What Dance Videos Reveal About Forró
- Rafael Piccolotto de Lima
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
Some of the most viewed content we have ever posted through Forró New York has not been tutorials, essays, or educational material.
It has been dance videos.
Over the years, videos recorded during workshops, festivals, social dances, and live music nights accumulated millions of views across YouTube, Instagram, and other platforms. And honestly, I understand why.
Dance is visual by nature.
Before people understand the structure of the dance itself, they usually respond first to movement, atmosphere, interaction, and the feeling that something alive is unfolding between two people in real time.
For many people, fascination with forró begins simply by watching other people dance - at a party, at a festival, or today very often through videos online.
This playlist brings together some of the dance demonstrations and social dancing moments that became part of the history of the Forró New York channel over the years.
Many of these videos were never originally planned as “content.” They happened after workshops, during festivals, or in moments where people simply decided to dance.
Over time, workshop demonstrations themselves also became part of the culture surrounding forró. They are no longer only explanations of class material. They often become spaces where dancers experiment, play, improvise, celebrate, and leave behind little memories connected to specific places, festivals, and communities.
And maybe that is part of what makes some of these videos memorable.
The Stories Behind These Dance Videos
With this article, I wanted to bring a little more life and context to some of those videos that ended up being watched by so many people on our YouTube channel.
I chose these dances not necessarily because they are the “best” or the most viewed, but because together they reveal something about the diversity of the dance, the moments where it happens, and the ecosystem of people, workshops, festivals, friendships, and collaborations surrounding forró in New York and beyond.
Dance Videos as Shared Memories
The first video below was recorded in Campinas, my hometown in Brazil, during a musicality workshop in 2025.
The workshop explored how different ways of stepping, shifting weight, and reorganizing rhythmic phrases can completely reshape the feeling of the dance. It was less about memorizing movements and more about manipulating time and musical intention through the body.
Another dance that became very special to me was recorded at FUA Dance School in São Paulo with Mara Figueiredo.
I had originally gone there simply to visit the school, watch classes, and record material for a small vlog. We had never danced together before and there was no plan to film a demo.
At some point after the class ended, I casually asked her:
“Can we dance one?”
And immediately after:
“I’m filming a little vlog for the channel… can I record this too?”
That was it.
The video that exists today was simply our first real dance together.
What I still love about it is precisely that feeling of two people gradually discovering each other’s timing, energy, humor, and movement language in real time.
To this day, it remains one of my favorite videos on the channel.
The next video was recorded after a beginner workshop in Philadelphia with Alice Rodrigues during her first days visiting the US from Brazil for a series of activities connected to Forró New York Weekend.
And this video carries a very special memory for me for another reason:
It was also the first real dance we ever had together.
Before that moment, we only knew each other through videos online, mutual recommendations, and conversations about eventually collaborating.
After the class ended, many students had already left, but a smaller group stayed in the room dancing and talking with us. At some point, one of the students asked if we could dance one song together so they could observe how the movements and ideas taught during the workshop actually appeared inside social dancing itself.
Someone filmed that moment almost casually, and the result eventually became this video on the channel.
The workshop itself focused on very basic movements and foundational forró concepts for beginners. So instead of trying to create something complex during the demo, we simply danced using the exact same ideas explored during class.
What emerged was a dance built almost entirely from simple vocabulary, but filled with subtle listening, softness, and creativity from both dancers.
For me, that video captures something very human about the beginning of a dance conversation between two people.
The workshop happened on Halloween, which also explains why I am dressed as Peter Pan while Alice is wearing Minnie Mouse ears.
This video is also a good example of a more modern and fluid interpretation of forró universitário, the style that most strongly shaped my own dance development.
Many of the movement dynamics, transitions, rhythmic playfulness, and relational qualities that appear throughout this dance come directly from that tradition, although interpreted through a more contemporary and personal lens developed over years of dancing, teaching, and interacting with dancers from different communities.
Improvisation and Musical Conversation
One of the most unique workshops I ever taught happened together with accordionist Zeu Azevedo and German forró teacher Hannah during Forró New York Weekend.
Unlike many musicality workshops that rely on prerecorded music or simplified percussion exercises, this class was built entirely around live accordion.
That changed the entire dynamic of the workshop.
Having a high-level accordionist interacting with the dancers in real time opened completely different possibilities for discussing phrasing, melody, tension, silence, syncopation, and rhythmic interpretation inside the dance.
The workshop became so special that I later transformed the entire recorded material into bonus educational content for the Forró New York online programs.
At the end of the class, I turned to Zeu and jokingly said:
“Please challenge us.”
Hannah immediately looked at me worried and started laughing, not knowing what would happen next.
The dance that followed became one of my favorite demonstrations on the channel because almost everything happening there was being negotiated live through reactions to the accordion.
At moments, the interaction almost resembled improvisational theater. Certain gestures, pauses, playful reactions, and movement ideas emerged spontaneously from the dialogue that was unfolding between the music and the dance itself, including elements that were not traditional forró vocabulary at all, but emerged naturally through improvisation and reaction.
Nothing had been planned.
Different Styles and Personalities Inside Forró
This next demonstration features Victor Maia and Pamela Barron during the Fall 2023 edition of Forró New York Weekend.
Victor is one of those dancers who seems to carry an enormous movement vocabulary inside his body. Watching him dance often feels like observing someone continuously reorganize possibilities in real time.
There are movements, transitions, and ideas appearing throughout the dance that you rarely see explored that way in most social dance environments.
At the same time, what makes the interaction particularly interesting is Pamela’s adaptability and responsiveness throughout the dance. Her ability to absorb, reorganize, and respond fluidly to the constant changes happening inside the interaction is remarkable to watch.
One of the most watched videos ever posted on the Forró New York channel was recorded before the pandemic with Bento Sales and Milena Morais.
Bento became widely recognized for his connection to roots forró aesthetics from Espírito Santo, while Milena brought an incredible sensitivity and fluidity into the interaction.
Something about the atmosphere of that dance resonated very strongly online and eventually transformed it into one of the biggest videos in the history of the channel.
This final video features Juruna and Raisa during one of the early post-pandemic editions of Forró New York Weekend.
Juruna is one of the most emblematic figures connected to the Itaúnas roots style tradition, known for its grounded groove, rhythmic bounce, leg interactions, and very characteristic movement quality.
For people discovering forró for the first time, videos like this help reveal how broad the dance can become while still remaining deeply connected to the same musical roots.
And interestingly, although the previous video with Bento Sales and Milena Morais and this dance with Marcio "Juruna" and Raisa Abdeen are both often associated with roots forró aesthetics, they represent very different interpretations inside that universe.
One leans toward fluidity and grounded connection, while the other carries much stronger influences from the rhythmic bounce, leg interactions, and movement vocabulary associated with the Itaúnas roots tradition.
If you are curious about how these different substyles developed and coexist inside contemporary forró culture, this article explores those differences in more depth:
A Few Stories Behind the Playlist
These were just a few of the stories behind some of the videos inside this playlist.
If you have not explored the full playlist yet, I invite you to spend some time with the other videos there.
If you would like to continue exploring the world of forró, these articles may also be interesting:
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rafael Piccolotto de Lima is the Founder and Educational Director of Forró New York, as well as a Latin Grammy-nominated composer, arranger, and music director.
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