done before. Nevertheless, if I’m doing a remix and another DJ releases his version of it first and the two are similar, then I would give up my version. I have several friends who are DJs and if any of them were to show me a song they were doing, out of respect for them, I would not remix it.
NB:	There are a number of DJs who seem to have a policy of not crediting the original artist, which makes it difficult if one is interested in finding more music by that artist. I’m curious to hear your thoughts as to why that is.
Festo:	I do not agree with that policy. I always make it clear who is the original artist of the song. I don’t hide or change the name of the original song. When I create my remixes I can’t say it is 100% mine because I didn’t create most of the arrangements, I didn’t sing, or compose the lyrics. For all these reasons the song can’t 100% mine. Of course it’s my work, but together with all others who had their hands in creating the music. The word Remix already assumes that it isn’t a new work but a reworking of something previously done. I like to think that the remixes I do, are my personal vision of that song. As if I had sat with the original artist in a studio and had created the remix.
NB:	A lot of these remixes are being passed from one dance community to another with the deejay never receiving any credit for them. How do you feel about this?
Festo:	I think the whole dance community, and I am talking especially the Zouk community, should be thankful for the work of DJs.
NB:	Yes, in some ways I think the DJs are the unsung heroes of the Zouk community. They have really stretched the definition of what Zouk music can be.
Festo:	The Zouk style danced in Brazil nowadays, has grown because DJs started to make remixes and creating all kinds of new music in the Zouk style, sometimes songs that nobody could have imagined have been turned into successful zouk remixes.
NB:	I understand a lot of deejays can not sell their music openly because they don’t have the original artist’s legal permission to remix the music. Which is a shame, because it means there is a lot of great music being made that the majority of people will never hear. Why is it done this way? What is it that prevents the deejay from getting permission from the artist?
Festo:	It’s true and I agree that much good music never reaches the ears of most people exactly for that reason. Perhaps what prevents them from getting permission is they simply don’t know how and imagine it will involve a lot of paperwork. Moreover, I think the majority of DJs think it will cost them a lot of money to get permission to remix a song and so the easiest way is to do it is without having to pay anything.
NB:	Do you see a solution to this problem?
Festo:	The solution would perhaps be a website or someone, where one could find the correct information on how to legally go about getting permission, one that would simplify the process and involve less bureaucracy.
NB:	Define Zouk for me.
Festo:	I think Zouk involves music, dance and the body. It is a contagious rhythm and a wonderful dance that makes you move your body and feel the music in a way more profound than other rhythms. In a word, sensational.–
NB:	When did you first discover Zouk? Can you remember the time and place? What was your first impression of it?
Festo:	I saw and heard Zouk for the first time when I was studying ballroom dancing. Among the dances that we would know was Zouk, something wich I never heard of. When the teacher started to dance with his partner, the first impression I had was, “Wow!” I thought it was very beautiful the dance and the music too. I fell instantly in love with it, and soon after that, I went to a zouk place that is very famous here in Rio and saw many other people dancing it. I was impressed and from that point on I started listening to Zouk.
NB:	As a D.J. what is it about this music that is so appealing?
Festo:	What I find attractive about zouk is how it is more intimate than other forms of music. In Zouk there are an infinite number of styles of music to choose from. There are those who like the Arabic sounding songs, while there are other who prefer Zouk love, Zouk r&b, or Neozouk, etc.. What makes it special is it’s diversity, and it’s the diversity that allows Zouk to continue to grow and spread all over the world.
NB:	Which Zouk recording artists do you like?
Festo:	I like Kaysha, Marcia, Princess Lover, Nelson Freitas, Abege, Gage and Anselmo Ralph.
NB:	Do you dance Brazilian Zouk? If so, how long have you been dancing and who have you studied with?
Festo:	Yes, I do, but just for fun. I have never really taken a course and seriously studied it. Not that I’m not interested, I just don’t have the time. Once I have more time I intend to change that.
NB:	What are your goals for the future?
Festo:	I intend to specialize more in rhythm and learn to dance Brazilian Zouk. Although I will always remain connected to my roots in house and R&B music. As I said, I’m very eclectic and like to play everything. I want to travel the world and spread my production and my work.
NB:	Maybe some day you can come to New York and do some deejaying here.
Festo:	I hope so.

