Portal da Açorianidade

The Regional Secretariat for Parliamentary Affairs and Communities is promoting online training for Azorean folklore groups from South America and North America on December 14 at 5 p.m. Azores local time. The initiative will be organised by the Regional Directorate for the Communities and aims to be a space for disseminating and updating knowledge about Azorean folklore. At the same time, it will be an opportunity to exchange experiences between different groups of Azorean origin spread across South America (Brazil and Uruguay) and North America (the United States, Canada and Bermuda), where the historic Azorean communities are based. The panel of trainers will be made up of Luísa Bairos, artistic director of Santa Cecília da Fajã de Cima Folklore Dance Group, São Miguel Island, and Leandro Ávila, artistic director of Fontes da Nossa Ilha Folklore Dance Group from Fontinhas, Terceira Island. Maria Luísa de Medeiros Bairos, a native of Ponta Delgada with a History degree, is a founding member of the Santa Cecília Folklore Dance Association in 1987 and has been its artistic director for the last four decades. She served as president of the association from 2007 to 2016 and is currently responsible for the archive service at RTP/Açores. Leandro Adelino Andrade Cardoso Ávila, a native of Praia da Vitória, holds a degree in Basic Education, a Master’s and a PhD degree in Insular and Atlantic History from the University of the Azores, and is now completing a postgraduate course in Traditional and Popular Portuguese Cultural Heritage at the Piaget Institute. He is a researcher at the Humanities Centre of Universidade Nova de Lisboa (New University of Lisbon). This online training initiative, scheduled to be approximately two hours long, begins with a speech by the Regional Director for the Communities, José Andrade, who will provide a brief historical overview of Azorean folklore groups and the Azorean diaspora. It will include presentations from tutors and end with an interactive session for participants. Participation in this training requires prior registration due to the limited number of participants. Those interested can register by filling out and submitting the form available at https://forms.office.com/e/zFuUYJMyyc?origin=lprLink until December 10. Folklore groups continue to have a strong presence in the daily cultural life of the communities of Azoreans or their descendants in Brazil, Bermuda, Canada, the United States and Uruguay. This makes them privileged vehicles for disseminating the values and cultural richness of the Azores.