A indumentária simbólica - das festas ao teatro: a congada na comunidade dos Arturos

Abstract

Congada is the name of popular parties given to honour Our Lady of Black Men s Rosary. Such popular manifestations are common throughout Brazil but only a few still keep the tradicional origin. The Congadas, which are always related to slavery issues, are very expressive in Minas, where they first appeared in the Colonial period. One of the parties that most keeps the old tradition is given by the Arturos, a black communit that live in Contagem, a city near Belo Horizonte in Minas Gerais. Every year the Arturos, an Our Lady s Rosary Brotherhood, put on typical clothes loaded with symbols and meanings and become the Congo and Moçambique s guards to sing and dance in honour to their Patron Saint. In 1999, Cristina Tolentino, a theatre director, directed a play called Cuenda, where she transfereed the Rosary s brother s party to stage. I had the opportunity of dressing and doing the make-up of the Cuenda s characters, which demanded a great deal of research that is reported on this paper. Therefore, the clothes and make-up analysis used in Arturo s party, as well as the transformation of the symbols and meanings into costumes for the play are the main objectives of my research