Greg Miller Interview, Part 2

Nicholas Bambo — Wed, 19 May 2010 04:29:28 +0000

The second part of my interview with Greg Miller, the Founder and Executive Director of Dance Parade in which we discuss some of the logistical problems in staging such a massive event, along with some of the financial challenges, and the group’s long term goal.

Part 2

NB:	How else has Dance Parade changed from it’s originally conception?
GM:	It’s much more artistic and much more diverse now. We have an outreach team, all they do is look at lists of hundreds of groups to see, okay, how can we make it more diverse, more interesting, what holes are in the parade? For example, we have twenty types of world cultures presented and we’ve never had a Chinese group. So we stopped into the Chinese cultural center and said, hey, you guys should be involved and that’s how it happens. As a result, it’s become more focused on world cultural, with more partner dancing and something really for everyone, for all ages.
NB:	Curious about some of the logistic problems in handling such a large event. Last year, correct me if I’m wrong, but it was something like 3,000 dancers and this year I understand you’re aiming for 10,000?
GM:	Last year was 5,000 actually, and we’re trying to double that. We have 3,000 signed up already and about six weeks to go. We’re probably going to hit around 8,000, but you never know. We have four Grand Marshals that are pretty well known. But to answer your question, in four years we’ve figured out our logistics pretty well. It mostly has to do with sound and having an audio strategy so the drum group isn’t placed next to the ballerinas or the ballerinas doesn’t get placed next to the strippers.
NB:	Do I have to remind you that stripping is not allowed in public?
GM:	(Laughs) I mean the pole dancers. We’ve found that actually placing the groups in historical order solves a lot of that. At the beginning of the Parade you have the early cultures, the African and Asian dances which are not real loud, then ballet, the partner dances and so on. Modern dances are also generally not very loud. And then we get into the more colorful and crazy groups, a big segment of the Burning Man population, which is an art festival out in Nevada. There are a lot of circus performers, hip hoppers. Another logistical problem is it takes so many people to make this thing happen.
NB:	How many?
GM:	Probably about 30 people to do it really right. 30 people that are all volunteers.
NB:	In all the years you’ve been involved in Dance Parade what has been the biggest surprise?
GM:	A big surprise was people don’t do it because they’re getting paid, they do it because they love dance. They really do, and they really want to make it happen. It was a surprise to see people work all night to make the website happen, to get the press release out, to put lists together.
NB:	What is your long term goal?
GM:	We made the logo purposely to be Dance Parade with a little New York next to the side of the “D”. So it’s the New York Dance Parade now for the first five or six years, but down the road we can easily see Dance Parade in Boston, L.A., Paris, Tokyo. So we’ve come up with a branding package and we’ll give away the website so others can use our logistical tool to sign up hundreds of groups. Because every city has dance, a hundred different forms of dance. Also, there’s our education program, that’s another long term goal.
NB:	What’s that involve?
GM:	We started last year to have showcases where kids would see different world cultures and to even have them learn some of the steps. The idea is to have an after school program where kids would learn something two, three months in advance of the Parade and then celebrate in the Parade what they’ve learned. It’s the education program which will kind of complete the dream. It’ll have these little tap dance kids from Harlem and Hip Hop dancers from Queens, Chinese Dragon dancers from Staten Island. That’s really going to be the kind of thing that makes people go, “Wow.”
NB:	Can we talk a little bit about the financing of Dance Parade?
GM:	Yes. We’re supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. We receive some money through the New York State Council of the Arts, the Manhattan Cultural Council and some other corporations. It’s much easier to get a grant for an organization that’s year ‘round, then for just a once a year type of event. But it’s hard right now with the bad economy, so we’re hoping we can pick up some money along the way.
