Modern dance became an international art form modified by every choreographer. In Brazil, it mixed with mime in performances sponsored by evangelical Protestant churches. I found 17 versions of Teatro Kumbaya posted to YouTube with a standard development adapted to fit unskilled performers. Another group only posted the music it used.
The drama began with four people kneeling on the floor in a rectangular formation, with another off to the side. Two people stood toward the back in the center. As the music began, the front person approached each of the four and tried to make contact. In turn, each person on the floor was aroused to begin some routine activity, like fussing with the hair, and ignored the messenger.
Each time the person in the center moved, he or she was shadowed by the one in back. The synthesizer music alternated between verses sung by a man, and a group that sang and echoed "kumbaya." When certain words were sung they raised their right arms, then their left.
The music changed from singing to dissonance. The lead and people on the floor turned in one direction and pushed their arms against invisible walls. Next the five turned to the center, held their heads in their hands, and swung their heads from side to side. They repeated the pushing in the other direction, then keeled over on the floor.
The person in back held out his hand to the lead who stood as the music returned to the original choral chorus. They hugged. He did the same with every other person, who then went to the back and hugged the messenger.
A fifth person, if one was used, was aroused last. As the music ended, everyone raised one arm.
The pantomime was performed in churches, where it was possible someone explained it in an introduction. [1] In other places it was performed in the street. With the lyrics in English, the narrative was entirely dependent on the actions of the performers. [2]
Their costumes followed the conventions of the masque. Some had white paint on one side of their faces and black on the other. A few used all white makeup, or wore white gloves. Most wore black tops and slacks, but some dressed the two leads in some combination of black-and-white and/or all white.
The origins of this performance piece, and the acting tradition itself, are difficult to define from information in English on the internet. The first video was uploaded to YouTube in 2007 by Sara Nossa Terra, a Protestant church organized in the 1970s by a physics student at the Federal University of Goiânia. The background music was poorly recorded.
A better version of the music was used by a group in the coastal province of Arequipa in Perú in 2009. The five women and one man were organized by five brothers who had been saved in 1982, after their mother was converted. They since dedicated themselves "to music, preaching in plazas, colleges, universities, theaters." [3]
The script or the idea of mime apparently wasn’t accepted there, since that was the only version on YouTube from outside Brazil. As the map below shows, most came from the urbanized southeastern and southern regions where the number of people with African or native ancestors was smaller than in the former slave-owning north. [4] Four were from the state of São Paulo and three from Paraná with two from Curitiba in that state.
One of the few YouTube versions from another part of the country came from Parintis in Amazonas. Rafael Reis said "The group of actors was formed by the missionary organization EXAD, through a dance workshop with Christian participants from various churches in the city and members of the mission itself." [5]
Reis’ comments suggested that several individual evangelists may have been going from church to church, probably by invitation, to teach this and other pantomimes. The idea of using mime to reach the unconverted may have spread independently through word of mouth or ephemeral publications.
If the skit was intended to dramatize Armageddon and the Resurrection, it was within an almost Lutheran view. Everyone on stage was raised, even though they had ignored the messenger when he or she had tried to contact them. There were no allusions to Catholic confession or to Methodist requirements for atonement for past sins.
I suggest Lutheran because they were the most inclusive Protestant denomination, and Germans were recruited as farmers in the south after Brazil became independent from Portugal in 1822. By 1860 they were 10% of São Paulo’s population. [6] A number remigrated from the south to Paraná during the 1890s civil war. [7] By the end of the century German-speakers were 60% of the immigrants living in Curitiba. Most were either Roman Catholics or Lutherans. Some now, of course, are unchurched or involved with Pentecostal groups. [8]
Performers
Dancers: two soloists, five corps
Instrumental Accompaniment: recording
Credits
None given
Notes on Lyrics
The lyrics are discussed in the post for 28 October 2018.
Notes on Music
The music is discussed in the post for 28 October 2018.
Notes on Performance
Most performances were done in churches. Only a few were outdoors where they might be seen by the disinterested or unconverted. The Peruvian group appeared in a shopping area, as did Grupo Resgate in Brasilia. Exército de Adoradores performed in front of the sports arena during the annual Festival Folclórico de Parintins.
