In the early 1500s many Portuguese people moved to Brazil and set up sugar plantations. The Portuguese needed workers for their plantations, so they brought captives from West Africa to work as slaves. It is widely believed that the origins of the samba are the traditional tribal dances and music brought to Brazil by the African slaves. Dancing was a way for the slaves to forget the miseries of their everyday lives for a while.
In the 1920s Rio de Janero in Brazil was a popular place for tourists to visit. Many tourists learned the samba and then took the dance back to Europe and the USA. By the 1930s the samba was very popular, especially in the USA. At this time the various different forms of samba were standardised into an internationally recognised dance.
Samba music makes everybody want to move their hips. The Samba is now popular all over the world, but it is ,still, most famous for being the music and dance of the spectacular carnivals held in Rio de Janeiro. This party dance, even has been formalized for competitions and under strict rules, retains its unrestrained nature.
The samba has some travelling steps and some steps that are danced almost on the spot, however, the fluidity of the hips is always important in order to give rhythm to the legs. The dance is quick and light, and its character comes from the rhythmic bounce action of the feet and knees as you dance the steps. The combination of the bounce action and steps, as well as arm movements and hip action, makes the samba a tricky dance to learn.
Learn more about the other dance styles? Check here.
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