If there’s one thing I’ve learned from the Rio films is that Brazilians love to dance, love soccer and are fine as hell so that’s exactly what I was expecting when I went to watch Brazouka at the Joburg Theatre last week – and they delivered.
Although the production is one focused on dance, there is still some sort of storyline which sees Braz Dos Santos’ journey from a young kid to the professional dancer that he is now. It was cute. It was nice to see how the character took us back to his humble beginnings and showed just how dance affected his life.
When I think of Brazil, I also think beautiful music and got the shock of my life when the show started off with horrible covers of Daft Punk’s ‘Get Lucky’ and Rihanna’s ‘Diamonds’ amongst others but about six songs in, the Brazilian flavour started to pour out onto the stage and man, did that ignite some happy feelings in me. Another thing I would improve on would be the set. It works, but it doesn’t necissarily ‘wow’ the audience, nor do they seem to use it well.
The cast on the show were fantastic. They move so elegantly and gracefully on the stage and can clearly dance any genre they are presented with. That being said, this cast also had this deep connection with each other and that was really clear in the show.
The show was produced by the same person who produced the incredible ‘Burn The Floor’ – my favourite dancing show to date – and although this show didn’t match up to it, it was clear that the excellence and the attention to detail was there.
All in all it was a great production and I highly recommend all you dance lovers to go and check it out! Trust me, you won’t be disappointed!
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