The all-male Teatro Metanóia acted in a parking lot or street in Santo Antônio do Jacinto with cars passing in the background. Although they were performing in July 2011, they were using the original recording.
Notes on Movement
Jamille Tuany uploaded a number of videos from Igeja Missionaria Evangelica Deus Proverá in northeastern Brazil. Some included women in white, liturgical dress. She wrote in her YouTube profile: "Where dance is our way of speaking to God and being close to Him."
Notes on Performers
Many of the groups staging "Teatro Kumbaya" were small Protestant sects, but some had affiliations with Presbyterians, Baptists, and established Brazilian denominations.
The largest was Igreja Evangélica Pentecostal O Brasil Para Cristo, which was organized in 1955 by Manoel de Mello e Silva. The former construction worker from Pernambuco first affiliated with the Assembléia de Deus, then "joined the National Crusade of Evangelization today named Church of the Foursquare Gospel." He preached on radio, and in stadiums, much like his contemporaries in the United States. Most recently, the denomination had 4,300 congregations with 3,600,000 members in Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, Portugal and the United States. [10]
Sara Nossa Terra was organized as a student Bible study group by Robson Rodovalho at the Universidade Federal de Goiânia. In 1992, he moved to Brasilia and organized his first church in 1994. He later set up a broadcasting section that reached "more than 1,080 churches and more than 1.3 million believers." [11]
Hernane Santos started as an itinerant evangelist working among Brazilian Indians. In 2002, he began supporting mission activities in Africa. His Visão de Evangelismo Mundial was performing in Curitiba in 2010. Two years later, he and fourteen others, "led by the Holy Spirit," established a community in Campo Largo, also in the state of Paraná, to train missionaries and adopt churches in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi. [12]
Jose Roberto formed the Comunidade Cristã Tabernáculo de Davi in 2001 after he received a "revelation from the Holy Spirit" to recreate the primitive church. [13] The Comunidade Evangélica Dependentes de Deus was established in 2011 and was performing two years later in Volta Redonda in Rio de Janeiro state. [14]
Igreja Presbiteriana Bela Jerusalém began as a prayer meeting group in 1981 under the auspices of the Central Presbyterian Church of Ribeirão Preto. It opened its own church in 1985. [15] Igreja Batista Missionária started as a renewal church in 1982 and since had affiliated with the National Baptist Convention. It believed "in the working of the Holy Spirit." [16]
Exército de Adoradores was a movement outside ecclesiastical jurisdictions that cooperated with existing churches. Its founder, Rafael, was a member of the Segunda Igreja Batista in Campos in São Paulo state. [17] In addition to its annual appearance in Parintins for the local Baptist church, the Army of Adorers staged performances during the January vacation "in different states like Amazonas, Rio de Janeiro, Bahia and Minas Gerais." [18] In the Madureira neighborhood of Rio de Janerio, members met in the Evangélica Assembléia de Deus church. [19].
Availability (in chronological order)
2007
YouTube: Equipe Desafio [Challenge Team], Sara Nossa Terra. "Teatro kumbaya." Paranaiba, Mata Grosso do Sol. Uploaded by Alex Melo on 21 May 2007.
2009
YouTube: Ministerio Misionero Tierra Nueva. "Kumbaya." Arequipa department, Perú. Uploaded by Ministerio Misionero Tierra Nueva on 10 August 2009.
YouTube: Cristã Tabernáculo de Davi. "Pantomima Kumbaya." Curitiba, Paraná, 6 December 2009. Uploaded by Pra.Marlici Santos on 16 December 2009.
2010
YouTube: Assembleia de Deus Peniel. "Kumbaya." Rolim de Moura, Rondônia. Uploaded by brufeiten on 16 January 2010.
YouTube: Exército de Adoradores [EXAD]. "Kumbaya." Parintins, Amazonas, 2010. Uploaded by Rafael Reis on 16 February 2011.
YouTube: Visão de Evangelismo Mundial. "Teatro Kumbaya." Curitiba, Paraná. Uploaded by talinizerribas on 30 May 2010.
