Forró Vienna and HTU invite you to try it out for yourself:

What do Austria and Brazil have in common?
One might wonder about the connection between these two countries so rich and exotic in their own culture.  And yet, the legacy of Maria Leopoldina of Austria who was the first Empress consort of Brazil, is still seen in South America on a daily basis. It was thanks to her that the basic color scheme of the Brazilian flag, green and yellow, were chosen to illustrate the marriage of the Houses of Braganza and Habsburg. In 1817 she sailed to Brazil to marry Dom Pedro of Alcântara, heir to the throne of Portugal. At that time the French armies of Napoleon had conquered Portugal and forced the Royal Family to relocate to their chief colony Brazil. Leopoldina`s interest in natural sciences made Brazil attractive to her and so she took along a number of biologists and other scientists.

But maybe this was not the only thing that she brought from Europe? What was Europe like back then?
Around 1750 the peasants of Bavaria, Tyrol, and Styria began dancing a dance called ?Walzer? A dance for couples. It got popular in Bohemia, Austria, and spread from the countryside to the suburbs of the cities. The German "Lander", a folk dance, is supposed to be the forerunner of the "Walzer", a word owing its origin to the Latin word "volvere" which indicates a rotating motion. Later Napoleon's invading solders spread the waltz everywhere in Europe and Maria Leopoldina brought it with her to Brazil.

But let us come back to Brazil! What made Brazil so exotic?
Brazil's population is of a mixture of Native South American, European, and African people. The locals who are: different tribes of native Indians, the Portuguese who arrived around 1500, the descendants of African Brazilians who arrived as slaves and other European groups which arrived after 1850. This is how Brazil got its unique ethnic background. Amazing cultural variety is very well represented in local cuisine and arts.
Brazilian music developed from the fusion of Native Indian, European and African cultures. The great Afro-Brazilian composer and organist José Mauricio Garcia was the author of sacred pieces with influence of Viennese classicism. The main African influence was the rhythmic diversity, the dances and the instruments which had a large role in the development of folk as well as popular music. With increasing cultural exchanges around the 18th century Italian opera, French opera, Spanish bolero, German waltzes, polkas and American jazz got known in Brazil.

One of the great outcomes of this cultural melting sensation was Forró. A couple dance which
was born in the northeast of Brazil. It was originally characterized by the sound of the accordion, zabumba (a type of drum) and triangle. Nowadays some modern variations of Forró in Brazil also include electronic instruments. That kind of style is called Forró Elektronico. Forró is danced to Brazilian traditional rhythms: the xote, baião, oxaxado, rastape and coco.
Forró dancing styles are often informally grouped into two main "families": the older "Nordestino" (North-eastern)  Forró and the Universitário (University) Forró which developed later in the South. Nordestino Forró is danced by the couple close together with their legs often inter-twined and a characteristic sideways shuffle movement. There are not as many step variations in this style because of the intimacy. One of the basic steps is "2 for 2 - there to here" which originates from polka. Universitário Forró developed in São Paulo in the late 90s. It is the more popular style outside of the north-east. Its basic step is "forward-backwards" is slightly similar to traditional Bolero or Salsa.

There are few theories regarding the origin of the name "Forró". According to a popular one it is the short version of the word "Forróbodó" which means "bash", "dancing in the countryside" and even "confusion". There are other theories which relate to the English colonists describing local parties as "for all". For non-English speaking people that might have sounded like "Forró".
It is difficult to say who is right but in fact, with such great variety of different rhythms and dancing styles - stretching from very smooth and intimate till more complex and sporty: "Forró" IS really the dance for all!

Over the past decade Forró has spread through all the major western cities. As usually the world's folk dances barely leave their town or region, this is truly an odd journey for a simple local dance from the northeast of Brazil. One of the reasons Forró has caught on so strongly outside of Brazil is that the basic steps are very easy to master, so: Anyone can dance it, at any age and in their own way!