2012 was to be an epic year for rotc’s samba crowd. playing at olympic park, in mangueira samba school, circo voador and gdansk shipyard. gdansk shipyard was the birthplace of solidarity, who began the unravelling of ‘communism’ in europe, and now it is (perhaps slightly less importantly) on the samba map of the world too. security staff at the airport were slightly mistified by the agogo, but this was the only troublesome moment in a smooth trip. friday we arrived and hit the historic long market with a batucada (rhythm symphony), saturday there was a workshop followed by long night at the buffetklub (in shipyard. way more crumbling dirty and cool than hoxton), sunday a parade with large bateria of workshop participants assembled from the visiting polish groups. dancers asia and yazzmin grabbed the attention of the enthusiastic audience almost as much as our rendition of polish-folk-classic ‘to i hola’. thanks go to michał szczepankiewicz, organiser and complete star, for making everything so smooth.
gdansk airport security