Xote and Baião

Xote

xote: a basic style, danced close together in a left-left-right-right movement, and has no spinning or variations;

forró-love: similar to xote, but with a strong influence from zouk;

universitário: the most popular style outside Nordeste, much like the xote, but with the partners moving forward and backward, much like traditional Bolero. It contains many variations of movements;

miudinho: the man dances with his left side slightly tilted, his left hand on the woman's waist and her both her hands around his neck. Danced in the same place (mobility can be gained through spinning), has a lot of hip movements;

puladinho/manquinho: is danced with the man's right leg still and his left leg marking the beats on the ground, while the woman with her left leg still and her right leg moving (the partners can exchange the leg positions, although it's not common);

merenguinho: the partners move along the sides, with movements similar to Merengue dance;

cavalguinho: much like the puladinho, but with man and woman marking both their legs on the ground in alternate tempos, as if riding a horse.

Xote originally has its roots in the schottische dance.

Baião

baião/pé-de-serra: basically a style of xote, but with the partners tilting to the sides and moving their legs less to follow the faster rhythm;

cacau: comes from Paraíba, in which the partners dance slightly away from each other in very fast leg movements;

amassa-cacau: a variation of cacau from Ceará, it's danced less close and demands a lot of hip movements, with the legs mimicking a person squeezing cacao

valsado: danced close together, consists of moving along the sides, crossing the legs in front of each other;

valsadão: same as valsado, but danced slightly away from each other. It is, together with universitário, the richest style in terms of movements and variations;

forrófieira: a newer style, mixes the traditional forró with steps and influence from Samba de Gafieira, and it has become quite popular in Rio de Janeiro and some parts of Nordeste.

Arrasta-pé

arrasta-pé: can only be danced to its own style, much like a very fast xote, but alternatly marking the beats on the ground with both legs.

Miudinho and puladinho can also be danced to baião music and even to arrasta-pé, but in the latter the leg work is so intense that it's impracticable. Some people also like to include brega/calypso in the forró category, because this dance has suffered much influence of forró throughout the decades, but it's danced to its own rhythm (not to be mistaken with Calypso music).

[edit]Steps

Forro dancing styles are informally often grouped into two main "families", simply for practical reasons: The older Nordestino (North-eastern) type of Forro and the Universitário (University) Forro that developed later in the South.

Nordestino forro is danced with the couple much closer together, with their legs often inter-twined and a characteristic sideways shuffle movement. Because of the intimacy, there are not as many step variations in this style.

Universitário forro, with its origins in the big southern cities of Brazil, is the more popular style outside of the north-east. Its basic step is forward-backwards - slightly similar to traditional Bolero or Salsa. With more space between the pair, many more moves, steps and turns are possible than in Nordestino styles. The more common steps include:

Dobradiça - the couple opens to the side;

Caminhada - simple step of the couple to the front or the back;

Comemoração - balancing step, with the man's leg between the ladies';

Giros - a variety of turns, both simple and ones involving both dancers;

Oito - a movement of both dancers around eachother, side by side.

Universitário forro supposedly evolved from (and is still very similar to) the pé-de-serra/baião styles, while Nordestino is used to refer to the styles more like the original xote.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 

Brazilian "Forro"

Forró is a kind of Northeastern Brazilian dance that developed from European styles of folk music such as "Chula" and "Xotis" (term that originated the derivate "Xote"), as well as a word used to denote the different genres of music which accompanies the dance. Both are much in evidence during the annual Festa Junina (June Festival), a part of Brazilian traditional culture which celebrates some Catholic saints. The most celebrated day of the festival is known as São João.

The most accepted theory puts forró as a derivative of forrobodó, meaning "great party" or "commotion". This is the view held by Brazilian folklorist Câmara Cascudo, who studied the Brazilian Northeast through most of his life. Forrobodó is believed to come from the word forbodó (itself a corruption of fauxbourdon), which was used in the Portuguese court to define a dull party.

Another theory often heard popularly in Brazil is that the word forró is a derivative of the English expression "for all" and that it originated in the early 1900s. English engineers on the Great Western Railway of Brazil near Recife would throw balls on weekends and classify them as either only for railroad personnel or for the general populace ("for all"). This belief was somewhat reinforced by a similar practice by USAF personnel stationed at the Natal Air Force Base during World War II, but it is not possible because before the USAF went to Natal, the name "Forró" was already in use.

There is a third theory that it also comes from the number of the engine that the English engineers used as they roamed the tracks of the railroad supervising the construction, "40", " Four-oh" that was corrupted by the Brazilians into "Forró".

In a quick note, "forró" in the same written way (with the accented o) in the Hungarian language means "burning hot" and in the argo meaning "funky" or "cool". In the 1940's, there were thousands of Hungarian emigrants arriving to South-America.