NB:	When someone asks you why “Dance Parade” how do you explain it to them?
GM:	Dance has an inherent quality in the movement of the art form to tap into your heart, your emotions, that is very memorable and very powerful in inspiring yourself, when you start to feel how healthy you can be, and also in inspiring others. And we see this in the parade. There’s such a glow in the people in the audience. It’s like a contact high from the people in the parade. The participants are beaming because they are feeling great and looking great and moving and then they see the people in the audience. And it’s this back and forth transference of emotion. It’s just a kind of magical element that helps make it attractive. That same magical element also makes it fearful and frightens some people. Which is one of the reasons I think we’re a little bit more attended to then other cultural events.
NB:	You’re referring to the heavy police presence during the event.
GM:	I think it’s because of the music and the movement that puts a bit of fear into it. So we take extra care to make sure that it’s safe and controlled.
NB:	When you consider all the problems they’ve had from other cultural events, that Dance Parade would be the one that actually draws the most suspicion, it’s kind of funny.
GM:	I think the city is actually not quite ready to endorse it fully. We do get the mayor and a lot of other political people to support it, but I think people think, oh dance, there’s going to be a 100,000 people going nuts, jumping around and causing hysteria.
NB:	In addition to being the Founder and Executive Director of Dance Parade you are the Executive Director at OurMed.org. Could you tell me a little bit about that?
GM:	OurMed.org is an online health care site that is similar to Wikipedia right now. The goal is to have the world’s first ever unbiased place for health care information that is freely licensed, anyone can contribute content or use it. It’s open sourced so programmers can both take and contribute to it. It’s very transparent. Every month we post our financials. So it’s completely open and available to medical professionals in the form of physician verified information. It’s also available to the consumer and patient community, allowing them to relate their personal experiences, rate goods and services, drugs, service providers, and so on. There’s a great need for it because we’re swayed by advertisers and it’s incredible the amount of bias that changes the way our health care gets delivered. So we’re looking to do a very ethical and non profit approach, so it will be the first of it’s kind and available all around the world.
NB:	Any thoughts on the recent passing of Obama’s healthcare legislation?
GM:	Personally, I like it. It’s a step in the right direction. I think it will be very different in five years. There’s a lot of resistance based on fear of government being controlling and so on.
NB:	I understand people had a similar reaction to Medicare when it was first starting out.
GM:	There are always ebbs and flows with the way political stuff comes together. If you look at the 1970s ninety percent of Americans were covered by insurance companies and now it’s only sixty percent. There was a huge trajectory change in the way companies became more capitalist. Health care prices rose through the roof. Basically they’re profiting from disease and not profiting enough from preventing disease. And I don’t think it’s ethical to allow companies to profit from disease.
NB:	I think that about covers it. Is there anything you’d like to add?
GM:	I want to thank you for doing this, it’s a great service to Brazilian Zouk dancers. People need to know more about what’s going on in your community, and we hope with Dance Parade and our Dance Festival, on May 22nd, people will sign up for Zouk dancing or whatever else they find there.
NB:	And we thank you for creating such an amazing event. In fact, when I asked the members of our group, which event they enjoyed the most last year, the answer was unanimously Dance Parade, the thing we spent the least amount of time and money on. All that was required was showing up on and looking good.
GM:	And you guys looked great. It’s all about looking great on Broadway.

