SCHEDULE
TEACHERS
Marcos Affonso
Marcos is from Salvador da Bahia and it was in this city full of cultural diversitythat he had his first contact with dance. At 22 he invested in courses in forró, Cuban popular and social dances (in Havana), samba de gafieira and tango. In 2018 he came twice to Europe, where he spent a few months giving regular classes and workshops in festivals, such as Itália Roots.
Milena Morais e Mardio Costa
Milena is 27 years old, and at 16 had already reached the top level of the Pé Descalço school. She has taught in more than 15 countries. Milena believes in dance and forró as a form of expression, liberation, connection, self-knowledge, and healing. At 18 Márdio already had his own space for classes: the forró school Chineleiros. Today, at 28, he has been in 8 countries spreading the energy of forró!
Emilia e Tiago
Tiago and Emilia are dance teachers, living in Cologne, Germany. Their specialty is Brazilian ballroom dances, but they both have experience in solo dancing. They started their partnership in March 2022 and since then have been traveling the world, visiting and helping communities grow and improve their dance paths.Their classes are well structured and fun, always maintaining a balance between content for Leaders and Followers, and the same time to apply practice and theory!
Luiz Henrique
Luiz Henrique began his career in Forró Universitário in 2013, at the age of 20,when he entered Pé Descalço. He evolved quickly and reached the last level of evaluation, the Red Necklace, in September 2014. Soon after his approval, he became a teacher at Pé Descalço Eldorado unit, part of the team of examiners,and a member of the presentation group. After traveling extensively throughout Brazil showing creativity and innovation in dance and sharing knowledge with students, he drew attention worldwide and began to charm forró lovers on the other side of the world, literally. Trio Dona Zefa’s famous phrase, eternalized in the song Vida Boa Danada, fits perfectly to express what forró represents in her life: “se não fosse o forró, o que seria de mim, Deus meu?”
Brenda e Leandro
Brenda has been exploring the various styles of forró. In 2018 she delved deeper into the Roots style and today seeks to implement greater versatility in her dancing, mixing the styles. Leandro’s classes, which are focused on the Roots style, apply the development of musicality and body awareness in the dance.
Gabriel Silva
He started his apprenticeship at the age of 8 and went through several projectsand academies until he became a teacher. He works with Samba de Gafieira at Espaço Baião in Lisbon, and also takes other courses around Europe.
Lucas Dumont & Laura Almeida
He has given workshops in Japan, Germany, France, Portugal, Spain and Russia; and in Brazil in Curitiba, Florianópolis, Juiz de Fora, Niterói, São Paulo, Recife, Goiânia, Brasília, among others. Lucas believes in the diversity of dance, always trying to study to open possibilities, and facilitate communication between dancers and music.
After 6 years living in England, Laura sought out forró to feel closer to home and, like many of us, after trying it, she got hooked! In late 2019 she was invited to join the teaching team at Pé Descalço London. She teaches leading, following, group and individual classes. Her dance background is mainly flamenco (8 years) and currently also twerk.
Sandrinho Dupan
Sandrinho Dupan is a professional musician (percussionist), cultural producer, museum curator in the musical area, writer in the musical area, lecturer on regional northeastern music and a specialist on the work of Jackson do Pandeiro. He is coming to our Festival to give a talk about what Forró is, the rhythms, its origins and many other things!
Valmir e Bruna
Valmir began dancing forró in 2006 at the Pé Descalço forró school. In 2014 he made his first international tour and gave workshops in several countries. Bruna was Valmir’s partner in a workshop at FENFIT (forró festival of Itaúnas) and that’s where she had her first experience as a teacher.
Today they live in Germany, where they develop the forró community, giving regular classes and workshops.
Yse Góes
Dancer, choreographer and Physical Education teacher, she has been dedicated to the art of dance for 21 years. In 2009 she began studying the Roots style of forró. Recently she moved to Porto, Portugal, and it is here that she currently develops this style.
Camila Alves
Camila Alves is a Portuguese Forró teacher living in Lisbon. She started in Forró in 2010 and is a very active teacher since 2012, being known for teaching at numerous festivals and events around the world, developing courses and workshops focused on contemporary topics such as therole of leaders and followers, encouraging students to dance and expressing themselves however they want. Her career is focused on fighting for both men and women to have the same rights to express themselves through dance.
ARTISTS
Trio Macaíba
Trio Macaíba is a world reference in contemporary forró and takes its music to the main houses of the genre in Brazil and Europe, mixing the traditional and the modern, pleasing both masters of tradition such as Dominguinhos and Dió Araújo, and masters of contemporary music such as Hermeto Pascoal and Arismar do Espírito Santo, with whom it has already had the honor of sharing the stage.
DJ Ivan
He started his career as a forró pé de serra DJ in 1997. Besides that, he collects, researches, restores, digitalizes and remaster vinyl recordsforró vinyl records. He has worked as a producer in several venues and since 2002 organizes the Rootstock Festival.
Mariana Aydar Trio
Winner of the 2020 Latin Grammy in the category of Best Roots Music Album inPortuguese Language with “Veia Nordestina” – an album she released in 2019, @marianaaydar has five albums released. Mariana’s songs show the strength and freedom of choice of women, fighting against conservative and patriarchal thoughts.
DJ James Lima
With his own unique sound, James Lima grew up in a family of musicians and began his musical journey at the age of 7. He has been participating in numerous events in Brazilian capitals and Europe. James Lima is also one of the founders of the first Forró Vinyl Festival that took place in Basel in 2020.
Âmy B.
DJ and producer, she is the first female DJ to work only with Brazilian Culture in Europe. Founder of the Carnavalia collective, which promotes Brazilian Culture in Lyon since 2019 and resident DJ at Radio Nova Lyon.
Swingueiro
He has a musical uniqueness that those who listen to it never forget. He grew up in an environment surrounded by Brazilian music and many of his influences were transmitted by his parents. He started in forró when he was only 12 and today he is a musician and Dj. He has performed in several countries as a musician and Dj, in local forró events and festivals. Today he has a project with friends called Forró do Piano.
Madame Baião
Female forró group that has been coordinating Sunday dances in the city of Barcelona since 2016. Composed of Jabu Morales, Mercedes Ayzpurua, Aninha Paschoal and Cecilia Debergh, the group interprets forro classics with inspiration from popular rhythms of Brazil and original and special voice arrangements.
Forró do Piano
It emerged from the meeting of instrumentalists with distinct musical backgrounds linked by a common point: the passion for forró. The gathering of all these talents results in a unique sound, different from the traditional forró pé de serra. Forró do Piano brings a hot dance, super danceable and with a sound that chillsthe soul.
Caboclo
Primitive and singular, Caboclo launches his second record, Original, and presents his side linked to the sertão and June festivals, genuineand popular traditions with their songs, dances, foodsfood, smells and drinks. The songs on this album reaffirm Caboclo as a renovator of the northeastern songbook, with compositions that show the strength of the influence left by the originality of the masters Luiz Gonzaga, Jackson do Pandeiro, Ary Lobo and João do Vale.
