EXBERLINER Issue 170, April 2018

Forró for all
DANCE TREND
Originating in 19th-century Brazil and now popular throughout
Europe, the scintillating moves of Forró have been setting
Berlin’s dance floors – and a few hearts – alight. By Emily May
Ellie Dempsey
You’re spending your
Wednesday night as you
might any other, in a dimly
lit, spacious bar in Prenzlauer
Berg. But as the clock strikes
20:00 here at Atopia Kaffeehaus,
the tables are pushed aside and
the innocuous setting quickly
becomes a den of palpable
flirtation and intimacy, incited
by the Brazilian dance force
that is Forró. There’s a brief
class for beginners to learn the
basics, before they are thrust
into a sweaty hotbed of dancing
couples. So close they’re almost
kissing, they brush knees,
cheeks and hips, as well as other
dancers, forcing an overspill
into the bar area, where they
dodge tables of vinho drinkers.
Despite your best efforts to
remain a spectator, the irresistible
rhythms booming from the
sound system deserve more
than a mere foot-tap, and you
too are eventually coaxed from
your seat by the fire-footed
Brazilian dancer you’ve been
watching all night.
“Any mistake is my mistake,”
he reassures you before he
draws you in close, breathily
singing Portuguese lyrics into
your ear. But Brazilian Portuguese
isn’t the only dialect you
hear diffusing through the packed venue.
You catch snippets of conversations in a
variety of languages between dancers of all
ages and walks of life, from young Englishspeaking
students to mature German businessmen.
Before you know it, it’s midnight.
On the way home, all you can think about is
the next time you’ll be led around the floor
with your partner’s thigh lodged commandingly
between your legs. And that’s when
you realise: you’ve caught Forró fever.
A
folk dance originating from the north
east of Brazil, Forró (literally, “for
all”) has a growing community of followers
in Berlin, the beating heart being the
Wednesday night parties at Atopia organised
by Tome Forró, a non-profit collective
founded in 2013. Forró is renowned for its
inclusivity; according to one theory, the term
dates back to the 1900s, when workers on
Brazil’s Great Western Railway would classify
their weekend dance parties as either for
railroad personnel only or “for everyone”.
The dance culture is thriving across Europe,
with prominent festivals hosted in London,
Lisbon, Stuttgart and Paris to name just a
few. Berlin hosted its sixth Forró festival this
January, organised by Brazilian Carlos Frevo
of Wedding dance school Danca Frevo.
Festivals aside, the backbone of Forró in
Berlin is the bustling, tightly knit community
of die-hard regulars. With Brazilians,
Germans, Russians, Australians and many
other nationalities among their
number, these Forró aficionados
have become fast friends and attend
every party to satisfy their
dance compulsion. There are
Facebook groups, but the best
way to infiltrate the scene and
learn about upcoming events is
to get chatting with the partner
you’ve been closely orbiting for
the past 20 minutes. Once you
do, it’s hard not to find youself
inducted into this welcoming
band of Brazilian enthusiasts.
After attending Forró classes
for just one week, you’ll probably
begin to recognise familiar
faces and score invites to live
concerts and parties – like Ama
Forró’s Sunday night dance parties
on Oranienburger Straße.
Taking place in the red-lit,
underground environs of club
Aufsturz, these Sunday sessions
are organised by East Berlinborn
Tobias Conradi. Having
danced tango for 15 years and
worked as a tango DJ, Conradi
discovered Forró while studying
Brazilian Portuguese and
began organising parties in 2015.
“I love to dance and wanted to
give the opportunity to others.”
Comparing his two favourite
dance styles, he says, “Tango is
generally more serious, whereas
Forró is more relaxed.” And while the tango
scene boasts a 30-year history and thousands
of members, “Forró is more like a family.”
One recruit to the “family” is Angela, a
Hungarian former ballet dancer who
stumbled upon the style by accident
a year ago. “I was playing ping pong at Atopia
on my birthday when the staff came over to
say they had to get started with some dance
thing... I’d never heard of Forró before, but I
was curious so I stayed. I immediately fell for
the shameless cheerfulness of the moves and
the happy music.” In her view, this joyfulness
is what sets Forró apart: “Salsa is much more
serious, tango so dramatic. But Forró is such
an unpretentious, happy dance with a lot of
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EXBERLINER 170