June square dance revelers: is this work or entertainment?

Abstract

In June revels in Campina Grande/PB, “The Greatest São João in the World”, square dance groups of revelers are considered the greatest hits of the revels. A research carried out among the June square dance groups in this city is the subject of this article, the social representations constructed around this activity. Besides the participating observations, twenty semi-structured interviews were carried out among dancers of both sexes, members of the groups “Arraial da Felicidade”, and “Mistura Gostosa”. The data analysis was performed using the hermeneutical-dialectical method and the result shows that June square dance revelers construct different representations about this activity: entertainment, leisure, pleasure, responsibility and professional work. It was concluded that the subjects interviewed make up a discourse that stresses the positive effects of this activity, such as social recognition, collective understanding and personal fulfillment.