Forró

Forró is a popular dance in Northeastern Brazil, as well as a type of music which accompanies the dance.

There are three explanations about the history of the word forró.

The first theory is that it is derived from the English expression "for all" in the early 1900s. While building the Great Western Railroad, the English engineers were throwing balls on weekends for railroad personnel or for everybody ("for all"). Most Brazilians will tell you this story.

The second theory states that the word is derived from forrobodó, which means "great party". The Brazilian folklorist Câmara Cascudo, who studied the Brazilian Northeast came up with this theory. Forrobodó is believed to come from the word forbodó, which was used in the portuguese court to define a dull party.

The third theory tells us that the word is derived from the number of the engine that the English engineers used, "40" or " Four-oh" that was corrupted by the Brazilians into "Forró".

Forró lyrics are usually about love and romance, passion, jealousy, or reminiscing about an ex-lover. They often are about Northeastern themes and the longing or homesickness that was often experienced during migrations in search of work.

There are three genres of forró, xote (a slower genre), baião (original forró) and arrasta-pé (the fastest of the three), and amongst these, many styles of dancing, which varies from region to region, and may be known by different names according to the location.

Forró is danced in couples, usually very close together, with the man's left hand holding the woman's right hand, his right arm around her back and her left arm around his neck; in this style, the man's right leg stays in between the woman's legs, following the African tradition of a close pelvis.

Other styles may require to stay partially away, or in a considerable distance, only holding their hands up the shoulders. Influences from salsa and other Caribbean dances has given mobility to forró, with the woman - and occasionally the man - being spun in various ways, although it's not mandatory to spin at all, and more complex movements may prove impossible to be executed in the usually crowded dancing area of forrós.