Scottish taste in Sao Paulo

Now in its seventeenth edition, the 2013 Festival Cultural Inglesa is designed to showcase the best of British culture to a Brazillian audience. The festival is part of British Council Transform, a new arts and creativity programme taking place over four years, aiming to develop the artistic dialogue between the UK and Brazil for mutual benefit and long term impact. Transform enables artists and arts professionals from both countries to share experiences and to collaborate to bring about significant creative and social change for institutions, individuals and communities. Events will take place in Sao Paulo, Campinas, Santos, São José dos Campos and Sorocaba. And, as Liliane Rebelo describes below, audiences are excited:

“It has been eight years since the Festival Cultura Inglesa presented the first international work in its programme. Now in its seventeenth edition, this multi-art form celebration in São Paulo will taste more Scottish than ever before! The 2013 edition of the festival includes five productions from Scotland and one piece from England, as a direct result of Laerte Mello’s participation in the Brazilian delegation to Edinburgh Festivals last year. Laerte has run the cross-art form Festival Cultura Inglesa since 1996 and has been to Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival several times in different capacities. In 2012, he had a different experience as he was involved in selecting a diverse range of work. Eleven international companies feature in the festival’s timetable this year, and they really seem to have a special place in the young audience’s cultural agenda. The festival is promoted, organised and sponsored by Cultura Inglesa, a non-profit Brazilian English Language School, with 35 branches spread around two states of Brazil – they have 70,000 students attending English Language classes, and are a partner of the British Council for several projects.

The special selections from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival include theatre productions Bane, The Static, Watch it and Bullet Catch, as well as the dance piece Within this Dust and the band Dark Jokes. The partnership also includes cinema, with a selection of British short films made by young movie-makers. The festival will run throughout June, with an estimated reach of 22,000 people across five areas in São Paulo with performances in seven different venues. All performances are free and workshops delivered by the UK companies make the festival a must-visit event. The fast-talking, quick-moving little gem of a show, Bane, opened the international remit of the festival last weekend, for an audience of 150 people. The success of Bane has raised expectations for the upcoming performances in June. Watch out for programme updates on the Transform website.”

Liliane Rebelo is Projects Delivery Manager for the British Council in Brazil. Transform is a British Council arts and creativity programme working to develop artistic dialogue between the UK and Brazil.