Lorin Hansen   |  ​ARTrageous Online!

Overview
Lorin Hansen grew up in Utah and has spent close to two decades studying Samba- a dance form associated with the Afro-Brazilian religion, culture, and history many centuries old. She started a nonprofit in Salt Lake City, Utah: SambaFogo.org, where she teaches Samba drumming and dance, and brings home the party and the lessons of her Brazilian mentors and teachers, cultivating the growing Utah Samba community.  Lorin, a “Sambista,” is now deep into a 20-year effort to connect Utah, where she is from and feels deeply rooted, to Afro-Brazilian Samba, the dance, drums, people and culture, and what she describes as one of the true loves of her life.

In the following two modules, Lorin introduces us to the rich beauty and culture of Afro-Brazilian Samba through drums and dance.  Her tutorial videos comprise  the arts integration activity in both modules, one teaching Samba drumming and the other Samba dance. Lorin  also teaches us the important history behind Samba, having emerged as an act of resistance during the Portuguese Black slave trade. Lorin tells stories of this earthbound tradition, weaving folklore and mythology together with Brazil’s contemporary street scene, Rio Carnival, and her own personal journey that brings it full circle and all the way home to Utah. 
Lesson Plan Includes

​Module 1: Samba Drums: The Rhythms of Samba in Folklore
​Grades: 7-12  | Time:  4 Hours  ​

Module 2: Connecting to Nature and the Natural Elements Through Samba Dance
​Grades: 7-12  | Time: 4 Hours  

Videos

Introduction to Lorin and Samba 
Watch this introduction video before starting either Module 1 or 2 for an introduction to Lorin, Samba, and the story of how these two came together. 
Samba Drums: The Rhythms of Samba In Folklore
​This video corresponds with Module 1
​Tutorial Video - Rhythms of Samba ​
​This video corresponds with Module 1
Samba Roots Connecting Us With Nature
​This video corresponds with Module 2
Samba Fire Great Salt Lake
​This video corresponds with Module 2
Tutorial Video - Samba: Dancing the Four Elements 
​This video corresponds with Module 2
Tutorial Video: Samba 101
​This video corresponds with Module 2: ​Art Integration Activity

Module 1 - Samba Drums: The Rhythms of Samba in Folklore
Class: English, Social Studies, Fine Arts, Library Media 
​Grades: 7-12  | Time: 4 Hours  
Platform: Online Learning Management System (LMS) with synchronous learning option (e.g., Zoom, Google Classroom) 
Tech Tools: N/A
Topic: Afro-Brazilian Samba Drums and Folklore. 

Quick Links

WATCH Intro Video: Introduction to Lorin and Samba 
WATCH Video One:  Samba Drums: The Rhythms of Samba In Folklore​​
​
See the Complete List of  Videos on Our YouTube Playlist > ​
  • Introduction
  • Curriculum Map
  • Lesson Plan
  • Arts Integration Project
  • Dig Deeper
<
>
Award winning (in both male and female categories!) Samba dancer,  drummer, and naturalist Lorin Hansen founded  Samba Fogo, bringing Samba dance, drums and the culture’s intimate relationship with nature to Utah. Lorin takes us on a personal journey of discovering Samba drums, and how that not only deepened her knowledge and love of Samba, but also helped her better understand herself- who she was and where she came from. 
“I am tiny but found my power in these drums.” Lorin
“When I exhale, I exhale sound.” Lorin’s Teacher, Rosangela Sylvestre
“It stirs up things that I think exist in all of us.” Samba Film narrator
“People like dancing but there is something that Samba Fogo does about tapping into the essence of the joy of dancing. We do it for the joy.” Utah Samba Community Member
“It’s about being in the moment, being totally present.” Utah Samba Community Member
MODULE 1 CURRICULUM MAP: Includes Standards and Learning Intentions (PDF)
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS​
  1. How does Samba drumming represent Afro-Brazilian history and culture?
  2. How does folklore provide a bridge from one culture to another?
  3. How does Samba drumming and folklore arouse community interest and stimulate community participation?
  4. Did studying drums and folklore of the Afro-Brazilian culture allow you to see culture from the inside out, or rather from the outside in? 
LEARNING INTENTIONS –  Upon completing this Module, students will:
  1. Define, identify and understand the role of folklore in American and Afro-Brazilian culture;
  2. Articulate how folklore provides a bridge from one culture to another;
  3. Connect to Samba folklore and culture;
  4. Develop Samba drum techniques and practice rhythms to express tradition and story​
SUCCESS CRITERIA ​
  1. I can learn about a culture’s beliefs through their music, dance and art. 
  2. When I tell stories I will consider using different techniques such as music and rhythms to tell it. 
LEARNING OUTLINE
This 3.5-hour module is on the Artistic Expression: A Sign of The Times video presentation by Dee-Dee Darby-Duffin. It can be used as a whole learning experience, or in chosen sections as time allows. 
  • 35 minutes: Launch Activity– Art and Artists Changing Hearts and Minds
  • 15 minutes: While Viewing– Artistic Expression: A Sign Of The Times
  • 20 minutes: Post-Viewing–  Strange Fruit
  • 75 minutes: Demonstration– Researching And Storyboarding Influencers
  • 60 minutes: Making Connections–Arts Integration Short Film Project - Artist Influencers: A Sign Of The Times ​
​
MATERIALS
Suggested Videos:
Intro Video: Introduction to Lorin and Samba (8:36 min)
Samba Drums: The Rhythms of Samba In Folklore (15:40 min)
 
