Quilombola artists bring Capoeira Angola showcase to Rio de Janeiro

The musical and scenic production “Gungas, Marimbas e Urucungos em Encantorias Ancestrais” is arriving in Rio de Janeiro for its final performance on September 9 at the Teatro Carlos Gomes. The show features more than 50 artists, including young quilombola performers from various communities in Maranhão, such as Vila da Fé em Deus, Santa Luzia, Santa Joana, Santa Rosa, and Oiteiro dos Nogueiras.

The production celebrates Capoeira Angola as a cultural heritage and a tool of resistance, integrating its ancestral rites, songs, and musicality with other Afro-Brazilian expressions like bumba meu boi and samba. The tour, which previously visited Piauí, Maranhão, and Pará, is organized by the Centro Cultural e Educacional Mandingueiros do Amanhã and the Ministry of Culture, with sponsorship from Petrobras via the Rouanet Law.