Dance Parade takes place on Saturday, May 22nd starting at 1:00pm, followed by the Dance Festival in Thompkins Square Park at 3:00. To learn more about it and how to participate go to the Dance Parade website, www.danceparade.org.

Greg Miller Interview, Part 1

Nicholas Bambo — Tue, 18 May 2010 02:55:54 +0000

This Saturday, May 22nd, 2010, is the 4th annual Dance Parade. I recently sat down with Greg Miller, the Parade’s Founder and Executive Director, to talk about his own involvement in dance, the personal epiphany that led to the creation of the largest annual dance event in New York City, and the Parade’s connection to the city’s controversial Cabaret Law.

Part I

NB:	Was dancing a large part of your life growing up?
GM:	Not really. I was one of those shy teenagers that kind of grew up and hit college, and beer loosened me up. I didn’t really get into dance until I went over to Europe and Asia. I lived abroad for nine years, so I kind of saw how the Europeans wouldn’t mind dancing by themselves in bars and clubs. At first that kind of struck me as odd, but finally I thought, you know, why not? And then I went over to India and went to parties where people danced all night and stuff like that.
NB:	What was it about dancing that finally won you over?
GM:	I guess just letting myself go and like being able to dance freely.
NB:	What was the first dance you became interested in?
GM:	Salsa, which is actually a dance I resisted when I moved to New York. I lived in the Lower East Side and that kind of tinny music always struck me as just being really trashy until I started traveling for the airline I worked for. I was a marketing analyst for an airline where I got free tickets. I was going to countries, in Latin America, South America, just for the weekend and I really got into salsa music, especially Cuban. Cuban is awesome.
NB:	So your impression of Salsa completely changed.
GM:	Completely. I came back and took classes at Sandra Cameron, Stepping Out Studios. Just going out to the clubs around town, Copacabana, and just being amazed at the artistry of the dance. I love how even though Salsa is a partner dance of two people, it can also be twelve partners dancing together interchanging each others partners.
NB:	What other kind of dances do you do?
GM:	I’ve done a ton of sort of holistic types of dance movement practices. I learned the five rhythms, Gabriel Ross.
NB:	I’m not familiar with that.
GM:	The five rhythms is a dance of five stages that’s deejayed or put to live music. It starts with “flow,” which is very grounded. They make the analogy that you’re kind of connecting to mother earth. And then it goes to “staccato,” which is faster, quicker, sharper beats, and then “chaos” which is where in a very uninhibited way you dance around the room. So it’s a lot of letting your head go, kind of a cathartic release. And then it slows down into “lyrical” which is a pattern dance, and it completes with “stillness” which is quite often body archetypes, shapes, stopping, starting.
NB:	How long is an average class?
GM:	It goes about two hours in usually two waves. The five rhythm, the whole movement is a wave and then they maybe teach in the middle and then go into a second wave. With one hundred, two hundred people involved it’s quite something.
NB:	In your bio you are described as being a social entrepreneur. Can you explain what that means?
GM:	Does it? I’m going to have to change that. (Laughs) It’s someone who wants to make a difference by being creative and by doing good in a way that is brought about by some kind of business means. The ideas out there, like there are these people that all they do is go around collecting vegetable grease from restaurants in New York City and they transform that grease into diesel fuel and they make a profit from it. So that’s like doing good and making a profit, or making it sustainable so you don’t have to rely on contributions from your constituents.
NB:	Yet when you graduated from college it was with a traditional degree in business.
GM:	It did have a little bit of a focus on international business. But of course all international business means is that you can speak a foreign language.
NB:	What kind of work did you do when you first got out of college?
GM:	I worked mostly in business kind of jobs starting of with the manufacturing company, Bosch, in Germany. Then Leahman Brothers in London, which is no more, and then PDS, a software database company in Japan, and then came back to the States in 1996. Then after that I worked for a Japanese airline for seven years.
NB:	For 18 years you worked mainly for Fortune 500 companies and then a few years back you made the switch to non-profits, why the switch?
GM:	It had to do with looking inside myself and really wanting to know what my passion was. What do I really want to do in life? You’re only here on the planet for a short time, right? So I did a lot of personal inquiry and I decided to try something I really liked instead of finance marketing, which had been a good way to fund my passions in the evenings and weekends, but a large part of the day I was just like grinding away in some cubicle somewhere. So I ended up doing a music film and theater festival called the “Fall Collection,” on the Lower East Side. And that kind of let me see the potential of what was out there and be creative in presenting art, presenting dance. The roots of the Dance Parade came out of another project, in between those two festivals, which was kind of more political which was the cabaret law movement.
NB:	There are a lot of people, including native New Yorkers, who don’t know about the cabaret law. Could you explain what that is?
GM:	The cabaret law in New York City was written into law in 1926 during a time when there was the prohibition era and a lot of racism. And it was also a time when there was jazz music, a quite new and popular art form had come out in New York City. And what happened was there was interracial dancing in these clubs and there was a backlash of conservatism. And the city legislated this law to not only control dancing but musical instruments around jazz.
