Silke and I will be visiting Rio de Janeiro on our honeymoon in late July and early August. I know there’s quite a few Brazilians who read this, and I’m hoping somebody has suggestions for dance lessons while we’re there. What we’d like is a quick crash course in an authentic Brazilian dance (i.e. not Samba as it’s danced in ballrooms in the US). A little Wikipedia browsing has turned up Samba, Maxixe, Lambada, and Forró as possibilities.
We’d like to set up something like a two hour private lesson with a dance instructor in Rio some evening. We’re not expecting to become experts. We just want to get some exposure to dancing that we can’t get back home. It’s critical that the instructor speaks English, because we’ll never make it through on my few words of Portugese.
If anybody has any suggestions, please leave a comment.
You missed samba de gafieira. If you’re looking for a couple dance from Brasil, it’s the one I’d go for. It’s an outgrowth of Maxixe… I think Maxixe is fading away, at least compared to samba de gafieira. And actually, the latter is slowly gaining popularity as a social dance outside of Brasil, so what’s nice too is that if you live in a reasonably big city, you can probably (with a bit of luck) find classes in samba de gafieira if you want to continue once you come back from your honeymoon.
Search on YouTube, etc. if you want to see examples. You’ll find plenty, in all categories: shows, demonstrations and social dancing.
Enjoy!
Thanks, Christian. I guess I just figured samba de gafieira was the full name of samba as it’s danced in Brazil. I take it there are multiple types of samba, then?
Samba de gafieira definitely looks fun. Almost looks like what would happen if swing dancers tried to do samba. Very grounded, lots of movement, etc. And it has the advantage of being danced to the same sort of music as ballroom samba here in the US, which means we could dance it at the ballroom whenever a samba is played.
You should really look into Carlinhos de Jesus lessons. This is one of the most famous dance schools in rio. They sure have some classes for foreigners. Lambada and Maxixe are styles you rarely find in rio, these are mostly danced in northeast region.
Forró and samba are more likely what you’re looking for. Check the classes list [1] and look for Forró Iniciante and Samba Iniciante. You should try to send an email [2] and ask about the foreigner classes.
[1] http://www.carlinhosdejesus.com.br/casacursos.asp
[2] http://www.carlinhosdejesus.com.br/contatos.asp
These samba lessons from carlinhos de jesus are what you call samba de gafieira. This is more similar to the old samba.
Yes, there are many types of samba. For example, the Brazillian samba you might have seen at carnivals (and what most people think of when you say “samba” provided the image of the dancesport dance doesn’t come to mind) is called “samba no pé”. Wikipedia has a short list here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samba_(dance)
(I think I remember seeing a longer list somewhere else, but I can’t find it.)
For me, samba de gafieira looks a bit like a more relaxed, laid-back cousin of Argentine tango, with happier music. Especially with the moves where the couple’s legs entwine into each other. Actually, I dimly remember reading of a connection between on of the ancestors of samba de gafieira (the maxixe?) and Argentine tango, but this is a bit outside my area of expertise (the Carribean).
Yeah, I can definitely see the tango likeness with some of the footwork. I also remember reading about a connection between maxixe and tango, probably on Wikipedia. The relaxed look is what I meant when I mentioned swing. Not at all stiff like the latin dances you see in the US.
Shaun,
You should visit the Brazil’s northeastern to learn to dance the real forró, I think. Rio de Janeiro is great to learn samba.
Cheers!
Samba de Gafieira should be as traditional as you can get… Samba no Pé is more like a professional and not real that popular besides their own clubs… and not really traditional at all…
Forró (*), Frevo, Quadrilha (in “Festas Juninas”–June’s festivals) are other options…
You should probably go with Quadrilha or Samba de Gafieira… but just do yourself a favor and keep distance of “Funk Carioca”…
(*) (actually, began with ‘Free “For All”‘ dances with north americans, but with the time…)
I recomend you try Forró too. And I would say it is easilly recognized as authentic brasilian dance.
I know about one school in Rio de Janeiro/RJ (parking, air conditioning, security, etc.). So, a nice place.
http://www.estacaodadanca.com.br/
You could ask for more information there (in PT-br better), or maybe the hotel might help you too.