Faz que vai (Set to go)

Linked to the notion of resistance inherent in capoeira, in the early twentieth century frevo dancing was set to military fanfares at carnival time, before evolving into a quasi-acrobatic art celebrated as an authentic tradition. Recognised by UNESCO as a form of intangible cultural heritage in 2012, the dance passed from the street to the stage, and its circulation is strongly promoted by the local government as the foremost performing art for the economy of northeast Brazil.

Faz que vai deconstructs frevo’s festive image, articulating how new subjectivities are shaping and interrogating both the genre and the socio-economic issues at stake in it. Faz que vai profiles four dancers in a series of commentaries on the relationships between movement, the body and the video camera, and reflects on how notions of the carnivalesque are used as diverse strategies for preserving frevo as image, heritage and product.