Alto do Pina confident in the revalidation of the title in the Lisbon marches – Observer
The evenings have been dedicated to rehearsals for about three months, because nothing can fail in the parade in the pavilion and on the way down Avenida da Liberdade, in Lisbon. The march from Alto do “has everything” to revalidate the definitive title in 2019.
It’s 10pm. After waiting to enter the pavilion of the Patrício Prazeres Basic School, where they rehearse, the 25 men and 25 women who march in the Alto do Pina neighborhood do a ‘wheel’ to listen to the first instructions of the rehearser Bruno Vidal.
The beginning is of great concentration. Nothing is heard after the silence is indicated, followed by the first chords of the music and the cry ‘Alto do Pina’ by fifty well-tuned voices.
The women enter, marching to the sound of a drumbeat, some of them barefoot, and assume their position.
Then it’s the men’s turn. Nobody talks. Only Bruno’s voice can be heard. The godfather, Madjer, considered the best beach soccer player, and the godmother, the presenter Teresa Guilherme, are fully involved in his role.
The “good energy” of the marchers is felt in the air. Teresa Guilherme explained to Lusa that they are very kids with a lot of grit” who feels very good by their side “being at the same time having fun”.
She is no longer new to these wanderings, having been godmother of the march “for a few years now”. Despite recognizing the work that the choreographies are, it is with pleasure that she spends her daily evenings in rehearsals.
“There are two types of godparents, those who come in, say goodbye and their support. And there are those, like Madjer and I, who dance and sing and we have to come to rehearsals”, said the presenter, recognizing that one of the “big regrets” she had was the fact that she was two years old, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 19, and not go out on the street to parade.
Proud of the invitation, although it is a ball so that it is “easier to play the ball than to march”, although he admits that he had one thing for another.
“We have everything to be champions. The fascia is too high. They have a delivery, just like us, so nothing fails. We want to be very rehearsed with the marchers, who are already very popular in these wanderings”, he said, stressing that it is with “great pride and pride” that he is defending the Alto do Pina march.
Despite being Angolan and living on the south bank, Bruno Vidal has been living Lisbon’s popular marches with a true neighborhood spirit since 2015, when he arrived in Alto do Pina at the invitation of a friend.
“I was a dancer for more than 25 years and I had never done marches”, he told Lusa, explaining that it is “living with love” what he feels to be in front of a march, which was one of the first to participate in the Popular Marches of Lisbon, in 1932.
“It’s living with love, with passion, living with great responsibility. It’s Alto do Pina, one of the pioneer marches, not to mention it’s in title and that, thank God, it was with me in 2019”, he said, acknowledging the responsibility of returning to these “wonderful” marchers dressed in a t-shirt ‘ Alto do Pina champion in 2022’.
Bruno Vidal recalled that the fact that the marches did not go out two years in a row to the street “took the bread out of their mouths” to many of their marchers, who for 25 years “continuously” defended as nuclei of the neighborhood.
“Those who don’t know Lisbon don’t know that it is lived with intensity. I even get goosebumps just talking about it. And that’s the added responsibility I have. They are people who give themselves, families, children, some of them take vacations on purpose for this, to get the marchers with the best title to get the marchers of the best title to get their marchers to do the best and be able to revalidate theirs.
In relation to graphics, theme and the figures that were being used, nothing was used of what was planned to take to the streets in 2020, having had a nucleus.
Bruno Vidal recalled that “one cannot ignore two years and what happened in the world” and that the role of the marches must also be “to tell in history” that very thing.
The first rehearsals in all the sessions felt like “it was good to be responsible again”, he starts rehearsing a little”, I outline the rehearser, who often sees his face in these almost three months of rehearsals getting “heavier” ”.
This one, however, must be transformed into claw” to shine with “more will to and make the name of Alto Pina reach higher”.
Marco Campos is one of the oldest marchers, with 33 years of experience. He is also the president of the Alto do Pina Gym, responsible for the march. He told Lusa that his life is around the neighborhood, the marches and the club, recognizing the marches changed more in these two years, “without going out to parade, than with his own life, when he got Covid-19”.
“This is our second home, if not the first for me, who is here every day. I can no longer do without the club, without the march. There would be no march, it would arrive by data and there would be no me during the year and we looked for it was a very big one”, said Marcos Campos.
Proving that the life of the neighborhood, the club, is intertwined with the family is the fact that one of their daughters, Nicole, 14, is this year making her debut in the elders’ march, after years in the children’s march. of the “Alto Pininhas”.
Not even the fact of having to get up early to go to school after rehearsing every night until very late does not move the youngest marcher, confessing that she does it for pleasure and as such, she doesn’t care.
Despite the fact that a pandemic has not ended and the danger of low contagion in the group, Bruno Vidal was confident that the rules of the Equipment Management and Cultural Animation Company (EGEAC), organizer of the marches, did not make it happen: they continue to be 48 marchers, 24 women, 24 men and an alternate pair.
“I think love is lacking, it is lacking for our mental sanity. We have to hug each other again. The pandemic passes, but [ficar sem] affections are not marked for life. [As marchas] Portugal, the city of Lisbon and my neighborhood are missing”, said Bruno Vidal.
The Festas de Lisboa began Saturday with a concert by Tito Paris, after two years of forced stoppage due to the covid-19 pandemic, with the marches going down Avenida da Liberdade in the city’s patron saint, from 12 to 13 June. .