Supplies for Pre-Viewing and Viewing and Post-Viewing Activities:
Paul Bunyon (choose to read aloud one or two from this list)
Colored pencils
Sketchbook or 2-3 sheets of blank paper
Afro-Brazilian Samba Folktale (Oxossi: How He Became King of the Forest)
 
Supplies for Art Integration Activity
Lorin Hansen: Tutorial Video: Rhythms of Samba (7:36 min)
2 glasses with water filled to different levels ( a substitute for the bells Lorin plays in the video)
Pencils or short sticks (a substitute for drumsticks and used to tap the glasses)
Orixà Info Handout (PDF) 
Launch Activity–Pre-Viewing: What is Folklore?
[45 min]
[Learning Intentions 1]
Procedures:
  1. Hook: 1 min chatstorm or class discussion: Ask students, “What is your favorite story from your childhood?”
         a. Why do you think you were connected to it?
         b. Did it teach you anything? Explain. 
  2. Ask Students: What does the word “folklore” mean to you? Acknowledge responses. Put the folklore definition up: The traditional beliefs, customs, and stories of a community, passed through the generations by word of mouth. Tell them that folklore is about ordinary people and their beliefs and way of life. It lets us INSIDE the culture. Folk tales let us know a lot about what the cultural group has experienced and what they value.  
  3. Ask Students: Can you name any American folklore? John Smith and Pocahantas; the tales of Paul Bunyon; the Parson Weems account of George Washington and the cherry tree; the Sage of Hiawatha, the Abraham Lincoln ax story, etc. If students name Disney movies such as Cinderella or Snow White etc. explain that those are fairy tales. Fairytales are different in that they are magical characters, and written for a wide audience, mainly children, by an identifiable author. Folktales/ Folklore are stories with no identifiable author about day-to-day issues and are tied to one group who passes the story down from one generation to another.  
  4. Have students get out their colored pencils and sketchbooks or a blank sheet of paper. Explain that as they listen to you tell them the American folktale, Paul Bunyon (choose one or two from this list), they will draw whatever they are inspired to. They can use symbols; shading; shapes; images, etc. Anything goes.  
  5. Ask a few volunteers to share their art and inspiration. 
  6. Tell Students: We are about to watch a video featuring Lorin Hansen, a Samba dancer and drummer.  Folklore often shows up in plays, pageants, songs, dances, and tales and similarly, in the Afro-Brazilian Samba tradition, their folklore is embedded in their dances, songs, drum rhythms, and carnivals.  We are going to learn what the Afro-Brazilian drum rhythms teach us about their culture and beliefs.
While Viewing: Discovering Samba Drums and Rhythms
[20 min]
[Learning Intentions 2]
 Procedures:
  1. Read this introduction to students: Award winning (in both male and female categories!) Samba dancer,  drummer, and naturalist Lorin Hansen founded  Samba Fogo, bringing Samba dance, drums and the culture’s intimate relationship with nature to Utah. Lorin takes us on a personal journey of discovering Samba drums, and how that not only deepened her knowledge and love of Samba, but also helped her better understand herself- who she was and where she came from.
  2. Tell students: As you watch the video: Samba Drums: The Rhythms of Samba In Folklore (15:40 min) on a blank sheet of paper and with colored pencils, let your hand move freely, drawing random lines, sketches, symbols, shading, and patterning, anything goes.  It doesn't matter what comes out and onto the paper as long as it is an expression of what you are hearing. ​
​
Post-Viewing: Oxossi, the King of the Forest and of the Hunt
[20 min]
[Learning Intentions 1,2]
Procedures:
  1. Have students in groups of 3 share their drawings and discuss what they found most surprising, interesting, confusing, disturbing, or memorable.  
  2. As a class, discuss what students remember about the folk tale Lorin told. Acknowledge responses.
  3.  (Optional) Tell students that you are going to read them the Afro-Brazilian Samba Folktale that Lorin told in the video about the Orixà (Orisha) Oxossi, the King of the Forest and of the Hunt. Later we are going to learn and practice the drum rhythms associated with this story.  
Demonstration: What's Your Orixà?
[30 min]
[Learning Intention 3]
 Procedures:
  1. Tell the students: For our arts integration project we are going to learn and practice a few drum rhythms. These rhythms are played by the Afro-Brazilian drummers during the big carnivals you saw in the film. They come from a long tradition, and they help tell a story about Afro-Brazilian beliefs and way of life.
  2.  These rhythms are tied to Orixà (Gods and Goddesses at the heart of a religion called Candomblé (Can-dom-blay) . Candomblé practitioners believe that every person has their own individual Orixà which controls his or her destiny and acts as a protector. There is no concept of good or bad in Candomblé. Each person is only required to fulfill his or her destiny to the fullest, regardless of what that is. This is not a free ticket to do whatever you want though. Candomblé teaches that any evil you cause to people will return to you eventually.
  3.  Each Orixà represents a certain force in nature and is associated with certain foods, colors, animals and days of the week.  Pass out the Orixà Info Handout.  Ask students in pairs to discuss which Orixà they think best connects with their personality.
  4.  A person's character or personality is strongly linked to their Orixà. You may recall Lorin saying in the video that if you are visiting Brazil, a common question to ask a person you just met is, “What is your Orixà?” Ask students what they tend to ask someone when they  just meet them.  Can they think of anything similar in their culture that they have heard or ask themselves? Some North Americans say, “What is your sign?” meaning what is your zodiac sign. In China every person has a zodiac animal that is tied to their birth date.  Often a subject of conversation, the Chinese zodiac animals are part of  Chinese folklore and are often used to explain people’s personality traits. (An option here is to have students further explore their zodiac signs and Chinese Zodiac animals.)
  5.  Tell Students: While in Brazil, Lorin had a reading done by a Condomblé Priestess who told her that her Orixà is Oxossi, the King of the Forest and of the Hunt. Read the following paragraph that Lorin wrote about her Orixà out loud to the class:
    “The story of Oxossi relates to Samba. Samba carries deep ancestral knowledge that can lead us back home, to dance and live in harmony and connection with the Earth. The quest for this knowledge helped me realize different facets of myself – I was very shy before I found Samba, and my experience of Samba culture and my process of  hunting for the knowledge contained within the Samba tradition, brought forth a part of myself that is loud, and bold, and not afraid. Not shy. I call this part of myself my “SamBEASTa” because when someone is involved in Samba they are referred to as a “Sambista” but I feel this part of myself is like a beast that Samba unleashed in me. When the Condomblé priestess told me that Oxossi was my guardian, it made so much sense, because I felt I was in Brazil at that time on a hunting quest, there to acquire “food” (knowledge) to feed to my (Samba) community.” 
​Making Connections: Arts Integration Project - Finding Stories Through Drumming
[45-75 min]
[Learning Intention 3,4]
 
