Hello wonderful Rio Rhythmics Community,

I have made a quick trip over to my home country Brazil to celebrate my mothers 98th Birthday. It is priceless for me to be able to celebrate with my mother and most of my family and to be able to spend so much time with my mother. In the 29 years I have been in Australia I have only once, before now, had this opportunity, just me here to have focused family time. It enriches my soul, and I have to thank my beautiful wife Jada who gave me this trip as a Christmas gift this year.

I wanted to write to you all because whenever I am away I reflect a lot on Rio Rhythmics and the amazing community I am so proud of. Plus I thought I’d share a bit about my home town and what I’ve been doing. If you know me well you know that sitting on the couch too long is not my style!

Let’s talk about Goiania. Goiania is a city (about the same size as Brisbane), very close to the Capital, Brasilia. Goiania has always been a great centre for dancing and Capoeira. A Centre of Music and Dance where I worked for many years called Musika Centro De Estudos (written differently but pronounced Musica), played a very important role as a school of arts for the entire country, it’s amazing for me to be able to visit and see it still working now.

Last night I had the great pleasure of meeting Jairo Robarte, the owner of Jaime Aroxa Goiania. For those who are not familiar, Jaime Aroxa is a leader in Dança de Salao (Brazilian partner dance) in Brazil and owns the largest School with affiliates all throughout Brazil, oyr very good friends Lidio Freitas and Monique Marculano run one in Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro, many of you know them.

They have nine teachers and like us, heaps of classes throughout the week in a huge variety of styles. It was great to exchange ideas with Jairo and take a look at their Forró, Salsa and Samba de Gafieira classes. Tomorrow I will check out the Tango lessons.

And what’s happening Saturday? Party of course! You know what I say “come to the parties!!!”, so I am going to take my own advise and head along with a couple of great friends and great dancers Lenine and Alessandra who I danced a lot with in 1998 (not long ago hahaha). I will send through some photo’s in the community Facebook group and I am looking forward to coming back and sharing with you all the ideas exchanged and experiences.

A visit to Goiania is never complete without a visit to ASCEP, today I joined my brother on one of his regular visits (photo’s below), and it was wonderful to meet with some of the carers and ‘kids’ I have known all these years as well as some new people. As always they send their deepest thanks and gratitude for all that you and our community does for them each year with White Magic.

I will be back in just over a week, so I will see you on the dance floor then!

Tarcisio