The EMU Ballroom will be filled with stomping feet and Latin beats Saturday when the UO Cultural Forum transforms the space for the second annual Carnaval Brasil.
The Cultural Forum is co-sponsoring the benefit event for the first time, along with Students Helping Street Kids International, a local nonprofit organization that provides educational scholarships for at-risk kids in countries like Brazil and Tanzania.
SHSKI, which was founded in 1997 by former Springfield school counselor Bob Crites, originally focused its efforts on Brazil, but the organization began offering scholarships to children in Africa after Crites had a chance encounter with Dr. Jane Goodall at a conference in Portland.
Currently, the organization helps six kids in Tanzania in addition to 25 in Brazil.
Deputy Director for SHSKI Andrea Callahan has helped plan the benefit both years. The first benefit was sponsored independently
by SHSKI.
“Last year was our first attempt,” she said. “We were planning to do a fund-raiser and were trying to bring in a big name singer, but those plans fell through.”
Callahan saw the problem as an opportunity to raise money for the organization and to bring new art to Eugene.
“To tell you the truth, I was secretly happy,” she said. “I just thought that a Carnaval celebration would be fantastic. Eugene doesn’t really have anything like it at all, and it was a perfect fit because Carnaval is the Brazilian Mardi Gras.”
The event will also feature exotic performances and showpieces in an exposition of Brazilian culture.
“Remarkably, the artists are all locals. The exception being The Illuminated Fools. They are from Southern Oregon, and they do a marvelous job with these enormous human puppets. They’re quite spectacular,” Callahan said.
Samba Já, a 40-person Eugene percussion ensemble that performed in 2003’s Eugene Celebration parade, will also play, along with Edson Oliveira’s Sun Bossa Band.
Cultural Forum Heritage Music Co-Coordinators Will Reischman and Ariel Zimmer worked with SHSKI on the project. Reischman said they were attracted to the idea of doing something other than the traditional American Mardi Gras.
“The Carnaval celebration is all this music, dancing and costumes with the addition of pretty much nonstop drumming,” he said.
Zimmer has previously danced with Samba Já.
“It’s going to have lots of sound, lots of rhythm — you won’t be able to not dance,” she said. “You won’t be able to sit down, and if you do it’s going to be because you’re so tired you just have to sit and watch.”
Lisa Petit, a University student, will teach a free dance lesson, along with other students, at 6:30 p.m. The Netal, Brazil, native came to Oregon to study and live with her American father.
“(The dance), it’s just in your blood, it’s fun, it’s exciting,” she said. “It makes you want to move yourself. It can be very sexual but fun. The Samba is hard to learn but we’re going to be teaching little step.”
Both Callahan and Reischman were also enthusiastic about the Capoeira demonstration, a form of dance that was created by Brazilian slaves as a way to secretly practice forbidden fighting techniques.
“I’m very excited about the Capoeira demonstration,” she said. “It’s part dance and part fighting. If you’ve never seen it you should come just for that — it’s stunningly beautiful.”
The event begins at 7 p.m. Tickets are available at the EMU Ticket Office or Sundance Natural Foods. Ticket prices range from $6 to $12, with discounts for advance ticket sales and students available.