“Everybody’s doing a brand new dance now, come on baby do the”….Passinho?

Over the last few years one of the biggest things in dance has been… social media. From the Harlem Shake to DIY Ballroom the internet, and more importantly Youtube, has been instrumental in keeping us in step. Not that the internet is essential we all know how to ‘push a pineapple up a tree’ or do the Hokey Cokey and they certainly predate Facebook and Youtube. Social networking, however, has opened up the world of dance allowing a group of teenagers in their back garden to share their moves with everybody. That is exactly what happened with the latest dance craze- the Passinho!

Straight from the favelas of Rio de Janerio, the Passinho, which translates as little step, is a mixture of pop, funk, break-dancing, samba, pagoda and frevo. The dance was born accidentally in 2007 at a baile in the Jacarezinho favela, run by one of the criminal gangs who have made the Rio’s suburbs infamous. A gang member began to show off, performing the Portuguese dance, the passo, which was then taken and adapted by some of the other partygoers. The result was the Passinho, but although it became popular amongst the Jacarezinho community it wasn’t until a homemade video of the dancer Beiçola (Big Lips) performing at a BBQ was put on the internet that the dance went viral. Youtube strikes again!

In Brazil, the Passinho has become a sensation. The first ever Batalho do Passinho (The Passinho Battle), judged by the film-maker Emílio Domingos, took place in 2011 and now there are over 200 contests throughout Rio. Inspired by what he saw Domingos has produced a documentary on the Passinho, which won the New Directions award at the 2012 Festival do Rio. At last year’s carnival M.C. Faderado’s hit Passinho do Volante (The Steering Wheel Shank), which attracted 10 million viewers in just over three weeks, replaced traditional funk music to become the festival’s anthem. The Passinho is seen as an ‘antidote’ to the hypersexualised moves and lyrics of funk, which has contributed to the negative reputation of the baile’s funk scene. Most importantly, however, the Passinho seems to have done what the police couldn’t and has weakened the power of the criminal gangs. Teenagers can now travel to different communities, which previously would have been no-go-areas, to attend competitions and it is all down to the explosive combination of dance and social media. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oktcJN8Roc At the Closing Ceremony of the London Olympic Games, Brazil showcased the Passinho to an international audience. With the Fifa World Cup is due to be held in Rio next year, followed by the Olympic Games in 2016 Rio and the Passinho will be on display to the world. So by next summer, rather than blowing Vuvuzelas we will have to put on our dancing shoes and do the Passinho.