Movimento pro-Criança (Movement in favor of the child)
Recife is an important center of music, dance, and culture in Brasil, and the Movimento Pro-Criança uses this culture to serve street and favela children. The Movimento runs an street outreach program, community cultural centers, and a brilliant pre-professional arts and music studio.
The Movimento was born in 1993, helped by the Catholic Church in Recife, and tried to bring the arts to poor communities and schools. Though the volunteer artists didn’t feel like they understood the social conditions, they felt as if their work had a real impact, so they looked for ways to expand their work. With the help of individual donors, several businesses, and Dutch and German foundations, the Movimento has now come to be one of the largest NGOs in the North East of Brasil.
Street educators refer children to community arts centers, where they learn art and music side by side with children who live in the community. These centers provide a new perspective for children and motivate them with sports and art. They also provide tutoring, family therapy, and educational workshops.
After spending some time in the community centers, a child can apply to the pre-professional arts school, the most outstanding program of the Movimento. The school is based in a 17th century Dutch building (from the century when the Dutch controlled the north of Brasil) in the city’s colonial downtown. The building boasts many classrooms, a large theater, an art gallery, and a bohemian café. The Movimento is still renovating the building, and eventually it hopes that the school will be a center of Recife’s intellectual life.
Music and Dance education is the program’s forté. Boys and girls train in modern and classical dance, which lends a special elegance to their performances of folkloric dances: the maracatú, the Makulelé, Capoeira, etc. It is an excellent preparation to enter one of several folk ballets in the city. Other children train in music, drums, and stage design. In the last several years, the Movimento Corps de Ballet has traveled to Europe several times. They also put on shows in their own theater.
Other arts classes include pottery, painting, sculpture, silk screening, printing, and fashion design.
In 2002, the School taught some 100 children and teens. Though there is space for 200, there is not enough money for that many professors.
The art gallery and café exhibit students’s art, but they also make money for the Movimento. Many local artists show in the gallery, then contribute a portion of their sales to the Movimento. Teenagers manage and staff the café, where they learn administration and earn a good salary. The Movimento also runs a shop in the shopping center, where they sell fashion and crafts.
The school trains artists, but it says that its most important role is to train good people. Those who don’t become professional dancers or musicians will always have those skills to give themselves meaning and happiness. They learn how to take chances, how to fail and get up again, and how to persist in the face of obstacles.
Movimento Pro Criança
Centro Social Padre Venâncio
Rua dos Coelhos 317
Coelhos, Recife, PE 50070 550
55 81 3423 2766 o 3423 9640, 9129 5725, 3224 8790, 3224 8566
Contacto para Artes y Danza: Suzy Oliveira, suzyarte@bol.com.br
Contacto para proyectos sociales: Roseangela o Eurico (9994 1997), movimentoprocrianca@truenet.com.br or mpc@truenet.com.br
