Helping them enrich their lives with Goan culture is the famous husband wife duo – Andre and Tania Souza -also known as “JUKEBOX” who have strived to take Goan music and folk dance all over the world. The couple have carved a niche for themselves and have performed at Goan Festival held in various places in India, Gulf, South East Asia, England, Australia, USA and Canada.
One of the most common feedback they received as they travelled the globe doing shows for the Goan diaspora, was the demand from Goans who not only wanted to have enjoy the music and dance as it was part of their nature, but also wanted to learn about it to help them preserve their culture and heritage. This demand from their audience was in tandem with the couple’s goal to keep Goan Folk music and dance forms alive. They have been training and teaching Goans in North America and Canada in particular for the last few years now.
“The Goan folk dances and music are dying slowing. A lot of credit has to go the Goans abroad as whenever we have travelled, there is this longing from them to hear and see folk music and dances. They really want to keep their culture there rather than Americanise it. We thought we will teach them and ask them in turn to teach the others after we leave. They have Goan blood in their veins and take to the folk music and dance like fish takes to water. Their response and enthusiasm gave us so much joy and confidence to want to teach them other folk dances,” said Andre.
In the year 2013, the couple was approached by Joe de Souza of North American Music Productions, an event company in Mississauga to spread folk music and dance wherever they performed abroad under their banner. Their debut was made in Toronto on the 1st of November 2013. At first it looked like a gigantic step to teach the Goan youth in North America folk music and folk dances when they had no clue of Konkani or Portuguese or even a remote idea of Goan folk dances. However armed with a collection of Costumes, junk jewellery and other paraphernalia like coconut shells, the couple set off on their first trip to North America in on the 1st of October 2013. The first folk song they remember teaching the youth in the USA was the Dekhni (“Hanv Saiba Poltodi vetam”).
The first folk dance they felt would be easy for the youth in Canada to learn was the “Kotti Fugdi”.
Sticking to their philosophy of creating teachers to help spread Goan culture, they found couples like Craig and Tanya who helped them choreograph and train other Goans in folk dancing and music. Thereafter, Andre and Tania moved on to other Goan Folk dances like Dekhni, Kharvi, Vavraddi, and Goan Portuguese folk dances like Corridinho, Marcha, Vira and Lancer.
The couple is now on their 6th trip to North America and this time they aspire to reach the states in America that they haven’t covered so far. They are scheduled to play for various shows in Canada and the USA beginning 20th August 2016 where they will be floor shows of Goan fold dances which they will be training and coordinating for various festivals.
On a personal front, after all the success they have tasted so far, the couple aka Jukebox is now contemplating on a release of their own compositions of different genres and languages.
