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LEARN FORRÓ ONLINE
STRUCTURED ONLINE FORRÓ TRAINING FOR SOCIAL DANCERS
Develop rhythm, musicality, and confidence through guided practice you can follow at home and bring to the dance floor.
Start with beginner foundations, deepen your musical understanding, or explore the complete Forró New York online library.
Learn at your own pace, from anywhere. For beginners and experienced dancers.
Go beyond memorizing steps. Develop the musicality, technique, creativity, and connection that make your forró truly yours.
LEARN FORRÓ ONLINE FROM ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD
Based in New York City, Forró New York offers online courses for dancers worldwide.
Study at your own pace and bring what you practice into your local classes, workshops, and social dancing.
The map shows locations of online visitors and participants over the years.
WHY ONLINE LEARNING WORKS FOR SOCIAL DANCERS
Many of the skills that support social dancing can be developed independently. Guided practice helps you strengthen rhythm and timing, improve coordination and body awareness, and move with greater fluency.
Online lessons let you revisit explanations, repeat exercises, and observe your own movement at your own pace. Musical listening and creative exploration also help you develop choices you can use when improvising on the dance floor.
Partner dancing brings its own learning through connection and interaction. The courses strengthen your individual foundations so you can bring them into classes, workshops, festivals, and social dancing.
ABOUT THE ONLINE FORRÓ LEARNING PROGRAM
Created by Rafael Piccolotto de Lima, the Forró New York online program brings a musician’s perspective to learning dance. Musicality is central to the approach: students explore how rhythm and musical structure shape movement and interaction on the dance floor.
The courses draw on years of teaching in New York City and internationally. Guided practice is complemented by recordings from classes, workshops, and festivals, connecting detailed explanations with real social dance situations.
Students learn both movement vocabulary and the principles behind it, developing tools for more confident, creative, and responsive dancing.
LEARN AT YOUR OWN PACE, FROM ANYWHERE
Learn on your own schedule, with structured courses and guided practice that give your learning a clear direction.
The online format allows you to:
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Follow a progressive course instead of piecing together scattered tutorials.
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Revisit explanations and repeat exercises at your own pace.
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Develop coordination, body awareness, rhythm, and musicality through consistent practice.
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Explore workshops and different teaching approaches with international guest instructors.
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Bring what you practice into classes, festivals, and social dancing.
Study from anywhere, with access to your materials throughout your active course or membership period.
A PREVIEW OF THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE
Watch a preview of the classes, with detailed explanations, movement breakdowns, and guided practice connecting technique with music.
STRUCTURED LEARNING WITH REAL DANCE CONTEXT
The core of this ecosystem is structured online training focused on rhythm, movement understanding, musicality, body awareness, coordination, and social dance development.
Alongside the guided practice systems, the program also includes material recorded in real dance environments, such as:
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workshops and classes recorded in New York City
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international festival sessions
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social dance and partner interaction contexts
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classes with guest instructors from different backgrounds and styles
These materials help dancers understand how the concepts explored individually translate into real social dancing situations, partner interaction, improvisation, and musical communication.
The goal is not isolated technical training, but developing tools that become usable and meaningful on the dance floor.
FROM FOUNDATIONS TO MOVEMENT FLUENCY
This video presents part of the movement vocabulary and progression explored throughout the learning ecosystem, from beginner foundations to more developed coordination, rhythm, transitions, and movement combinations.
Rather than teaching isolated figures, the goal is to help dancers understand how movement develops progressively through rhythm, body organization, repetition, musicality, and practical application.
The material combines solo development, technical foundations, and social dance vocabulary in a way that supports more fluid, musical, and connected dancing over time.
A COMPLETE FORRÓ DEVELOPMENT ECOSYSTEM
All courses below are included in the Full Access Membership. You can also enroll in individual courses if you prefer to focus on a specific area.
FOUNDATIONS
Build rhythm, coordination, body awareness, and movement clarity from the beginning.
Develop the essential vocabulary and movement principles that support social dancing.
MUSICALITY & RHYTHM
Develop timing, listening, syncopation, phrasing, and musical interpretation.
Learn how movement connects directly to what you hear in the music.
BODY DEVELOPMENT & SOLO TRAINING
Improve coordination, conditioning, movement fluency, rhythmic consistency, and movement control through repetition-based practice systems.
(Forró Solo Training + Workout Series)
CREATIVITY & MOVEMENT STRUCTURE
Understand how forró movement is internally organized and develop tools for improvisation, adaptation, and creative dancing.
CONNECTION & SOCIAL DANCE
Develop partner communication, embrace, responsiveness, comfort, and relational awareness in social dancing.
