Guide · Brazilian culture

Brazil does not have un traditional dance: it has a long list, and almost none of those dances were born in the same place or for the same reason. Samba is the one known outside the country, but forró fills more dance halls, frevo is older than it looks, and maracatú resembles neither.

This guide goes through the traditional dances of Brazil one by one: where each comes from, how it is danced, and how it differs from its neighbour. If you arrived looking for dances of Brazil or Brazilian dances for a class, a trip or out of curiosity, start with the map and scroll to the one that calls you.

The rule that orders almost everything: the further north-east you go, the more the percussion weighs and the less the couple matters. In Rio you dance alone or in pairs; in Recife you dance in the street, in a block.

1 · The best known

Samba is the Brazilian dance the world recognises, and it is in fact an entire family. It formed from the meeting of Afro-Brazilian traditions brought from Bahia and the neighbourhoods of Rio de Janeiro at the start of the twentieth century. From there it opened into forms that today barely resemble one another: one danced alone, one as a couple, one in a circle.

Rio de Janeiro · danced alone

This is the samba of Carnival, the one the passistas dance on the Sambódromo avenue. Danced alone and almost on the spot, weight on the front of the foot, three supports per beat. Quick to watch and slow to refine, because the work is in the precision of the weight change, not the size of the movement.

What is samba: origin, rhythm and types →

The complete guide to the samba no pé basic step →

Rio de Janeiro · danced as a couple

Rio’s ballroom samba, born in the gafieiras — the popular dance halls of Rio. Danced in hold, with long travelling steps, turns and figures improvised as you go. It is related to maxixe and keeps, visually, something of tango in the posture and of swing in the footwork.

Recôncavo Baiano · in a circle

The oldest of the three and the closest to the African root. Danced in a circle: the group sings and plays, and the dancers step into the centre one at a time. UNESCO recognised it as intangible cultural heritage of humanity. It is the direct ancestor of Rio’s samba.

2 · The most danced

The North-East · danced as a couple

If samba is the dance Brazil shows, forró is the one Brazil dances. It is a couple dance in hold, with a simple step and lateral travel, that holds up all night without tiring. Classic forró is played on three instruments: accordion, zabumba and triangle.

It is not one rhythm but several. The xote is the slowest and the easiest to start with. The baião is more marked and drier. The arrasta-pé is the fastest, the one of the June festivals. And the so-called forró universitário is the modern version, with more turns and more figures.

It is by far the most accessible Brazilian dance for someone who has never danced: the basic step is learned in one class.

3 · The hardest

Recife and Olinda, Pernambuco · danced alone

Frevo is the carnival of Pernambuco and probably the most physically demanding Brazilian dance. Danced in the street, alone, at very high speed, knees bent, with a small coloured umbrella in hand — the sombrinha, which began as an object of defence and ended up the symbol of the dance.

Its steps, the passos, come largely from capoeira: there are jumps, scissors and drops to the floor. The name comes from ferver, to boil. UNESCO inscribed it as intangible cultural heritage.

4 · The newest

Salvador de Bahia · danced in a group

Axé is the youngest on this list: it formed in Salvador in the 1980s, around the trios elétricos — stage-trucks that travel through the Bahia carnival. It is not an inherited traditional dance but popular music with choreographies learned by heart and danced as a group, everyone doing the same thing at the same time.

That is why it is the easiest to follow knowing nothing: the choreography is spelled out in the lyrics themselves.

5 · The most ceremonial

Pernambuco · procession and block

Maracatú is neither a ballroom nor a couple dance: it is a procession. It comes from the coronations of the kings of Congo in colonial Brazil and keeps that cortege structure, with fixed characters — the court, the standard-bearer, the dama do paço who carries a ritual doll called a calunga.

There are two families. The maracatú nação, or baque virado, is the Recife one, with an enormous low percussion built on the alfaias. El maracatú rural, or baque solto, is the inland one, faster, with the caboclos de lança and their costumes of thousands of sequins.

6 · Between dance and fight

Bahia · in a circle

Capoeira is Brazil’s answer to an uncomfortable question: how do you train to fight when fighting is forbidden. It was developed by enslaved people of African origin, and its form — circular, musical, disguised as a game — comes from that necessity.

It is practised in a roda: the circle sings and plays, and two people play in the centre. The instrument in charge is the berimbau, and it decides whether the game is slow and low (angola) or fast and high (regional). UNESCO recognised it as intangible cultural heritage of humanity.

7, 8 and 9 · The ones still missing

Carimbó — Pará, in the Amazon. Danced as a couple without contact, with wide skirts the dancers spin, over a drum of the same name. It is one of the dances closest to the Indigenous and African roots of the north.

Lambada — also from Pará, and a direct descendant of carimbó. It was the Brazilian dance that became world-famous in the late 1980s: partners very close, hips marked, and that spin everyone remembers.

Funk carioca — the most contemporary and the most urban. Born in the dances of Rio’s favelas, it has no fixed step: it is a way of moving the hips and the floor over an electronic base. It is not folklore, but today it is as Brazilian as the rest of this list.

It depends who you want to dance with, and how long you are willing to wait before something feels like it works.

For someone who has never danced and wants to start with samba, the order that works is not “learn steps”: it is to hear the pulse first, and only then add the feet. That is what stops the step looking impossible.

And if you want to dance it

I teach Brazilian samba online, from the foundations, to women who have never danced. If anything here made you want to try, that is exactly the starting point.

How to dance samba no pé from scratch  ·  Experiencing the Rio Carnival from the inside  ·  Who teaches