RAFAEL PICCOLOTTO DE LIMA
FORRÓ NEW YORK FOUNDER, EDUCATIONAL DIRECTOR, AND PRODUCER
Rafael Piccolotto de Lima is the Founder, Educational Director, and Producer of Forró New York in New York City. He teaches forró classes within the project and develops its educational programs, including online courses, with a strong focus on musicality and creativity.
His approach to teaching is informed by his background as a composer and music director, bringing a musical perspective to rhythm, phrasing, and movement in dance.
COMPOSER, ARRANGER & MUSIC DIRECTOR
Rafael Piccolotto de Lima is a composer, arranger, and music director from Campinas, Brazil, working internationally across contemporary music, classical (concert music), and jazz. He is a Latin Grammy-nominated composer and holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree, with works performed by ensembles and artists across the Americas and Europe.
His artistic work is centered on music, where he develops projects as a composer, arranger, and conductor, exploring connections between Brazilian music, jazz, and contemporary classical traditions.
FORRÓ DANCER & EDUCATOR
Alongside his main work in music, Rafael is also a forró dancer and educator based in New York City.
His engagement with forró is informed directly by his background as a musician, shaping a teaching approach that treats dance as a form of musical understanding rather than a separate discipline.
EDUCATIONAL CAREER & INTERNATIONAL WORK
Rafael began his educational work in forró in 2017 in New York City, where he started developing structured teaching activities within the local community.
Since then, he has been actively involved in the international forró scene as an educator, teaching workshops, intensive courses, and participating in festivals across North America, Europe, and other regions.
In North America, his work includes participation in major events such as Forró Fest USA in Boston, Montreal Forró Festival, as well as workshops and intensive weekend programs in cities including New York City, Philadelphia, Toronto, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, and Washington D.C.
Internationally, he has been a guest instructor at festivals and events such as Baião Vai in Lisbon, one of the most established forró festivals outside Brazil, as well as educational workshops in Paris, Barcelona, and a special event in The Hague dedicated to the legacy of Luiz Gonzaga.
Across these experiences, Rafael has developed an ongoing educational practice that connects different forró communities, contributing to workshops, exchanges, and learning environments in multiple cultural contexts.
Over nearly a decade of activity, his work has become part of a broader international network of forró education, with continuous engagement in festivals, workshops, and collaborative teaching projects.
EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY
His work in forró is part of a broader artistic practice that connects music and movement. In his teaching, musicality and creativity are treated as a structural foundation for dance learning, rather than an accessory element.
MUSICALITY IN DANCE PRACTICE
In his teaching, musicality is the central framework. His classes explore how musical form, melody, and rhythm shape movement, helping dancers understand dance from a musical perspective rather than a purely physical one.
Within the international dance community, he is often sought after for this approach to musicality, with classes that address topics such as structure, phrasing, and real-time interpretation of music in dance.
FORRÓ NEW YORK EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS
In New York City, Rafael leads Forró New York’s educational programs, teaching weekly classes and developing structured learning paths for dancers of all levels.
He is the creator of the project’s forró online learning program, offering courses in English for an international community of students.
MUSICALITY COURSE
One of the most popular programs on the Forró New York website is his musicality course, which connects basic music theory with its direct application to dance practice.
The course is designed to help dancers understand rhythm, structure, and melody as practical tools for movement and improvisation.
WORKSHOPS & COLLABORATIONS WITH MUSICIANS
He has led workshops focused on musical understanding in dance, including collaborations with musicians such as Zeu Azevedo (accordionist based in Europe) and Cléber Almeida (percussionist, drummer, singer, and key figure in contemporary forró).
These sessions create direct interaction between musicians and dancers, highlighting how musical decisions shape movement in real time.
EDUCATIONAL COLLABORATIONS
Throughout his work as a dance educator, Rafael has collaborated with several important figures in the forró community in different contexts, including workshops, tours, and educational projects.
These collaborations include tours across the United States with Milena Morais and Camila Alves, workshop projects with Alice Rodrigues, and multiple artistic and educational exchanges during different editions of the Forró New York Weekend, a festival founded and developed by Rafael in 2019.
These experiences contribute to an ongoing dialogue between different teaching approaches within the forró scene, informing his own educational methodology.
WRITING & EDUCATIONAL REFLECTION
Since the early stages of Forró New York, Rafael has maintained an active blog, publishing articles, reflections, and educational content related to forró, including dance, music, and community practices.
The blog has accumulated thousands of views over time and serves as an extension of his teaching practice, offering more in-depth perspectives on a range of topics relevant to the forró community, particularly in relation to musicality, learning processes, and social dance practice.
FORRÓ SEM PALAVRAS
Rafael also leads a musical project called Forró sem Palavras, developed within the forró context as a space for exploring the intersection between Brazilian music, jazz, and contemporary classical music.
The project features reinterpretations of traditional forró repertoire alongside original compositions, arranged for chamber-jazz instrumentation including strings, winds, and a Brazilian rhythm section.
It has expanded into different formats over time, including symphonic performances and collaborations with guest soloists from the Brazilian instrumental music scene.
ORCHESTRAL & ARRANGEMENT WORK
As a composer and arranger, Rafael has worked on major orchestral and large ensemble projects, including a forró-focused concert with the Brasil Jazz Sinfônica at Sala São Paulo, broadcast nationally by TV Cultura.
For this project, he created arrangements for artists such as Mestrinho, Chico César, and Mariana Aydar, all of whom are widely recognized figures in contemporary Brazilian music and in the current forró scene.
FORRÓ ONLINE PRESENCE & EDUCATIONAL PLATFORMS
Rafael is the creator of one of the most established forró platforms online, with a widely recognized YouTube channel featuring content in both English and Portuguese, focused on forró dance practice, education, and community documentation.
The channel features a wide range of content, including dance demonstrations from workshops and festivals, often in collaboration with other instructors, educational videos for dancers at different levels, discussions on dance etiquette, and conversations with artists and members of the forró community.
While the content includes educational material and reflections on aspects of musicality, creativity, and practice, the channel is primarily driven by dance performance content and real-world social dance experiences.
EXTERNAL WORK
For more about his work as a composer, arranger and conductor, visit:
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Website: www.rafaelpl.com
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YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/rafaelpdelima
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Instagram: www.instagram.com/rafaelpiccolottodelima/