2011
YouTube: Grupo Resgate. "Teatro Kumbaya." Brasilia, 12 March 2011. Uploaded by Diego Felipe 5 December 2011.
YouTube: Grupo Sinais. "Teatro Kumbaya." São Paulo, 21 May 2011. Uploaded by Samuel Lima on 24 May 2011.
YouTube: Ide Louvart. "Kumbaya." Igeja Missionaria Evangelica Deus Proverá, Fortaleza, Ceará. Uploaded by jamille tuany on 6 June 2011.
YouTube: Teatro Metanóia. "Kumbaiá." Santo Antônio Do Jacinto, Minas Gerais, 9 July 2011. Uploaded by Teatrometanoia on 6 November 2011.
YouTube: Grupo In Action. "Kumbaya." Uploaded by Kamila Lopes on 12 July 2011.
2012
YouTube: Teatro Ide. "Kumbaia Pantomima." Igreja Batista Missionária, Vitória, Espírito Santo, 17 June 2012. Uploaded by Fernanda Natiely on 18 June 2012.
YouTube: Igreja O Brasil Para Cristo. "Kumbaya." Uploaded by I D E OFICIAL on 6 September 2012.
2013
YouTube: Comunidade Evangélica Dependentes de Deus. "Kumbaya." Volta Redonda, Rio de Janeiro. Uploaded by Fernanda Oliveira on 16 Mar 2013.
YouTube: Igreja Bela Jerusalém. "Kumbaya." Camp, São Paulo. Uploaded by Vinícius Souza on 27 July 2013.
2014
YouTube: Youth with a Mission. "KUMBAYA." Ponta Grossa, Paraná. Uploaded by Leinarde S. Santos on 14 March 2014. Music only.
YouTube: Igreja Evangélica Pentecostal O Brasil Para Cristo Mooca. "Teatro Kumbaya." São Paulo. Uploaded by Thintho Rodrigues on 9 May 2014.
2017
YouTube: Igreja Presbiteriana para as Nações. "TEATRO - KUMBAYA." São Paulo, 7 May 2017. Uploaded by IPNações TV on 24 May 2017.
Locations
End Notes
1. The only video to show an extended introduction was the one posted by IPNações TV. The speaker also played the messenger.
2. According to Wikipedia, "because of Brazil’s size, self-sufficiency, and relative isolation, foreign languages are not widely spoken. English is often studied in school and is increasingly studied in private courses. It has replaced French as the principal second language among educated people." ("Languages of Brazil")
3. "Ministerio Misionero Tierra Nueva." Its website. 29 August 2010.
4. Wikipedia. "Regions of Brazil."
5. Rafael Reis. YouTube notes translated by Google Translate
6. Wikipedia. "German Brazilians."
7. Wikipedia. "South Region, Brazil." The civil war mentioned by Wikipedia was discussed by Ralph Zuljan. "Brazilian Civil War 1893-1895." On War website.
8. Wikipedia, German Brazilians.
9. Jamille Tuany. YouTube profile. Google Translate from: "onde a dança é a nosso modo de falar com Deus e estar perto dEle."
10. Portuguese Wikipedia. "Igreja Evangélica Pentecostal O Brasil Para Cristo." Translation by Google Translate.
11. "História da Sara." Sara Nossa Terra website. Translation by Google Translate.
12. Visão de Evangelismo Mundial. Its website. Translation by Google Translate.
13. "História da Igreja Comunidade Cristã Tabernáculo de Davi." Its website. Translation by Google Translate.
14. Comunidade Evangélica Dependentes de Deus. Facebook.
15. Igreja Presbiteriana Bela Jerusalém website.
16. "Igreja Batista Missionária." Multifidelidade website. Translation by Google Translate.
17. MissaoExad website.
18. Luíze Bispo Reis and Phelipe Marques Reis. "Exad." No Caminho website. Translation by Google Translate.
19. "Exército de Adoradores (Grupo de Pandeiro )." Facebook. This Assembly of God denomination was discussed in the post for 27 December 2017. It was independent of the one in the United States.
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