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 A
little girl playing guitar and dancing Tango
The decisive artistic influence comes from her
father, Mr. Pietro, who is a very traditional
tango dancer in São Paulo. Ana Rita Simonka was
just eleven years old when he gives her an
acoustic guitar intending to put her in contact
with his friends, famous Brazilian traditional
musicians. Mr. Pietro’s home used to be a
meeting place of consecrated artists like Papete,
Muri Costa, Trio Mocotó, Jorge Costa, Conductor
Benedito Costa, Toninho Neto, and so many others.
The frequent saraus ( * ) had no time to end.
That time the instrumental style “Brazilian
Chorinho” become the great inspiration to the
little girl, surprising every one with her
fantastic progress, playing side by side her
teachers. In so spontaneous atmosphere, she
studied also classic guitar, jazz, bossa-nova,
folk rhythms and afro-Brazilian percussion. Mr.
Pietro doesn’t lose the chance to teach her
daughter Latin Dances, and the girl becomes his
partner, creating together a brilliant Tango
couple. These so rich experiences gives to Ana
Rita basis to explore a great diversity of music
and dance, but she never abandoned her roots.
Professionally, she started as a teenager
singing in night-clubs, cafés, and music
festivals in high school, and also teaching
music.
( * )Traditional Brazilian party like a
jam-session
 Spirituality
in Brazil and holistic tendencies
Brazilian culture has a profound sense of
spirituality and very early Ana Rita Simonka
showed great interest in spiritual subjects. She
has always been in love with reading so. When
she was eight she had already read every single
available juvenile literature book there was in
her school’s library. They just could not
prevent her from reading giving her total access
to all the books they had including a rare issue
of Dante’s “Divine Comedy”, which would change
her interests in mystic literature and
philosophy forever. The next step would be a
huge interest in Eastern Art that was getting
bigger and bigger. The holistic trends of Ana
Rita Simonka have been tested in College where
she took Biology. She loved Science History
classes and Anthropology: it was a great
opportunity for her to be in contact with the
new holistic paradigm. At the same time, she got
through many spiritual groups, paths and New Age
practices, like Arabian Music and Belly Dance,
and introduced Yoga and Sufism in her life.
 Inner
Inner search, Art and Meditation
Ana Rita Simonka has been frequently visiting Eastern Countries and institutes of Eastern Art en Europe, but she believes that the best place which reflects her ideas in spiritual art is the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India. There, music is played for centuries non-stop as a meditation ritual. Ana Rita Simonka says that it is possible to find something in common between spiritual music from India and certain Brazilian traditions the closer example can be seen in the hymns of Holy Daime from the Amazon Forest. In recognition of her spiritual tendencies and wisdom, there are now so many new Brazilian world music groups saying that she is the best influence for them.
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