🇬🇧 Welcome to ForróLetters!
ForróLetters #3
Happy new year ! Feliz ano novo!
🇧🇷 A versão em português pode ser encontrada aqui.
As forró spreads far and wide across Europe, we want everyone to be up to date on all the news, history, music and culture surrounding forró!
In this edition we’ll talk about a song which caught the feeling of a whole (dancing) generation and we’ll review the first year of existence of the European Forró Federation.
Before we start, are you already a subscriber of Forróletters? No? This your chance!
Community
In the middle of the holiday season, between Christmas presents and a turkey, a new word has crept into our lives, like far too many others in the past two years. Omicron.
What do you think about forró during Covid? How do you keep on dancing? Leave your comments below if you have something to share! We love to hear from you!
FoFed and community updates
The European Forró Federation is officially one year old!
🎊 Happy Birthday 🎊
The 18th of December 2020 - this was an important date for the European Forró Community. It was the founding date of the very first Federation of Forró entities in Europe and most likely, the first worldwide. In our first newsletter we talked a lot about the Federation, its creation and its goals. In this Forróletter we want to talk a little bit about the first year which has passed since its founding.
During the Constitutive Assembly, we voted in eight members for the Board of Administration to be responsible for the leadership and logistics of running the Federation. These were: Camila Alves from Espaço Baião Lisbon; Matheus Antunes who teachers in Berlin; Marilia Cervi from Forró Lyon; Sonja Graf from the Social Dance Research Alliance; Thiago Lima from Ai Que Bom Paris and Brussels; Bruno Prado from TanzKultur e.V. Düsseldorf and Bochum; Sofia Mora Ramos from Pé Descalço London and Leonie Schmidtmer event organizer in Paris.
The Enlarged Board who were voted in to represent other countries not already on the Board of Administration were: Sarah Collings representing Belgium, Marcus Waldvogel representing Switzerland, and Raul Ortega representing Spain.
When deciding how the board would function, we chose to have a horizontal structure, all board members sharing different areas of responsibility without any hierarchy. We have no president or other title within the administration.
We voted for this way of working in our statutes, because even if it is sometimes a little more complicated to agree, it is more important to discuss and find a common solution.
One of our main goals this year was to create a rhizomatic structure wherein the members participate in the different tasks of the Federation’s activities and projects. During the preparatory meetings with potential members in 2020 there was enthusiasm for creating the Federation specifically in order to learn to work better together, to pool our resources and to grow our beloved community. Putting this into practice has been one of our greatest challenges and it has been hard organising with all our 32 members during lockdowns starting and ending and quiet periods followed by stressful and hectic changes in everyone's schedules. Yet we have successfully established a number of working groups who are responsible for setting up the discussion groups, the newsletter, contacting new communities and offering support to old ones among others.
These first twelve months also allowed us to learn a lot, to adjust our objectives, to focus our energies and to project ourselves into the future of forró in Europe. The board tried to do everything by itself - literally. We wanted to save money and to keep the budget from our members' contributions for "real" projects. And it turns out that we sometimes exhausted our own resources and energy. For the next year, we have decided to learn to delegate and concentrate on our task of leading and orienting the Federation. Therefore, we will be looking for passionate people who are available and interested to help the Federation, either as volunteers (for this newsletter for example) or in other specialized ways as service providers (do you know any community manager for the Federation's social networks? Get in touch)!
We are also very excited to announce that we have already met our goal of being internationally recognized as a forró institution representing European forró! We were invited to participate in the 3rd National Forum of Forró de Raiz and in the 4th National Meeting of Forrozeiros in João Pessoa in the North-East of Brazil! Our members Cacau Moutinho (Lille) and Thiago Lima (Paris) were there to represent our Federation and were able to establish links with the associative and institutional organisations in the region.
All in all, we are very proud of this first year and we have much enthusiasm, excitement and hope for the next year of the Federation. We are so grateful for all your support in this idea and it’s manifestation - an association only lives with and by its members and supporters!
This first year hasn’t been easy, but it was a blast!
We would like to thank all our fellow board members for this exciting year! We have learned a lot! Some of us are leaving the board, others will stay for another round! Whatever it is, we are grateful to have been part of the first year's administration!
We would also like to thank our thirty-two members, thirty of them are founding members and two have joined us along the way. Thank you so much for your trust, help and support! We can’t wait to continue this adventure with you!
Thanks for this first year to: Ai Que Bom (Paris), Âmala Barbosa (Lyon), André Teles Carvalho (Frankfurt), Asociación Forró Valencia, Bordeaux Forró Festival, Compagnie Biscoitinho (Lille), Conexão ASBL (Brussels), Espaço Baião (Lisbon), Forró Abraço Nordestino (Helsinki), Forró de Colônia e.V., Forró Dine Dine (Lille), Forró em Lyon, Forro Family Ltd (London), Forro Istanbul, Forro Nantes, Forró Projeto de Hamburgo, Forró Vem Vem (Weggis), Forrówelt (Sinzing), Le P’tit Bal Perdu (Paris), Matheus Antunes (Berlin), Moin Forró e.V. (Hamburg), Munique Danca e.V., Notik Tanzraum (Münster), PD London, Ltd, Renato Ferreira Soares (Marseille), Rivair Paulino (Köln), Social Dance Research Alliance gUG (Lisbon), TanzKultur Brasil (Bochum), Tau Macedo (Berlin), Tiago Moraes / Julia Johann (Cologne), Untamed Productions (Brussels), Weloveforró (Munich)
How can YOU get involved in the Federation?
If you represent a professional forró organisation or want to found one, become a member!
If you are an enthusiastic forró dancer in the community and have an idea for us or want to volunteer, we always need specialised help from people with a variety of skills! So get in touch!
Do you want to write, translate an article for the newsletter or help us write the next one? Send an email to forroletters@gmail.com to become a contributor!
International Festivals and events happening in the next months
As the pandemic is still ongoing, if you decide to take part in an event, make sure that your are healthy and do not put others unnecessarily at risk.
Forró com Coração, 11/02 to 13/02, Aachen, Germany
Forró London Festival 2022, 31/03 to 4/4, London, UK
Forró de Nice Marathon, 8/4 to 10/4, Nice, France
Chamego 2022, 29/04 to 02/05, Brighton, UK
Forró de Lyon Marathon, 5/5 to 8/5, Lyon France,
Festivalzinho em Frankfurt, 26/5 to 30/5, Frankfurt, Germany
Cologne Samba de Gafieira & Forró Festival, 3/6 to 5/6, Cologne, Germany
Baião Vai, 24/6 to 26/06, Lisbon, Portugal
Bordeaux Forró Festival, 4/8 to 8/8, Bordeaux, France
Baião Vai, 9/12 to 11/12, Lisbon, Portugal
Please note that this list is not exhaustive. You want to be named in this newsletter with your event? Send us an email!
This was our latest ForróLetter!
If you have any recommendations please feel welcome to leave us a comment.
This months content contributors to ForróLetters are: Charlotte Lebouvier, Leonie Schmidtmer, Sonja Graf, Barbara Cagniard, and Bruno Guimarães for the translations.