Roda de Samba (Samba Circle)

Today associated with Carnaval, the pre-Lenten street festival, samba originated in the communities of enslaved Afro Brazilians in the late 19th century and combines music, poetry, and choreography. Dos Prazeres, a pioneering composer of samba music, turned to painting in the 1930s and largely based his lively, rhythmic works on this experience. Here he likely depicts the Samba de Roda, performed after a ceremony in the Candomblé religion; the man in black and white, for example, plays an atabaque, a hand drum used in the services.