Batalà is New York City’s only all-women Samba band, marching band, and drumline. Samba-reggae was born out of the Brazilian Black pride movement that took place in the city of Salvador de Bahia in the late 60s to early 70s, and it still carries tones of Afro-Brazilian identity and pride today. Bahia’s population has a large proportion of Black Brazilians who are of African descent. Afro-Brazilians played a major role in the early development of samba, which first took form in a Bahian style of dance and music called “samba de roda”, probably in the late 19th century.