Forró in NYC: Wednesday nights in Manhattan (2018 archive - early scene history)

Wednesday has long held a special place for forró dancers in New York City.

For many years, it was the night of forró at Nublu, a club on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. A weekly late-night gathering with live forró music, unfolding in the middle of the week.

In 2018, Wednesday also became the day of our weekly forró dance classes.

Rafael and Carol teaching during a 2018 forró Wednesday class in Manhattan, part of the early weekly cycle that helped shape the developing forró scene in New York City.

Dancers would gather for class, and many of us would then walk together to Nublu for the party. A simple routine, but one that gradually shaped a sense of continuity in the community, breaking the week and bringing people together.

Over time, the classes became more than a space to learn steps or sequences.

They functioned as an event in themselves. A place to meet people, build familiarity, and dance in a social environment that was both open and structured. Suitable for beginners, intermediate, and advanced dancers alike. Everyone dancing with everyone, regardless of level.

Students practicing together during the same 2018 forró Wednesday class in Manhattan, reflecting the collaborative and mixed-level format that defined the weekly classes at the time.

As this Wednesday rhythm became established, I decided to document one of these nights in a vlog, filmed in February 2018.

Looking back at it now, it works less as current documentation and more as a record of a specific moment in time, when the scene in New York was still developing its weekly patterns in a very direct, physical way. Watch below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmtOP0dzZew

I hope these memories are useful in some way, as a snapshot of that period.

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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.

More about his work can be found here.