Driven by passion and love for dancing, Mira Dias talks about her experience as a folklore teacher after three decades since the establishment of Grupo de Danças e Cantares de Macau.
Article by
Joshua Añover
Mira Dias was born and raised in Macau but later continued her studies in Portugal at the Universidade Técnica de Lisboa to pursue teaching arts. Growing up in a Portuguese culture made her love folk dancing. She is currently a member of the Grupo de Danças e Cantares de Macau (GDCM), and for three decades she has preserved the roots of the Portuguese heritage in Macau while sharing her knowledge with her pupils, whether young or old. Everyone experiences the beauty of Portuguese culture.
The Golden Era of the Folklore Dance from GDCM
“I was actually the second batch of dancers in our group, I was just their student then” she said over the phone. GDCM was originally called “Grupo de Danças e Cantares do Clube de Macau”. “Our founder Abel Moura founded this group with other members from Portugal.” She recalled, there was no official Portuguese folk group in Macau in the late 80’s, so Abel decided to recruit more members. “Then he and the other original members saw that I danced Malhão great and recruited me to their club.” And since then, Mira would later become a folklore teacher after being an Arts teacher.
In the early years of the group, they had fewer outfits due to financial constraints, simple folk outfits were their only representation of Portuguese dancers but this would change later when supported by the government where they could afford much more outfits.
In the mid 90’s, GDCM would perform beyond Macau bringing their captivating performances to audiences in Japan, ShangHai, Beijing, Thailand, Singapore and other places. T
hey were so well-respected for their skill and commitment that they were able to cross Chinese borders without presenting identification.
“In our glory days, our group was treated like diplomats whenever we had shows to perform” she laughs. “Not even schools could stop us from asking their students to perform with us.” “The group used to have the authority to perform anywhere when their presence was requested for representing Macau, this would go on until the handover of Macau in 1999.
Times have changed
During the event of the handover in 1999, GDCM had been invited and were asked to teach a group called 澳門在我心(Macau no meu coração)to perform for the important event. “We were more than 100 people on stage dancing Malhão” she explained. Right after the performance of a historical moment, 澳門在我心 requested GDCM for a collaboration in order to continue teaching Portuguese folklore. “But the person in charge of our group didn’t agree to the collaboration,”she followed.
“They hired a couple of our members to teach them instead, later on they would make their own group.” This overshadowed GDCM by the newly established association for having more members and locals to perform in their stead, this had led the group to lose their brilliance and addition to the last governor, Vasco Joaquim Rocha Vieira, stepping down causing many members to leave, and some having their own responsibilities and priorities, slowly declining in popularity.
But Mira would not let this discourage her to step away from the group but instead, she would promote her association through Centro Divisão da Língua (CDL) inviting countless students to join the group to share the experience, the joy of dancing and to have a deeper understanding of Portuguese culture. But she would not let this stray her away from her goal by recruiting new members.
Her journey to teach dancing again started in 2014. After living in Portugal for eight years she was called to teach local teachers in Macau through summer courses (Cursos do Verão de Lingua Portuguesa) ”They were all teachers in my first lesson, roughly around 80 teachers were under my teaching is mostly from UM [Macau University].” Unsure of how to instruct with the sheer amount of students she manages to instruct with her knowledge and patience.
She continues to teach even in high schools that include Yuet Wah, Sacred Hearts, Hou Kong High, Santa Rosa de Lima, Luís Gonzaga Gomes and other local chinese schools. Roughly around 4200 students were taught by her in three decades.
30 years later
“I have taught many students throughout the years , I am very grateful for them as a teacher,” recalls Mira. “Change their attitude on dancing from disinterest to becoming proficient dancers who perform for joy.”
She is very aware that she is not getting any younger, and while many have asked for training, she progressively declines each request, explaining: “I could still dance, but, of course, I am not who I used to be anymore.” Continuing to teach varied
faces, personalities, and skills, she became a proud mentor to all those who were under her guidance. She stated that she will pass on her mentorship to the next in line, saying: “I hope that the younger generation of dancers will continue to pass down our Portuguese tradition.”
In the end, she feels that Portuguese folk dance is easier than ballet, but that a teacher truly finds fulfillment in seeing her students perform with grace and tradition and creating an impression that would impress the audience. A pupil’s accomplishment is happiness to the mentor.
