In February, I traveled to Uruguay. Tom and Vicky from Oregon were working there and invited Peter,Ingeborg, and myself, also from Oregon, to join them for carnival and tango. My girlfriend, Sara, and another Portena, Stella, rounded out our group. We had a wonderful time which included a couple of milongas and two nights of the llamadas, an important element of Carnival.
The Llamadas are a parade of drummer groups, playing Afro-inspired music called Condombe, originating in Uruguay. The drummers train for hours and beat an impressive, coordinated rhythm that motivates their team and the spectators like myself, to move their feet and bodies, in rapid, disassociated ways.
For hours one group after another passed by in an endless wave of body movement and loud, exuberant, attacking unified rhythm. They represented various neighborhoods and were keenly competitive in their choice of costume and drumming ability. They weren't professional musicians or dancers but there was no lacking for talent or seductive embellishment.
First came the flag bearers, passing enormous flags over the crowds, touching the heads of those under its path. This heightened the excitement for the dancers who followed them. They knew how to dance the exhilarating movement of a 2 step like, progressive samba. Thus in minimal costume, sexy and provocative, inspired by the drummers and the jublient, sometime euphoric crowds, they shook, all that would shake, giving us more than we deserved, for a few brief moments, as they passed by. Like the flag bearers, they often interacted with the crowd which heightened the excitement even more.
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