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Parties, workshops, forró coaching, private classes, jack & jill.

Djs: Âmy B., Chinedu, Vim Vim and Yorki

Teachers: Marilia Cervi, Yse Góes, Rafael Wilker, Juzinha, Carol & Rômulo, Arianne & Dendê

Coachs: Laura, William, Annabelle, Nicolas, Fikrije and Marcio

See you there!! 💃🕺

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Whorkshop Themes

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Teachers

Yse Góes

Dancer, choreographer, and physical education teacher, 36 years old. For 22 years has been dedicated to the art of dance.  Born in Florianópolis, Brazil, she moved to Rio de Janeiro in 2013 and currently lives in Espinho in Portugal.  In 2009, she began studying a unique forró, called Roots. Yse's classes are unique in that she is able to emphasize the roles of the followers and leaders. 
Yse has participated in five European tours and one in the United States. She currently lives in Espinho, Portugal and develops her project called Porto Roots, with regular weekly classes. 
You will most likely into her if you go to the main forró festivals in the world, as she is known as one of the first women to disseminate this style in classes.

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Marilia Cervi

Living in Lyon, Marilia has been working with Forró since 2008. She started in São Paulo, in a Ballroom dance school where she learned not only Forró but all the most popular Brazilian Ballroom dances. During her year in Brazil she has built up experience on teaching, coordinating team and also performances in many different types of events. She was already in many tv shows, all the biggest brazilian's ballroom dance congresses, competitive festivals, and also won two times a ballroom prize as best forró teacher of the year. In 2012 she also started an international career especially with forró, her main dance since the beginning.  Nowadays she has been based in France for more than 6 years not only giving forró classes but managing the association doing the classes, parties and bigger weekend events.  She did all the ballroom/forró biggest specialization courses in Brazil.  For many years she is always bringing up the topic of the follower's expression in an active way and the dance as an exchange. Also bringing the importance of being aware of our own dance so that we can communicate more deeply and truthfully with ourselves and with our partner.

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Rafael Wilker

Rafael Wilker began his trajectory in dance in 2009. Throughout these 13 years, he sought contact with various rhythms such as: Samba, Bolero, Zouk, WCS, Bachata, Tango and Salsa - to add techniques to his dance and enrich his specialty: Forró!

Inside Pé Descalço School, one of the most recognized forró schools in the world, he passed through all the collars (school graduation), on both sides (conductor and conducted). Always considering his responsibility as a diffuser of knowledge, he felt it was time for a new step and in 2019 he also started his solo project: Forró com o Wilker!

Rafael has built a reputation for bringing technical knowledge and clarity in dance: novelty, cleanliness, fluency, figures, movements that explore dynamism and the senses. He also stands out for his musicality and improvisation. He values lively and fun classes, and the most important, for bringing in his dance content, not only as leisure, but as something bigger, stronger, that heals, cheers and changes lives (therapy).

In his journey as a teacher, he has already held several workshops/festivals in several cities and states in Brazil, including: São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Piauí, Pernambuco, Bahia and, of course, Minas Gerais!

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Juzinha

Juzinha (28) is currently Pé Descalço’s most senior follower due to the fact that she began her forró journey at the mere age of 8! By age 12 she had already achieved the highest level possible within the school and, not long after, became a fully fledged forró teacher. Today she has partial ownership of one of the PD units (@pdjardim), plays a huge role in the school as a dancer, teacher and administrator, and sits on the committee that manages the largest forró school in the world.

As a dancer, Juzinha is known for her strong presence, technique and musicality. Through her classes she motivates and inspires people, both followers and leaders, to bring this out in themselves. She also has experience with zouk, gafieira and jazzfunk, which all add to her body of work resulting in a truly rich and diverse blend.

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Carol & Rômulo

Carolina Carvalho has been dancing Gafieira samba since 2012, the year she joined the Gafieira Genève Association. In 2016, she became part of the association's team of volunteer teachers and joined its committee. Together, they have improved their dance skills over the years, learning from prominent figures in contemporary Gafieira such as Flavia Teixeira and Vinicius Villiger, Evelin Malvares and Adriano Robinho, Kelly Reis and Fabiano Vivas, Viviane Soares and Kadu Vieira, among others.

Romulo's journey in Gafieira Samba began in 2012. By 2016, he had the opportunity to become a teacher and organizer for the Gafieira Genève Association. His philosophy is to stay up-to-date by regularly attending courses with the best professionals from Brazil. This approach has enabled him to continuously improve his dance skills and share his passion with the dance community in Geneva.
 

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Arian ne & Dendê

Arianne, from a young age, has been seeking to understand what allows living beings to thrive through connection and to bond. In her exploration, she discovered partner dances at the age of 16, which allowed her to comprehend and explore numerous aspects of this. After dancing extensively in salsa, bachata, and kizomba, she discovered Brazilian Zouk in 2019 and began teaching it wholeheartedly in 2021. One Brazilian dance leading to another, she also started dancing Samba de Gafiera and can sometimes be found on the dance floors of Forró. Her goal is to grow the Brazilian Zouk community in French-speaking Switzerland, and her dedication to this cause has been unwavering since 2021.

Mauricio has always been passionate about sports and movement. Throughout his life, he has experimented and mastered dozens of disciplines and sports, including breakdance and hip-hop. Brazil quickly became his beloved nation, and he long taught Capoeira. He discovered partner dances through Samba de Gafiera and then devoted himself to Brazilian Zouk with great care and passion. He has been teaching regular classes in Brazilian arts since 2011 in French-speaking Switzerland and is passionate about improving awareness and technique.

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DJs

Âmy B.

