Forró de Nice
About us
We are ...
When two childhood friends meet up in London for a weekend,
Cindy decides to share her passion with Nina.
After just a few hours in the warm atmosphere of the forró ,
it immediately became obvious,
something had to be done to export this pleasure to Nice ...
A few months later, Cindy decides to return to settle in her hometown
and together they embark on the crazy project of Forró de Nice ...
It was very early 2015!
Since then there have been lots of great meetings, dancers and musicians from all walks of life who have come to bring their knowledge and who have helped to contribute to the development of the forró in Nice.
Thank you to them and of course to all the more and more dancers
who have been following us since the beginning of the adventure ...
Forró de Nice !
And what is forró ?
Both music and traditional dance from the Northeast of Brazil,
the forró was made popular throughout Brazil by Luis Gonzaga (1912-1989),
today an icon of Brazilian culture.
Having fled his native Nordeste in 1929 following a heartache, Luis Gonzaga became a recognized accordionist in the 1940s in Rio de Janeiro, and really enjoyed success by bringing up to date his Nordestin influences.
Claiming its rural origins (Nordeste is then a very poor region, affected by drought, which many of his compatriots fled in search of a better life), Gonzaga cultivates his character and conquers the hearts of Brazilians.
With his accordion and surrounded by a triangle and a zabumba (large flat drum),
which today still constitute the classical rhythmic formation of the forró ,
he transfigures the rhythms of his region: toada, xaxado, xote, or quadrillha,
rhythms inherited from pre-Columbian and European cultures, which are danced as a couple,
on fast or slow tempos.
Most of the time, the songs speak of love, the forró being a lively and cheerful musical form, with a relatively dynamic tempo.
Many forró orchestras occur everywhere in the northeast of Brazil, but this music is also a popular tradition that we hear played by improvised groups during carnival for example.
If it is typical of the northeast of Brazil, the forró progressively gains the rest of the country following the emigrants coming from the north;
especially in the states of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.
For ten years the "forró mania" has seized Europe,
and the “forrozeiros” can now devote themselves to their passion in a good number of European cities, in particular during the festivals organized throughout the year.
The forró is available in several styles - xote, baião, coco, xaxado, rasta-pe -
which varies depending on the music and the dancer.
This is why during the evenings you can observe different ways of dancing, depending on the song but also the dancer and the connection that is created with his partner.
In short, you never get bored ;-)!
