Performance by Warm Heart
SubjectPortrait of
Raquel Figueiredo
(Cape Verdean)
DateAugust 1998
Mediumslides
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
CopyrightIn Copyright
Object number2015.196.353.1-.11
DescriptionPhotographs showing a performance by Warm Heart, the Cape Verdean dance group led by Raquel Figueiredo, at Library Park in Waterbury in August 1998.
2015.196.353.1: Image showing posed group photo
2015.196.353.2: Image showing three pairs of dance partners on stage
2015.196.353.3: Image showing three dancers on stage
2015.196.353.4: Image showing two pairs of dance partners on stage
2015.196.353.5: Image showing posed group photograph
2015.196.353.6: Image showing dance performance; one dancer posed with arms across front of body
2015.196.353.7: Image showing child wearing model ship on stage with dancers
2015.196.353.8: Image showing dancers on stage with fringe skirts; they’re holding baskets
2015.196.353.9: Image showing some dancers kneeling, facing each other on stage; others in background are standing
2015.196.353.10: Image showing dancers on the Rhoby S. Harrub Performing Arts Pavilion stage
2015.196.353.11: Image showing people dancing on stage, alongside one dancer holding the model ship
NotesBiographical Note: After arriving from Sao Vicente in 1989, Raquel Figueiredo formed Waterbury's young dance group Warm Heart, teaching them funana and tchabeta and making new dance outfits. She always loved the colorful celebration of Carnival in Cape Verde, so she started a program at the Cape Verdean Social Club in February 1998 to showcase Carnival costumes and dances. Raquel admired the nature of Cape Verdean culture in Santiago, where island traditions are "homegrown" and less influenced by other cultures. She has been strongly committed to teaching Cape Verdean-American children about their heritage. Raquel also writes poetry and drama focusing on the mid-1980s, a troubled time of intense emigration to America, and she makes traditional Cape Verdean dolls dressed in island costumes. Her dolls were exhibited in CCHAP’s "Hidden Treasures" exhibit at the Office of the Arts Gallery in Hartford in 2001. Raquel participated in the urban Artists Initiative run by the Institute for Community Research and the Connecticut Office of the Arts in 1998-2003. Her dance group Warm Heart performed at several Waterbury festivals, at Cape Verdean events, and participated in the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship program from 1999-2001 to work with musicians Joao Cerilo and Eurico Semedo.2015.196.353.1: Image showing posed group photo
2015.196.353.2: Image showing three pairs of dance partners on stage
2015.196.353.3: Image showing three dancers on stage
2015.196.353.4: Image showing two pairs of dance partners on stage
2015.196.353.5: Image showing posed group photograph
2015.196.353.6: Image showing dance performance; one dancer posed with arms across front of body
2015.196.353.7: Image showing child wearing model ship on stage with dancers
2015.196.353.8: Image showing dancers on stage with fringe skirts; they’re holding baskets
2015.196.353.9: Image showing some dancers kneeling, facing each other on stage; others in background are standing
2015.196.353.10: Image showing dancers on the Rhoby S. Harrub Performing Arts Pavilion stage
2015.196.353.11: Image showing people dancing on stage, alongside one dancer holding the model ship
Subject Note for the Waterbury Cape Verdean Community: Waterbury has become a major center of Cape Verdean culture in Connecticut. Numbering around 200 families in the late 1990s, most Cape Verdeans in this area today came from the island of Sao Nicolau, with some from Fogo, Sao Vincente, and Sao Antao. Many more recent immigrants from Cape Verde have moved to Waterbury, making the cultural expressions here very traditional. Early immigrants settled here to work at the Scovill, Chase, and American Brass factories, especially after 1935, when the cranberry industry in Massachusetts diminished. New arrivals work in professional as well as blue collar trades.
Cape Verdeans settled in the Phoenix Street/Abbott Avenue area, very near the brass factories where they worked. More recently they have concentrated on Oak Street, which they joke should be named Sao Nicolau Street. Around 1935, a group of men founded the first social club on Abbott Avenue, moving to Vine Street as they grew. In 1993, officers of the Club purchased the present building at 1181 North Main Street. A full schedule of activities there includes musical Noite Caboverdiana (Cape Verdean nights) with popular bands from New England and Cape Verde; mazurca and funana dance contests; biska card game tournaments; and celebrations of saints' feast days with processions, repicar di tambor (intense drumming and movement) and Cape Verdean foods. These events often serve as fundraisers for families in need. Recently the Cape Verdean ambassador to the United States spent a full day at the club, taking part in a community discussion attended by representatives from Cape Verdean organizations in Bridgeport and Norwich as well.
Waterbury musicians, such as singer Johnny Spinola and bassist Tony Santos traveled and performed with Joe Silva's band throughout New England in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. When he arrived from Sao Antao in the late 1960s, keyboard player Armando Gomes formed a Cape Verdean band called Ultramarine, the name given by the Portuguese to all their colonies. After independence and an influx of new members from the islands the band became Cape Verde '75.
One of Connecticut's most accomplished Cape Verdean musicians, Jorge Job is a Cape Verdean guitar and cavaquinho player as well as a composer in Krioulu, the local language of Cape Verde. Jorge and his son Rui, a professional keyboard player and record producer, have arranged many of Jorge's compositions for their CD "Geracao," published in 2006. Bassist Djim Job (Jorginho), a professional bass player, has collaborated with his father on several musical ventures including composing mornas under the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program in 2005-2006. Jorge has continued to play music at the Cape Verdean Social Club well into his 90s.
As in Bridgeport, young Waterbury Cape Verdeans participated in a dance group. In the late 1990s/early 2000s the group Warm Heart performed mazurca, funana, and tchabeta (a very fast rhythm-driven women's dance, part of a batuko performance) under the direction of Raquel Figueiredo. In addition to local performances, the group traveled to Providence, Rhode Island for the annual Cape Verdean Independence Day celebration on July 5. They worked with Rhode Island traditional musician Joao Cerilo Monteiro as part of the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program from 1999-2001.
Additional materials exist in the CCHAP archive for this community
Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.
Status
Not on view
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