The Rio World

Boston de Janeiro

by Michelle Chihara

photos by Geoffrey Kula

Ten years ago, if you wanted to go to a Brazilian dance party, DJ Adilson was the only show in town. Now there are innumerable Brazilian nights all over Greater Boston, but Adilson is still right at the center of the action.

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"People already know it, they know me," he says. He and promoter Gonzaga Rodriguez estimate that their weekly Sunday-night event, which recently moved from Joy to the swanky Theater District club Venu, regularly draws crowds of 350 people, 85 percent of whom are Brazilian. The rest are Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and, oh, American.

Rodriguez himself is exactly what one would expect from a Brazilian party promoter. He's from Rio. He has slicked black hair, the requisite tan, and no wedding ring, and he's wearing a black jacket over a collarless shirt. He came here in 1987 to visit his brother, and never left. "I love it here," he says. "But the night is too short."

Even if you don't speak Portuguese, it's not hard to fit in at a Brazilian night. Just remember a few rules. Don't do air kisses: Brazilians kiss hello and goodbye, on the cheek, and they actually put some lip contact into it. Do say "tchau" instead of "goodbye," "desculpe" instead of "excuse me," and "obrigado" for guys or "obrigada" for girls instead of "thank you."

If you're a man, assume you're paying for drinks; if you're a woman, wear high heels and shake your hips. (The basic footwork for the samba is just toe-heel-toe, but within that basic step lies more hip motion than most New Englanders see in a week.) Plan to arrive later than fashionably late.

But don't ask DJ Adilson to play "sertaneja."

Sertaneja is Brazilian country music. Country, like evangelical Christianity, is one of the unlikely trends sweeping Brazil. And, like most things Brazilian, it can be found locally, on Saturday nights in Somerville, when the Holiday Inn on Broadway is taken over by a Brazilian sertaneja/disco party. It's a slightly older crowd than at Venu, and it's even more purely Brazilian. DJ Clayton at the Holiday Inn says that young new arrivals, in particular, are clamoring for sertaneja. He's even starting a Friday night dedicated only to music from the sertão (the interior).

Adilson throws a younger, less provincial party that caters partly to Boston's jet-setting international-student crowd. Like Clayton, he says that in Rio de Janeiro, you'd probably hear more American music than you'll hear at a Brazilian night here.

"If you go to Rio now, you'll see exactly what you see here at Venu," says Rodriguez, "but more house music."