You know the samba, but have you heard of Passinho?

***Rachel Khoo would like to thank all the inspiring people who helped make the Khoollect studio a hive of creativity. Although the Khoollect studio’s doors have now closed, you can keep up with Rachel’s newest adventures on RachelKhoo.com and on Rachel’s Instagram and Facebook pages – and, continue to enjoy the Khoollect website’s stories and recipes, which will remain available.***

If the opening ceremony at the Olympics in Brazil (with all it’s fireworks, samba dancing and drums) didn’t get you in the mood for shaking your hips, you might want to head to the hospital to check you’ve got a heartbeat. It certainly had me dancing on my sofa.

Apparently samba and capoeira are no longer what’s making Brazilians move anymore. It’s all about Passinho. A fusion of samba, break-dancing and funk beats has the dancers busting lightning-speed moves that make them look like they not only have ants in their pants, but that their feet are on fire too.

This urban dance movement, like the origins of break dancing (which started in the ’70s in the South Bronx of New York City) has it’s roots in the poorer communities. There are many inspiring stories of how Passinho is making a positive change in young people’s lives. Rather than turning to crime and drugs, they’ve found a way out of their difficult situations.

With the Olympic limelight on Rio, this dance movement is really starting to make international waves too (Beyoncé being one who’s always on the forefront of performance, picked up on the movement a couple of years ago). There’s been a wave of cool Passinho dancers making some serious moves on Twitter too.

Like break-dancing, battles between two dancers or crews are commonplace and make a big part of the culture. The passinho movement, like many dance communities, is all about expressing your feelings and emotions through beats and movements rather than looking at where you come from or what you’re wearing.

It’s awe-inspiring watching people move and contort their bodies with such control and, having been to a few battles (and participated in a few myself), it’s very hard not to want to start dancing yourself. Now, if only my feet could move as fast as my mouth, I think I would be in with a chance of winning a battle or two 😉

What gets you moving?

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Rachel Khoo

Rachel is Khoollect’s Editor-in-Chief and the mastermind behind this whole adventure. In between f...

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