Forró is the most popular genre in Brazil's Northeast. It is the name of the dance. Different genres of music can be used to dance the forró. Traditionally, all of these music genres uses only three instruments (accordion, zabumba and a metal triangle). The dance also become very different as you cross the borders of the Northeast into the Southeast. As part of the popular culture it is in constant change. The dance known as college forró is the most common style between the middle-class students of colleges and universities in the Southeast, having influences of other dances like salsa and samba-rock. The traditional music used to dance the forró was brought to the Southeast from the Northeast by Luiz Gonzaga, who transformed the baião (a word originated from baiano and assigned a warm-up for artists to search for inspiration before playing) into a more sophisticated rhythm. In later years, forró achieved popularity throughout Brazil, in the form of a slower genre known as xote, that has been influenced by pop-rock music to become more acceptable by Brazilian youth of Southeast, South and Center-West.

[edit]Themes

Forró lyrics are usually about love and romance, passion, jealousy, or reminiscing about an ex-lover. They often are about Northeastern themes and the longing or homesickness (saudade) that was often experienced during migrations in search of work. An example of this are the lyrics of a folkloric, anonymous song, very popular in the Northeast and made famous across the country by Luiz Gonzaga, "Asa Branca" (the literal translation is White Wing; there is a recent American version played by Forro in the Dark featuring David Byrne) in which the singer says he will return home when the rains fall again on the dry, barren land of Northeast. They will know he is coming when they see a certain white winged bird of the savannah (sertão) that only arrives when it rains.

[edit]Artists

Luiz Gonzaga and Jackson do Pandeiro are two of the most traditional forró composers. Major forro musicians include Elba Ramalho, Geraldo Azevedo, Accioly Neto, Trio Nordestino, Dominguinhos, Eliane, Marinês, Falamansa, Trio Virgulino, Sivuca, Pertúcio Amorim, Santanna, Rastapé, Geraldinho Lins, João do Vale, Flávio José, Trio Forrozão, Jacinto Silva, Arlindo dos Oito Baixos, Santana, Vicente Nery, Jorge de Altinho, Arleno Farias, Nando Cordel, Aldemário Coelho, Delmiro Barros, and others like Nelio Guerson & Carlos Guerson

Styles of Forró

There are three rhythms of forró, xote (a slower-paced rhythm), baião (the original forró) and arrasta-pé (the fastest of the three), and amongst these, many styles of dancing, which varies from region to region, and may be known by different names according to the location. Forró is danced in pairs, usually very close together, with the man's left hand holding the woman's right hand as in the Waltz, his right arm around her back and her left arm around his neck; Other styles may require to stay partially away, or in a considerable distance, only holding their hands up the shoulders. Influences from salsa and other Caribbean dances has given mobility to forró, with the woman - and occasionally the man - being spun in various ways, although it's not mandatory to spin at all, and more complex movements may prove impossible to be executed in the usually crowded dancing area of forrós. Follows below a list of the most popular styles of forró in Brazil:

Brazil!

 BrazilFest is on this weekend in Vancouver, and I thought, it is a great time to talk about Dances of Brazil. Of course, everyone knows and associates Brazil with Samba, and the Carneval. But Brazil has so much more than Samba to boast about. The following article adopted from Kwintesential is a good start to find out about Brazilian dance.

Although some would argue that Capoeira is a form of dance as well, it is not included in this post, but you can learn more about this Brazilian dance/sport/art of self defense by reading The Hidden History of Capoeira: A Collision of Cultures in the Brazilian Battle Dance.

 After all that reading,   let's go to the festival on August 21st to witness and personally experience what we have learned!

Brazil's mixed and multicultural past has come together to create some of the finest music and dance on the planet. With influences from three continents there are perhaps three main genres that one should learn about before going to Brazil.

Samba: The samba is perhaps the most popular of music in Brazil and also very well known overseas. The music and accompanying dance originated from black slaves living in Rio de Janeiro. It is said that it was first performed at the Rio carnival in 1917. Due to its roots lying in slavery, the music naturally has many African influences. This is most noticeable in the unique rhythm which is linked to the Angolan tam-tam. This gave samba both its characteristic music and dance steps. By the 1930s, and due to the impact of radio, samba was huge. This decade saw what was to become the "Golden Age of Samba". One of the most famous musicians of this time was Carmen Miranda, who starred in many Hollywood musicals. She was also well known for her costumes that used fruit - an image that still pervades to this day. During the 1950s and 60s samba's popularity as Brazil's number one music and dance diminished due to the change in tastes.

Bossa Nova: The bossa nova entered Brazil's music and dance scene in the 1950s. At the time it was seen as fresh, modern and challenging music and took not only Brazil but the world by storm. It appeared at a time of change and was very much associated with the university movements. Bossa nova brought with it a new way of singing and playing music; one that was less operatic and more natural, quieter and relaxed. Leading figures included Joao Gilberto, Baden Powell, Nara Leao and Elis Regina.

Tropicalismo: Just as the bossa nova followed the samba, the new sound called tropicalismo burst onto the music and dance scene of Brazil in the late 1960s. The core message of the genre was that all styles were valid. As a result figures such as Gilberto Gil, Rita Lee and Gal Costa incorporated various styles and traditions in their music. This resulted in some very innovative sounds as instruments previously unheard of together were blended to create a whole new sound.

For more information on the music and dance of Brazil visit All Brazilian Music.