Roda (), meaning "wheel" or, more appropriately in this case, "circle" in

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

, is the circular formation within which participants perform in any of several Afro-Brazilian dance art forms, such as

capoeira Capoeira () is an Afro-Brazilian martial art that combines elements of dance, acrobatics, music and spirituality. Born of the melting pot of enslaved Africans, Indigenous Brazilians and Portuguese influences at the beginning of the 16th cent ...

, maculelê and

samba de roda Samba is a lively dance of Afro-Brazilian origin in 2/4(2 by 4) time danced to samba music. The term "samba" originally referred to any of several Latin duet dances with origins from the Congo and Angola. Today Samba is the most pr ...

. By extension, the whole event may be called a roda (as in "We will have a roda next Saturday"). Likewise, sometimes a roda may not take the shape of a circle; it may be, for example, a half-circle if the event is a public performance, in order for the public to be able to see the performers easily. In English language this dance arrangement is called " jamming". The people who form the roda will take turns (usually with no predefined order) in going inside the circle. Some of the people in the roda may be mere spectators, in the sense that they will not go inside the circle, but they are usually expected to contribute to the roda by at least clapping and singing. This can be compared to other art forms, such as

tap dancing Tap dance is a form of dance characterized by using the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion. Two major variations on tap dance exist: rhythm (jazz) tap and Broadway tap. Broadway tap focuses on dance; it is widely perfo ...

, where participants will form a circle and take turns in performing inside the circle. Part of the etiquette of the roda means that the people in it should try to keep the roda circular and fill in any "gaps" that may appear if someone leaves the roda; in other words, the people should be evenly distributed in the circumference of the roda, especially if there are not many people in it.

References

Capoeira Circle dances {{dance-stub

See also

References