NB:	What kind of instruments are we talking about?
GM:	Instruments like drums and trombones, trumpet, at the time, all that stuff was relatively new. They said for your venue you had to have a license to allow that type of music and to allow dancing. Even the customers had to be of good character.
NB:	What were the qualifications of good character?
GM:	It was one of those things that wasn’t clear. I did a lot of research. I worked with an NYU lawyer Paul Chivogny, who wrote a book about the whole law and actually took New York City to court and repealed some of the stranger things about music and being of good character. He’s an NYU law professor who was interested in working on the dancing component of the law and to take issue with the fact that it impacts our freedom, the freedom of expression, which is protected under the Constitution. Freedom of speech. So what happened was, in 1926 there was the law. It largely was uncontrolled. It wasn’t enforced. In the 1970s there were 12,000 of these licenses around New York City. It wasn’t hard to get one. But then Mayor Giulliani in the 1990’s used the law to close down some of the problem clubs, the big party clubs where they danced all night. He enforced the law saying we needed it more than in the past, plus, he made it very hard to get a license. They said you had to have all these fire codes and things associated with it. And then the community board got more involved in allowing the cabaret licenses to be renewed and allowed. So the end result was there were only 300 of them left in all five boroughs. Manhattan had only 70 that included hotels, restaurants and strip clubs. A very odd part of all this is that you can actually dance naked, which is protected under the freedom of expression. Some Supreme Court case in Dallas judged if you dance naked, it’s okay.
NB:	So it’s okay for someone to dance naked?
GM:	Inside a private venue.
NB:	You can dance naked and that’s okay, but you can’t dance with your clothes on.
GM:	That’s right.
NB:	Good to know. So where do things stand now?
GM:	You can still dance naked. (Laughs)
NB:	Getting past naked.
GM:	Before there were only two places in the world where you could not dance, Afghanistan and New York, and now you can dance in Afghanistan.
NB:	Why do you think the law remains unchanged?
GM:	Most people don’t know about the law and dancing is not considered a big need for society to protect. And then when Mayor Bloomberg come in to office he had the 311 phone line set up to answer anyone’s complaints. Of course most of the the complaints were about noise, car alarms, a neighbor’s music, and definitely any club that had music. As a result, the noise issue got the largest number of complaints. The city tried to address it which ended up cutting down on dancing even more. In 2006 Paul Chevigny and Norman Seagul, a civil liberties lawyer, who was head of the NYCW for twenty years, they represented four dance groups, not just the clubbers but swing dancers, salsa dancers and hip-hoppers that have a real art form. They represented them and brought them to the New York State Supreme Court, in the appellate court the second highest court in the state, the judge John Stallman, I think his name was, ruled that dance was not an expressive form of art.
NB:	In other words, they lost?
GM:	They lost. Music, film, theater, painting, and all that, is considered protected under the first amendment of the New York State constitution, which is the same as the federal, but the judge said he couldn’t tell the difference between dancing and aerobics or going up and down the stairs. As a result, it didn’t deem to be protected. Now this is in regards to social dancing. Onstage dancing is protected, but social dancing is not. The city won and they got to keep their cabaret law. And that’s where we are now. They tried to appeal it and that was about the time of the first Dance Parade. We were raising awareness about it.
NB:	I remember the original logo of a disco ball with a chain and manacle.
GM:	The idea of Dance Parade was to show in as many forms as possible that dancing is expressive. The first parade had about fifty forms of dance coming down Broadway in historical dance order.
NB:	Since then you’ve kind of moved away from the political side of things
GM:	We’re no longer focused on the cabaret law.
NB:	Why is that?
GM:	Mostly it’s a matter of our mission having changed. We think our mission is bigger than one city.
NB:	And that mission is?
GM:	The mission of Dance Parade is to inspire and educate the general public about the opportunities to experience dance and to celebrate diversity and unification in an annual parade and festival. A couple of years ago our organization gained 501C3 status.
NB:	How has that changed things?
GM:	For one thing, we’re recognized as an arts organization that’s tax exempt, meaning we can receive funding through grants. Having 501C3 status also does not allow you to have a political agenda. Technically you probably could have like maybe ten percent of your budget, but you can not lobby. And lobby means you can not try to change a law.
NB:	Do you see the cabaret law ever being repealed?
GM:	We feel eventually it’s got to go, it’s just a matter of time before people realize that it’s kind of a silly ordinance.

In Part II of the interview Greg and I discuss some of the logistical problems in staging such a massive event, along with some of the financial challenges, and the group’s long term goal.

Interview with Marcia

Nicholas Bambo — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:03:10 +0000

She has a critically acclaimed album and is responsible for two of the largest hits in the Brazilian Zouk dance scene, “Um Chance,” and “Vida,” in the past several years, and yet very few people would seem to know her name. But with the release of her upcoming new album, “Reloaded,” it would appear that is all about to change. Join me as I sit down with Marcia, one of Zouk’s hottest rising stars, to talk about her life growing up in Germany, the challenges one faces breaking into the music scene, and her new album. Click here to read the full interview.