About Renata Rosa

Renata Rosa grasps the mystic universe within the traditional chants from Brazil's Northeast, highlighting the less regarded feminine influences of the outback's popular culture. Born in Sao Paulo, the composer and musician has gathered a vast array of rhythmical, poetical structures, canons and voice dialogues from the grassroot music of the Northeast. Her songs are inspired by the Maracatu Rural, the Coco and the Cavalo Marinho, amongst others, and reveal the richness of these traditions, exposing an authentic repertoire made up of her own compositions, young and old composers as well as songs that are now in the public domain. Listening to Renata Rosa is a groundbreaking trip into the timeless world of the Caboclos, the Native Indians and the Africans of Brazil. Renata Rosa's performance intertwines the best of the Northeast music with its dances. The power within the chant is a physical consequence of the dance, and in some songs the stage ground actually becomes a percussion instrument, as it is stomped by the artists. Renata plays the "rabeca" (the traditional brazilian fiddle), alongside her musicians, Seu Luis Paixao, a native master of this traditional fiddle, a "viola" (a rare kind of acoustic guitar), 2 percussionists and a bass guitar. Renata has just released an outstanding debut album "Zunido da Mata", produced by Mestre Ambrosio's musicians. After touring and teaching her art in Italy, USA and Canada, Renata Rosa and band is now ready to hit international roads, opening new horizons for Brazilian music. Ms Rosa will teach the Samba de Coco, which is a variation of the Coco. The origin of Coco lays on the meeting between the native Brazilian culture and the central African culture, which came with the slaves to the Northeast of Brazil and involves the circular dance that sights the ground. The dance has a variety of steps, which the function is the percussion and are connect to the poetry. Traditionally, the dance is connected to the construction of houses made by clay and straw. The owner of the house calls the people of the community to do the Coco inside the house on the clay floor. While everyone is dancing, singing and making percussion sounds with their feet, the clay is flattened to ground level. Renata's workshop will work with the circular dance and the relationship between the dance, the feet percussion and the poetic aspects of the music. Renata Rosa, musician, singer, poet and researcher, was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 1973. She is part of the "Maracatu de Baque Solto Estrela de Ouro de Aliança", as Dama do Cacho, one of the responsibles for the evolution of the maracatu - a traditional carnival parade from the State of Pernambuco (NE), in which dance, improvised poetry and music are included. "Maracatu" aggregates elements from black, indigenous and iberic culture. She also conducts the Boi da Gurita Seca group, in which she improvises poetry following the musical and poetic tradition of the "maracatu rural". She develops research on cultural manifestations of the people from northeast. Some of her studies are focused on "coco", work chants and traditional catholic chants such as "Benditos" - which are performed during the traditional catholic parades - and "excelencia chants" - chants to prepare the deads' soul to the encounter with God, usually performed during death-watches. Renata Rosa has been providing workshops in many Festivals and Centers: Cleveland Museum of Art (Ohio) , Cathedral St John the Divine (NY), Festival de Inverno de Garanhuns, (PE), Teatro Arraial (Recife) , Studio Casa de Pedra (Rio de Janeiro),etc.