Toronto FORRÓ WEEKEND

Featured instructors:

Camila (Lisbon - Portugal):

Camila was born in Portugal and has always had a great passion for dance. At 14 years old, she began practicing Argentine Tango. This she did for 3 years along with 4 years of salsa. She also exposed herself to African dance styles such as Kizomba and Semba. In 2010, now 17, she felt the need to explore her movement in a new and exciting way, which was when she found forró and fell in love instantly. She began taking classes with Pablo Dias, and became his dance partner 1 year later in 2011, teaching classes at dance festivals all over the world. In 2013, Camila moved to London where she graduated in Business Management with Marketing and also decided to pursue her own solo career as a forró teacher. After three years living in the UK she returned to Lisbon, where she teaches at Espaço Baião and manages the school, as well as teaching Forró Followers courses every year, developing an interesting side of styling and mixed classes and encouraging women and men to take their exploration of forró to new heights! Camila also organises Festival Pé na Terra, Maria Bonita Festival and is a co-organiser of Baião in Lisboa Festival and Forró Douro Festival.

Rafael Piccolotto de Lima (Forró New York):

Rafael is an experienced forró dancer from Campinas (São Paulo, Brazil). He has been dancing forró for 13 years and was part of the Forró Brasil dance group between 2006 and 2007, held at Cooperativa Brasil, one of the most important forró venues in the state of São Paulo (in the 2000's). Being a Latin Grammy nominated composer, conductor and doctor of musical arts, Rafael was also an instructor for special workshops about musicality and creativity in forró dance at Casa do Lago, UNICAMP (State University of Campinas), Brazil.

Rafael is one of the most active forró instructors in North America, teaching weekly in New York City and traveling to give special workshops. He was an instructor at the Forró Fest USA (2017 and 2018), 4th Boston Brazil Dance Festival (2017), NY Forró Fest (2018 and 2019), instructor and creator of the Forrobodó NY Festival (2018), and instructor at the Montreal Forró Fest (2019).