People Are Talking About…Cyro Baptista
Submitted by Beth Gilliland on March 12, 2010 – 2:59 pm6 Comments
Performance Date: Sat, Mar 13 – 1pm & 4pm
LET’S DO IT! LET’S GO! That’s the true meaning of the Brazilian phrase “Pau Na Mula” that literally translates to “Beat the Donkey” – and the title of this show. This crazy hour of rhythm, music and dance will get ‘kids’ of all ages on their feet and dancing. What’s the zaniest instrument YOU have ever made out of a household item? How about something your KIDS have played? I’m sure they’ll have even more ideas after seeing Cyro Baptista and his wild ensemble. Did you GO?! Tell us what you think!
Categories: Music, People Are Talking!, World Music
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I can't wait to go to this concert! I'm always looking for opportunities to expose our toddler to new and different kinds of music – and I'm grateful that UMS presents a few shows each year that young children can attend. My daughter LOVES world percussion – her favorite toy is a little djembe she got for her first birthday. I think she'll be dancing on her feet the whole hour (like she did for the Keith Terry concert earlier this year)!! Are you bringing a child to the Cyro Baptista concerts and/or the educational percussion activity beforehand? I'd love to hear about your experience!
This family show was OFF THE HOOK….I loved it so much!! Please bring them right back!!
We very much enjoyed this show as well. Our three year old daughter enjoyed it, and was battling shyness with her desire to dance with the other kids in front. But I was surprised to find that our one year old daughter also LOVED it. She was bouncing to it and had a huge smile.
One complaint: it was too loud! I know at least two friends who thought similarly. Loudness is especially problematic when we're sensitive to the ears of young children. Hard to cover your ears while enjoying it! I'd rather not have to use earplugs (especially with kids!) and it's such an easy thing to fix.
My son's first UMS concert … age 19 months. He loved it. At the end he was crying and trying to take his coat off because he wanted more.
@Amy – My daughter is 18 months – same thing! She was a crazy bundle of energy for the next couple of hours. I think my favorite part was the kiddie "mosh pit". I also thought it was a bit loud – though it started out just fine. It didn't seem to bother my daughter, but I know there were a few people who moved around, or might have left. @Archer – I agree – I'd rather not use earplugs either. I'll try to find out some info from a few of my co-workers at UMS re: sound levels. @Margaret – I agree!! Bring them back!!!
Sayan Bhattcharya wrote an interesting article about the Cyro Baptista concert on the UMS student blog (http://umsstudents.blogspot.com), this was one of my favorite parts which I thought I would share!
"After the performance, I had a very lively and interesting discussion with a friend over coffee at Panera's. She said — and I think she is correct — that a concert like this can all too easily become kitschy, an exercise in mere showmanship and crowd-pleasing — and in pandering, with its profligate and over-stumulative excess — to us, the perpetually attention-deficient denizens of the cyberculture era, who are likely to lap up such pageantry and consume with goggle-eyed ecstasy, the globetrotting bricolage of world-music samples seemingly thrown together in a randomly jumbled, decontextualized, fashion. But I think that Cyro Baptista is well aware of this, and, with more than a hint of self-parody, he is putting on this performance in what is actually an ironic way. Very postmodern, in fact. He is, I think, while not denying the cacophony and kitschiness of modern existence, challenging its meaninglessness and actually humanizing it by performing it with fellow musicians with such joy and intensity."