Dancer Of Brazilian Folk Dance Editorial Photo

Brazilian folk dance Bumba meu boi in São Luis, Maranhão. The bumba-meu-boi is a very popular and widespread comic-dramatic dance, which tells the story of the death and resurrection of an ox. Its name comes from the verb bumbar, meaning to beat up or against, and the expression is chanted by the crowd as an invitation for the ox (or rather, the men under the ox costume) to charge against them. In the city of São Luis do Maranhão and its environs there are many different groups, with elaborate costumes and different styles of music, which are called “sotaques”. “Sotaque de orquestra” uses an orchestra of saxes, clarinets, flutes, banjo, drums, etc. “Sotaque de zabumba” employs primarily very large drums; and “sotaque de matraca” a percussion instrument made of two pieces of wood that you carry in your hands and hit against each other.