Procedures:
  1. Tell students they are going to learn and practice a few rhythms. These rhythms are played by the Afro-Brazilian drummers during the big carnivals you saw in the film. They come from a long tradition, and they help tell a story about Afro-Brazilian beliefs and way of life.
  2.  Make sure each student has two cups of water filled to different levels in front of them so when you tap the glass one sounds deeper than the other. They also need a substitute drumstick (pencil, stick, etc.  ) Tell students that these glasses are a substitute for the agogoô bells the drummers play in Afro-Brazilian Samba. (Or students can clap out the rhythms as an alternative.)
  3.  Ask Students: What do you remember from the film we watched about the connection of  Afro-Brazilian drumming to stories and folklore? Acknowledge their responses and add:
    Answer: “Underneath the Samba tradition is the Orixià (Orisha) (afro-brazilian deities) tradition and these are characters in African-Brazilian folklore. Each Orixà has a specific rhythm, a set of songs that go to that rhythm, and a set of dances. It's a very deep and old tradition and multifaceted and those rhythms and those dance movements that are performed in honor of these Orixà, they make their way into Samba and onto the carnivale avenue.”
  4.  Tell students that they are about to watch a video where Lorin teaches the rhythms related to her Orixà Oxossi (Oshosee) and another Orixà called Ogum (O-goom), both very  prominent in Samba culture. Write or type the word Orixà for students to see and under this write Ogum and Oxossi. 
  5.  In preparation, ask students to reference  the Orixa Info Handout and have them find these two Orixàs. Ask two volunteers to read the blurb about each of these Orixàs out loud to the class. 
  6. Play the Rhythms of Samba Tutorial (7:08 min) and tell students to follow along and tap, drum, or clap out the rhythms.  Tell them they will be asked a couple of questions at the end about the story around the rhythms.
  7.  Get students to give you feedback on how they did? Was it easy, hard, fun? Now about the folklore story.
         a.  What would you say was the message of the story (no one right answer). Was there a moral of the story? 
         b.  How do the rhythms associated with these two deities represent Ogum and Oxossi’s  personalities?
  8.  Tell Students: Folklore is the traditional beliefs, customs, and stories of a community, passed through the generations by word of mouth. The rhythms you just learned are part of this folklore and in Samba this is how they tell their stories. Through song and drums.(Optional: Play each rhythm again and have students play it back.) 
         a.  Ogum is the warrior: intense, vicious. The rhythm that is played for him is called Vassi. (4:51 she plays this rhythm) You can feel his energy in that rhythm.
         b.  Oxossi’s rhythm (5:40) Agaré is lighter. He is about harmony and community and observing your surroundings.
         c.  Oxum- the beautiful Orixà of the sweetwaters (brooks, streams, lakes, etc.) rhythm is called Ijaysha. (6:20) Have them read about Oxum in their handout.
  9.  (Optional) Take this further by having students choose one of their favorite characters in a story and tap out a rhythm for this character. Perform by telling the story to a beat. 
Dig Deeper
Invite students to “dig deeper” on these topics by providing additional options for research and reflection about Samba culture, folklore, and music.
Explore that vast cultural diversity of Brazil:
http://www.sambassadorsofgroove.org.uk/history-of-samba describing Samba roots and connections to the evolution of Bass nova.  
https://worldmusiccentral.org/world-music-resources/musician-biographies/brazilian-music
https://www.afsusa.org/countries/brazil 
​
Blog Posts
Symbolism of Drums and Percussion by Zen Percussion
 
News Clip
Ilê Aiyê- (Telesur Newscast with subtitles) Salvador da Bahia, in the northeast of Brazil, is the home of one of the carnivals' main and most famous traditional bands, known as "blocos", Ilê Aiyê. Considered as the first band of Brazil, all its members are people of African descent.  In addition to teaching music and dance, it also works in order to insert the youth into the labour market.
 
