The different profiles of students in private forró lessons and how each one learns
- Rafael Piccolotto de Lima
- 2 days ago
- 8 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
Over the years of teaching private forró classes, I began to notice an important difference compared to group classes. In private lessons, there is no single format or fixed objective. They are much less standardized and vary significantly depending on who is learning and how that person arrives to the class.
These are not “fixed types of students,” but recurring ways of using the class: different stages of learning, different motivations for seeking a private lesson, and different challenges and goals.
This is what we will reflect on in this article. You may recognize yourself in some of these situations, or feel inspired to explore new approaches in your forró journey.
1. The student who needs a safe space to begin
This is perhaps one of the most common profiles. These are people who want to start dancing but do not feel comfortable in group classes.
It is not a lack of interest. It is a lack of confidence. The idea of dancing next to strangers, making mistakes in public, or comparing themselves to others still feels like a barrier.
In these cases, the private lesson becomes an entry point. A controlled environment, without social pressure, where the person can begin building the foundations of dance with more ease.
Real case
I have had many students in New York who had never danced before and came to me for private lessons exactly for this reason.
One case that stayed with me was a student after the pandemic. She was going through a period of isolation, with little social interaction, and someone suggested that dance might help. But the idea of group classes still felt too far away. She chose private lessons instead.
At first, everything felt very new: the physical contact, the closeness, the interaction.
One of her main difficulties was connecting with the rhythm. So we started working with listening exercises, coordination, and perception, until one class something shifted. She began to dance with consistency, without losing the beat.
I asked:
“Do you notice that you are no longer falling out of rhythm?”
She replied:
“It is amazing… today I feel like I am truly connected to the music.”
From that point on, the dance changed. And over time, she started attending group classes, parties, and festivals we organize here.
What started as a safe space became an opening.
Another common case involves couples who come to private lessons to prepare for their wedding and dance forró during the ceremony. Here in New York, it is often the case that one partner is Brazilian and the other is foreign, and this becomes also a way of building a cultural bridge between them.
Recently, I worked with a specific case of a couple getting married in Brazil. Both families - the groom’s American parents and the bride’s Brazilian parents - also live here. From this, a small group was formed with the couple, their parents, and a few siblings - a close family circle that decided to prepare together for the big day.
In this case, the private lesson took on a slightly different format from what is usually focused on the individual, but it still kept its core essence: a private, contained space adapted to the expectations and specific level of everyone involved.
It is a good example of people who have never danced before choosing the comfort and privacy of a private lesson as a starting point, to build confidence for an important moment.
2. The intermediate student looking for direction
This is a very common profile. These are people who already dance but feel there is something to adjust, even if they cannot always define exactly what it is. They often want feedback and direction, and in many cases they also arrive with a desire to expand their knowledge and learn more. It is not always about a specific problem, but rather a broader wish to grow, discover new possibilities, and deepen their dancing, with guidance through that process.
Sometimes they arrive with questions like:
“What can I improve?”
“What is missing in my dance?”
Or even:
“Show me what I do not yet know that I do not know.”
Here, the class becomes more diagnostic. I observe, test directions, and begin reorganizing the dance based on what emerges. Sometimes it is difficulty with a specific movement. Other times, habits and patterns need to be undone and rethought. There may also be a lack of musical connection or a desire to expand their movement vocabulary.
A common case
Many people also struggle with real connection. The dance often starts out less flexible, more focused on pre-planned execution, with a desire for “safety” that leads to excessive control - a less connected and less fluid energy.
I remember one specific student in this context. She had danced for many years, but had taken a long break for personal reasons and was now reconnecting with dance in a new moment of her life. When I danced with her during the lesson, she felt somewhat stuck, almost frozen in what seemed like an “ideal” posture - something she had likely learned as the “correct” way to dance. The steps also felt slightly rehearsed. She was responding accurately, she was doing the movements, but the embrace was not truly embracing. The responses to the lead did not fully adapt to what I was proposing. And the embrace, although technically correct, did not shape itself into the dance. It felt static and without life.
In my approach, I often work in a somewhat Socratic way, in dialogue with the student, trying to understand how they think and experience dance. I asked her questions in that direction. She told me she was unsure whether being more active in the dance - having a more engaged embrace - would actually be welcome for her partner, or if it might signal something else beyond dance itself.
We had a very honest conversation about this, and we began to explore different possibilities. How she could be more present and active in the dance. How her embrace could become more responsive and connected.
