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Samba

Private Dance Lessons to learn the Samba in Sydney

Dance Style

International Latin

Description of the Samba

Samba is the national dance of Brazil, celebrated every year during Carnival where hundred of thousands of costumed revelers parade in the streets singing, drumming and dancing.  This style of Samba is not a partner dance unlike Ballroom Samba.

Samba music originated on the Brazilian plantations where the African rhythms of slaves fused with European music.  This new Samba music served as a kind of oral history, relating current events, aging against inequities or simply celebrating the joys of a great party.  The dance is a solo art form with rapidly moving hips and quick transfers of weight.

Latin Dance Couple

Characteristics of the Samba

Samba is a fun, upbeat, lively dance that progresses counter-clockwise around the floor.  It is characterized by its syncopated timing, bounce, rolling hip action and pelvic tilt and a great deal of rhythm is expressed throughout the torso. The Samba frame is similar to a bolero frame with more separation between the partners.

Samba Music

Time signature:  2/4
Tempo: 52 measures per minute
Timing: 1a2* (also 1a2a3a4 and SQQ)
Beat value: ¾ – ¼ – 1

History

Samba was introduced to the US in the late 1920’s via the Broadway play, Street Carnival and more widely exposed through films.  Fred Astaire and Dolores del Rio danced to a Brazilian beat in “Flying down to Rio” and Carmen Miranda shook her hips in films such as “That Night in Rio”.  In the 1960’s Brazilian music became widely popular with the release of Stan Getz “Jazz Samba” and “The Girl from Ipanema”.  These bossa-nova standards combined samba rhythms with “cool” jazz.

In the US, Samba evolved into a couple’s dance performed in most ballroom and was standardized as a ballroom dance in 1956.  In Brazil however, samba remains a solo form, danced at street festivals and other celebrations with nationalistic pride.

Elegant Dancers

Phone

(02) 8872 1223

Opening Hours

Monday to Friday: 2pm - 10pm

Saturday: 9am - 6pm

Sunday: Closed

Studio Location

15/9 Salisbury Rd, Castle Hill NSW 2154, Australia

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