Videos
Michael Jackson: They Don’t Care About Us (Music Video with Brazilian Band Olodum)
Jerusalema Feat Olodum Remix - Olodum is widely credited with developing the music style known as samba reggae and for its active participation in carnaval each year. Neguinho do Samba, the lead percussionist, created a mix of the traditional Brazilian samba beat with merengue, salsa, and reggae rhythms for the Bahian Carnival
Banda Dida Feminina- All female Samba-Reggae band
 
Lesson Plans
Folk Tales- Lesson plan from Common Sense: A glimpse of folk tales from around the world and from a variety of different cultures.
 
Articles
Guide to Samba Music: 11 Brazilian Samba Instruments (Master Class)
Black Brazil Today: History on black soul dance movement that cropped up in the 1970’s in Rio De Janeiro. This movement was inspired by the US Black Power movement and instigated a necessary historical of Black Rio.
 
Websites
Samba Fogo-A Utah-based cultural arts organization inspired by the excitement and beauty of Brazilian music and dance. Founder, Lorin Hansen.

Module 2 - Connecting to Nature and the Natural Elements Through Samba Dance

Class: English, Social Studies, Fine Arts, Library Media
​Grades: 7-12  | Time: 4 Hours  
Platform: Online Learning Management System (LMS) with synchronous learning option (e.g., Zoom, Google Classroom)
Tech Tools: PowerPoint; Audio Editing software (Audacity)  
Topic: Afro-Brazilian Samba Culture and Dance, World Cultures, the Natural Elements

Quick Links

WATCH Video Two: Samba Roots Connecting Us With Nature​
​
See the Complete List of  Videos on Our YouTube Playlist > ​​
  • Introduction
  • Curriculum Map
  • Lesson Plan
  • Arts Integration Projects
  • Dig Deeper
<
>
Lorin was raised in a family that spent a lot of time getting out into and caring for nature. Her parents studied with Native American elders whose teachings established in Lorin a love and reverence for the natural world. After being introduced to Samba at the University of Utah, and traveling to Brazil where she began to study, explore, and embody Samba culture– dance, drumming, and the people who would soon become her mentors and friends, Lorin knew she couldn’t live without it. 

Nearly two decades later, while dancing in a Brazilian forest, she reached an epiphany.  She realized she longed for Utah - the land and where she grew up and family roots are.  She needed to make a stronger connection between Utah and Samba. The Return Dance Project was born– a restorative dance project also referred to as “dance planting,” where Lorin takes her Samba dance community into Utah landscapes: forests, deserts, mountains,  and streams in a gesture of healing our relationship with nature. 
“We dance with our feet on the Earth and our hands in the soil.” 
MODULE 2 CURRICULUM MAP: Includes Standards and Learning Intentions (PDF)
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
  1. How can dance connect people to nature?  
  2. How are interpretations and representations of the natural elements a universal language?  
  3. What are the benefits of connecting cultures through art?  
  4. How have certain groups taken responsibility for their landscape?
LEARNING INTENTIONS – Upon completing this Module, students will:
  1. Be able to describe aspects of Samba culture, history, and dance;  
  2. Recognize the universality of the representation of the four natural elements across world cultures; 
  3. Explain how dance is an important mode for communicating our human experience; 
  4. Employ art as an aesthetic tool to communicate messages about important historical and contemporary issues; 
  5. Be able to articulate the role of dance in building community and caring for nature; 
  6. Develop Samba dance techniques to express the four natural elements to build a connection to nature.
SUCCESS CRITERIA
  1. I will learn and practice Samba dance to experience and appreciate the deep history and tradition it comes from.  
  2. I will commit to doing at least one thing that cares for nature.
LEARNING OUTLINE
This 4-hour module is on the video presentation by Lorin Hansen. It can be taught as a whole learning experience, or in chosen sections as time allows: 
  • 45 minutes: Launch Activity– Connecting with Nature.
  • 20 minutes: While Viewing– Samba Dance: History, Tradition, Our Flat Feet on the Earth.
  • 20 minutes: Post-Viewing– Getting Closer to Samba.
  • 110 minutes: Demonstration–  The Natural Elements: Interpretations and Representations  Across the World.
  • 30- 60+ minutes: Making Connections– Arts Integration Project - Connecting to Nature Through Dancing Samba!
MATERIALS
Suggested Videos:  Handouts/ Worksheets Supplies for Art Integration Activity
Lorin Hansen Tutorial Video: Samba: Dancing the Four Elements (3:26 min)
Launch Activity–Pre-Viewing: Connecting with Nature
[10 min]
[Learning Intention 1]
 Procedures:
  1. Ask Students: How do YOU connect to Nature? What is your favorite way or activity in nature? Follow up with these questions:  
         a.  How does being in nature make you feel?
         b.  What do you connect with most in nature?
  2.  Tell Students: We are about to watch a video on how Lorin Hansen, a Utahn and Samba dancer, came to connect with Nature through Samba dance and how she is teaching Samba to others as a way of connecting to Nature.
  3.  Read this introduction to students: Lorin was raised in a family that spent a lot of time getting out into and caring for nature. Her parents studied with Native American elders whose teachings established in Lorin a love and reverence for the natural world. After being introduced to Samba at the University of Utah, and traveling to Brazil where she began to study, explore, and embody Samba culture– dance, drumming, and the people who would soon become her mentors and friends, Lorin knew she couldn’t live without it.  