Through these small shifts, something subtle but very clear happened. Her dance started to reorganize itself from within. What she already knew was still there, but the way it connected began to change. The result was not sudden in an exaggerated way, but unmistakable: the dance opened up, became more fluid, more expressive, and noticeably more alive.
And it is in that moment that the smile appears - the clear sense that something has changed.
3. The student who seeks something specific in a teacher
There is a group of students who arrive with a more directed intention. They are not looking for “private lessons” in a generic sense. They are looking for someone specific. They seek a teacher because of the way that teacher dances, their style and characteristics, or their knowledge and method.
This desire can come from different places and have different focuses: from musicality, creativity, connection, and interpretation of music, to more visual and technical aspects such as style, repertoire, or movement quality.
Real cases
In my case, many people seek me out because of the relationship between music and dance. Because I move between both worlds, this naturally creates curiosity. Yes, I am a DMA - Doctor of Musical Arts, and a Latin Grammy-nominated composer.
I have had dance teachers - professional instructors - come to me precisely for this reason. They wanted to better understand the theory of musical counting, realizing it is quite different from the dance counting they are used to. There was a moment of realization: they understood they were dealing with different logics, and that this explained difficulties that previously felt abstract. This understanding helped them better structure their own classes and teaching methods, especially when addressing musicality with their students.
Another case that was very meaningful to me was a dear student and friend who started with me online during the pandemic period. She took part in workshops and followed the work remotely through the online course for over a year, with online meetings throughout that time.
Later, she came to New York for the festivals I organize here (Forró New York Weekend). After that, she decided to take a private lesson when I was a guest professor and artist at the Montreal Forró Festival.
She has been one of my best students, and an excellent social dancer, someone who contributes a lot to the forró scene here.
At that point, the focus was deepening: working on creativity, exploring partner interaction, and receiving a more direct perspective on her dance.
There are also people who come to me because of my “dance language.” I come from the countryside of São Paulo, with a dance strongly shaped by “forró universitário,” in the style that became popular in the region during its peak in the mid-2000s. A more circular dance, with traveling movement and frequent use of turning cycles, including what is now called the “paulista turn.”
Some students come exactly for this - to understand and incorporate this aesthetic. Here, the class becomes access to a language, a way of entering a specific way of dancing.
4. The student who seeks the experience of dance itself
This profile is different from the previous ones. It is not about starting. Not about correcting. Not about learning something specific. It is about the experience.
These are people who choose the teacher for their dance and want to live that dance alongside them in an exclusive and private way.
Real cases
I have had students who came simply to practice. To dance.
One of them, more reserved, started in group classes. At some point, she decided to take private lessons. She began coming weekly. The class became a space for practice, trust, and direct experience of dance with someone more experienced.
I also receive people who follow my work from a distance, read my blogs, watch videos on YouTube and Instagram, take online courses, and then want to experience it up close, in person.
A memorable case was a student who lived in New Zealand. She was moving to Brazil, passed through New York, and decided to schedule a lesson. She already knew my work, had taken my online musicality course, and came with a single goal: to dance.
She did not ask for anything specific. She wanted to practice and experience, in her body, what she had seen and learned remotely.
There are also people with intense routines who do not want to go through social dynamics at parties, nor deal with uncertainty about finding available or compatible partners, and who also do not identify with group classes. They want to dance, move, and live the experience with someone more experienced.
The private lesson becomes that space: direct, fluid, more stable, and without friction.
Conclusion - Private forró lessons can take many roles
These are not rigid profiles. They are recurring ways of entering the private class experience. And often the same person moves between them over time.
One interesting thing that becomes clear from the inside is the difference in energy:
Beginners arrive more insecure and cautious.
Intermediate students come with more active curiosity, almost a search.
Those seeking something specific arrive focused and engaged, with clear interest in exploration.
Those coming for the experience arrive available, open to living the moment.
The class ultimately adapts to this. And gains meaning from who is there, in that moment, dancing.
If you want to know more about how my private classes work, there is a page on this site dedicated to it. Click here.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rafael Piccolotto de Lima is a musician, composer, and educator, active in the forró scene in New York as a teacher, producer, and founder of Forró New York.
He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree and was nominated for a Latin Grammy Award for Best Classical Composition in 2013, with an international career in composition, arranging, and musical direction alongside orchestras and artists from different backgrounds.
At Forró New York, he develops teaching activities, creates educational repertoire, and produces events and festivals, connecting dance practice, musicality, and community building.comunidade.
Website: www.rafaelpl.com
YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/rafaelpdelima
Instagram: www.instagram.com/rafaelpiccolottodelima/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/RafaelPiccolottodeLima/
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