(Connection & Embrace in Forró)
EXPANDED LEARNING & COMMUNITY
Access workshops, guest instructors, festival material, and multiple perspectives from the international forró community.
MEET THE INSTRUCTOR
Rafael Piccolotto de Lima
is the Founder and Educational Director of Forró New York, where he has been teaching forró classes and developing the project’s educational programs since 2017.
He is a Latin Grammy-nominated composer, arranger, music director, and educator whose teaching approach connects rhythm, musical structure, body organization, creativity, and social dance development.
Drawing from both music and dance, his work focuses on helping dancers understand not only movements themselves, but the principles, timing, coordination, and musical relationships behind them.
GUEST INSTRUCTORS
Since 2020, dancers, instructors, and artists from Brazil, Europe, and the international forró scene have been invited to collaborate as part of the Forró New York online educational ecosystem.
Many of these guest instructors had already participated previously in Forró New York classes, workshops, festivals, and special events in New York City before contributing to the online platform.
These collaborations bring different perspectives, teaching approaches, movement styles, and cultural experiences into the program, expanding the learning environment beyond a single methodology or viewpoint.
The content explores a wide range of topics related to forró and social dancing, including musicality, body awareness, styling, movement technique, creativity, partner connection, footwork, social dance dynamics, and both traditional and contemporary approaches to forró.
Alongside the structured core programs, these guest workshops and special classes help students experience the diversity, depth, and evolving nature of the international forró community.
STUDENT EXPERIENCES
Dancers from different countries and backgrounds use the program to develop rhythm, musicality, body awareness, creativity, coordination, and social dance skills through independent practice and long-term training.
“Rafael’s approach to music and rhythm is completely different to what is out there and it has changed the way I dance forever.”
Lívia Silva (New York)
“I’ve learned that with any song, you can make it your own and experiment new things with your body.”
Tuomas Ranta (San Francisco)
“Practicing challenging moves, working on balance, and learning from a diversity of teachers have really helped grow my skills and confidence.”
Carey Dufey (New York)
“It feels like he is teaching us how to perform individual notes and then create new ‘music’ with our bodies and feet.”
Angelica Vargas Prada (San Francisco)
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Can you really learn forró online?
Yes - especially the individual capacities that support social dancing.
Rhythm, timing, coordination, body awareness, movement fluency, musical listening, balance, creativity, and movement understanding can all be developed through guided independent practice.
The goal of the program is not to replace social dancing, but to help dancers build stronger individual tools that later improve their experience in classes, workshops, festivals, and social dance environments.
Do I need a partner to practice?
No.
Most of the system is specifically designed around individual development and solo practice.
Many important aspects of forró can be trained independently, including rhythm, coordination, body organization, musicality, timing, movement quality, transitions, footwork, improvisation, and movement vocabulary.
→ Read more: Do You Need a Partner to Learn Dance? How It Works in Forró
Can you learn dance even if you think you have no rhythm?
Yes.
Rhythm is not something fixed that you either have or do not have. It can be developed progressively through listening, repetition, coordination training, movement awareness, and guided practice.
Many dancers who initially feel disconnected from rhythm improve significantly once they understand how rhythm works in the body and in the music.
→ Read more: Can You Learn How to Dance With No Rhythm? Yes - Here’s How
Is this program beginner friendly?
Yes.
The Beginners Course was created specifically for dancers starting from zero or from a very early stage.
The material introduces rhythm, movement vocabulary, coordination, body awareness, and the fundamental principles behind social dancing through progressive practice.
→ Read more: Is Forró Hard to Learn? Why It’s One of the Most Accessible Partner Dances
→ Read more: What Are the Basic Steps of Forró?
How does online practice improve social dancing?
Online practice helps dancers develop the individual skills that later become usable in social dance environments.
Through repetition, movement analysis, rhythm training, and musical listening, dancers improve coordination, body control, timing, creativity, and movement fluency.
These capacities later transfer into partner interaction, improvisation, musical response, and overall comfort on the dance floor.
Can I study at my own pace?
Yes.
You can revisit the lessons and materials at any time while your course access or membership is active.
Students can repeat exercises, revisit concepts, and progressively deepen their understanding according to their own rhythm and schedule.
What is included in the Full Access Membership?
The Full Access Membership includes access to the complete online educational ecosystem created by Forró New York.
This includes the Beginners Course, Musicality Course, Forró Solo Training, Forró Workout Series, The Language of Forró, Connection & Embrace in Forró, workshop libraries with guest instructors, festival material, and additional educational resources.