    ​Nearly two decades later, while dancing in a Brazilian forest, she reached an epiphany.  She realized she longed for Utah - the land where she grew up and family roots are.  She needed to make a stronger connection between Utah and Samba. The Return Dance Project was born– a restorative dance project also referred to as “dance planting,” where Lorin takes her Samba dance community into Utah landscapes, to forests, deserts, mountains, and streams in a gesture of healing relationships with nature. 
​
While Viewing: Samba Dance: History, Tradition, Our Flat Feet on the Earth
[15 min]
[Learning Intention 1, 2]
Procedures:
Ask students to answer the following questions as they watch the video: Samba Roots Connecting Us With Nature (18:55):
  1.  How did Lorin’s upbringing influence her starting the non-profit, SambaFogo, and the Restorative Dance Project?
    Answer: At an early age her parents introduced her to Native Americans who revered nature and thought of the Earth as a living conscious being.  And now I have this Samba tradition in my life of dancing for the elements and dancing for the forest, dancing for the wind, dancing for the ocean, and began to learn how to, with, and connect my body with these natural forces through dance.
  2.  Where and how did Samba dance originate?
    Answer: In its origin Samba dance is called Samba Jiga, which is Samba in the circle. And this was developed under slavery in Brazil.  These were Africans who wanted to dance their dances. But they weren't permitted to so they would make a circle shoulder to shoulder and one dancer would go into the center of the circle and make their way around the circle. However, it should look like they are just walking and in that way, if they got too bouncy with their Samba, it would tip off the authorities and the whole party would get shut down. So it's actually within history to make it a heavy dance. And we spend a lot of practicing, not letting the head bounce up and down, even though our hips are wiggling, our feet are moving like lightning. Imagine balancing something on your head and doing your Samba at the same time. Your feet are flat and connected to the Earth.
  3.  How does Samba differ from the traditional European dances? 
    Answer: ​When we dance Samba, we call it ‘Samba Nupe,’ which means ‘Samba in the foot. ‘ And when we dance with a flat foot, we say, we're dancing for our ancestors and speaking with the land. And I believe that our personal relationship with the earth is reflected in the way we dance– especially in the way the foot contacts the earth. In Samba, we take a lot of care to connect with the land under our feet versus in European dance forums, we show power by traveling, running, and leaping and bounding across the room. I think there's a metaphor here about, you know, going to explore other lands, traveling and leaping across the world, sort of disregarding the land under our feet and, and all the magic.
  4.  In your own words, how do you see dance and Nature going hand-in-hand?
Post-Viewing: Getting Closer to Samba
[20 min]
[Learning Intentions 1, 2]
Procedures:  
  1. Play the video clip, Samba Fire GreatSaltLake (1 min) 
  2. Think-Pair-Share: In pairs, have students share their responses to the questions they responded to while viewing  and combine and rewrite their responses incorporating each other’s feedback.  
  3. In a class discussion, a few volunteers share responses.  
  4. Finish discussion by reading Appendix A: My Family Relationship to Native Ways of Knowing.
Demonstration: The Natural Elements: Interpretations and Representations Across the World
[110 min]  
[Learning Intentions 2]
Procedures:
  1. Tell students: For your arts integration activity you will learn four Afro-Brazilian Samba dances representing the four natural elements: earth, air (wind); water; and fire. To prepare for this, let's learn a little more about the natural  elements and how they are represented universally,  in other cultures on Earth.
  2. All cultures across the world have some form of symbolism related to the natural elements, and often include fire, water, air, and earth, but sometimes other elements are included such as wood or metal. It’s widely acknowledged that these elements sustain living beings and make life on earth possible.
  3.  Ancient Greek philosophers popularized the idea of the classical elements of earth, fire, water, and air. Empedocles first described the elements in the 5th Century BC while attempting to discover the origin of first matter. He deduced that the classical elements are the originator of all things, a philosophy that was shared by later Greek philosophers, Plato and Aristotle, although Aristotle added the fifth element to account for the (then) unknown matter that made up celestial objects.
  4.  The four elements are also believed to be a part of the human body.  A person’s unique abilities, moods, emotions, and personalities are said to be governed and regulated by the four elements present within them. The four humors were believed to be the four fluids of the human body, and each of these was related to a classical element. The balance of the four humors was believed to be the key to good health. 
         a.  Blood was related to air 
         b.  Phlegm was related to water 
         c.  Yellow bile was related to fire 
         d.  Black bile was related to earth
  5.  Different cultures tend to have their own interpretations of the elements.  In small groups of 3-4,  have students choose a cultural group in any country (or you can assign cultural groups to avoid redundancy) and research their interpretation and representation of the natural elements.
  6.  Have students put a short PowerPoint together and present how their cultural group incorporates the natural elements into their culture.  * (Optional) To get them started, present these four cultural representations/ interpretations of the natural elements to the class: The Four Elements Across Four Cultures.
  7.  Have student groups give a short PowerPoint presentation to the class. 
Making Connections: Arts Integration Project - Connecting to Nature Through Dancing Samba!
[60+ min]
[Learning Intentions 3, 4, 5, 6]
“The soul of the movement exists in our shoulders.”
Procedures:
  1. Ask Students: What was Lorin’s message about dance connecting her to nature and the Earth? Acknowledge responses.
  2. Tell students: Everyone stand up and find a space where you can move. We are going to learn and practice the Samba dance of the 4 elements: Earth, Air, Water, and Fire.
  3. As you learn these dances, think about which one you most connect with. Are you Fire, Air (Wind), Water, or Earth?
  4. Watch the Tutorial Video: Samba: Dancing the Four Elements and have students follow along, practicing dancing the elements.
  5.  Assignment: 
    Writing Assignment: Pass each student a copy of, Four Elements: What Do They Symbolize?  Tell students: Write a “I am Fire/I am Air/ I am Water/ I am Earth story explaining what element best represents you and why. 
         a.  Low-Tech Modality: Have students write or type up their story. They can share in small groups or with the class.  
         b.  High-Tech Modality: Create a Podcast: Write and narrate a story (into a phone using a voice app) explaining what element best represents you and why. Incorporate music, and sound effect of the element using audio editing software such as Audacity (open source/free). ​


Dig Deeper
Invite students to “dig deeper” on these topics by providing additional options for research and reflection on Samba.
Artist Statement  Music  Classes & Workshops
  • Samba Fogo- dance and drum workshops going all yearlong.
 Events
  • Annual Samba Fogo Spring (April) concert where approximately 30 artists perform live Samba music, dance and fire. For more info go to sambafogo.com
 Videos
  • These videos are part of Return Dance Project, a restorative dance project which uses dance to heal our relationship with the land. We dance with our feet on the Earth and our hands in the soil. https://vimeo.com/684870141  
  • The Five Elements (Tibet) – Bön teacher Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche discusses the centrality of the five elements to the universe and everyone in it, and how we must learn how to balance these elements to bring benefit to ourselves and others. 
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