Reference of Brazilian Music in France, Dj Âmy B., DJ and cultural producer, originally from São Paulo, has settled in Lyon for a few years now. She is the first female DJ to exclusively work with Brazilian Music in Europe. Forró has always been a fundamental element of her work. Every week since 2017, she organizes the unique weekly Forró dance in Lyon called "Forró da âMy", which has also become a monthly event with guests. She is the founder of the Carnavália collective, which promotes Brazilian culture in Lyon since 2019, and resident DJ of Radio Nova Lyon and Piñata Radio.

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DJ Vim Vim

DJ Vim Vim is known for teaching forró since 2010 in Europe, he is also known for creating a magical mix of Forró and Samba on the dance floor. Of northeastern origin but raised in the periphery of São Paulo, it is clear the search for roots in their disco, whether in Forró or Samba.

He became a collector of vinyl even before moving from Brazil and began to play exclusively with vinyl in 2014, performing later in major festivals of forró in Europe. He has a rich repertoire of Forró and Brazilianness that goes from Samba, Samba Rock and Samba Jazz, Funk, Soul, Mpb, Psicodelia, etc.

Átila creates this special atmosphere when Forró, Samba Rock and Gafieira, prey for the Groove and musicality on the dance floor.

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DJ Chinedu

DJ Chinedu (London, UK) began to take an interest in Forró in January 2013 when his capoeira teacher took him to a party. Starting off as an absolute beginner with no background in partner dancing, he was drawn to the community aspect of Forró, the music and the positive attitude of all the people he encountered. This fuelled his appetite for dance, travel, and musical discovery! Fast forward to 2015, after experiencing classes, parties and festivals across Europe and Brazil, he began to hold his own parties in London and in 2016, formed the organisation, Forró Foundations ( www.forrofoundations.com). Forró Foundations’ teaching methodology centres around further enhancing basics and footwork, applying these methods to increase dancers’ confidence in their movement and making the overall dance enjoyable, comfortable and exciting for both partners. As well as teaching and organising events, he is an internationally recognised Forró DJ. He has previously played at festivals such as the Forró London Festival, Forró Vem Vem Festival (Weggis & Luzern), Forró de Colonia Festival, Forró Stockholm’s Alegria do Norte Festival and the Forró em Lyon Marathon to name but a few!

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DJ Yorki

A versatile artist who loves Brazilian culture. Originally from Colombia and now based in France, for 6 years now Yorki has been active in the forró communities in Lyon and has performed at festivals across Europe. He organises regular events in Lyon.

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Coachs

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Laura Cherie

Laura dances forró since 2016. After taking her first classes in Geneva, she moved to Brazil and studied forró in Rio and then in Belo Horizonte for 5 years, with references in forró roots (Leo Diniz and Hugo Silva) as well as at the Pé Descalço school, where she achieved the black collar. In 2021, she started giving classes, in Brazil and in Europe. She taught in Belo Horizonte, Itabira and Itaúnas in Brazil, but also in France and Switzerland, through festivals, workshops and private classes. Today, she teaches weekly classes in Lausanne, at Escola NoPé. She focuses on preparing comprehensive and diversified classes in order to promote a comfortable, creative and musical dance.

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William

Growing up with Brazilian parents in the USA, William was always exposed to aspects of Brazilian culture. But it was only after friends from capoeira brought him to a party in Bern that he was introduced to forró. It’s been over ten years since that fateful day when this hobby turned into a passion!

William has developed into a diverse dancer, using whatever he finds fun: Movements and concepts from forró universitário and roots, elements from Brazilian Zouk and Samba de Gafieira, as well as taking inspiration from other music genres like Metal or Pop. His aim is constant improvement to create his own style that is both complex and comfortable for himself and those that dance with him.

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An nabelle

Always enticed by dancing, Annabelle first started taking classes of contemporary jazz and dancehall. In 2016, she got introduced to forró. She fell instantly in love with the music and Brazilian culture and quickly integrated the Forró Lausanne Association. She then became part of the dance school Escola NoPé. This got her into the organisation of many events and gave her the opportunity to assist and dance with some of the most renowned dancers of forró.  

Since 2019, Annabelle teaches weekly in both group and private classes in Lausanne as leaders and followers. Annabelle enjoys bringing playfulness into the dance through creative styling, as well as fluid leading. For her, dancing is a way to feel free while connecting to others. Eager to dive deeper into dancing, she is now training Afro-dance and Kizomba and is progressively integrating these other dance’s didactics into her teaching.

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Nicolas Hölsch

Nicolas first dance experience was classical ballroom dancing during in high school. He liked the combination of technique, esthetics, and shared experience, but felt restricted and missing room for creativity. While he was exploring Tango in 2015, he had his first contact with Forró. He then started attending the events of Forró de Dois in Zurich, visited mostly local festivals but had to take a break from Forró in 2017 during a stay in Israel. Since then, he has gradually immersed himself more into Forró, Samba de Gafiera, and the Brazilian culture more broadly, finally traveling to Brazil last year.

"Dancing is meaningful to me because it enables me to express my playfulness and share it with other people in a beautiful way. I love  Forró because of the involved connection, trust, improvisation, and the variety of personal dancing styles. It also opened to me the world of Brazilian music, which has been very influential and brought enormous joy to my life.  But most importantly, I started and kept dancing Forró because I found a warm and welcoming community, and I am excited to help growing!"

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Fikrije

Fikrije's passion for dancing started at an early age. In 2019, she embarked on her journey with Forró during her stay in Australia. Since then, she has devoted a lot of time and energy to her training, through both private lessons and participation in various festivals. This enthusiasm took her to Brazil in 2019, where she regularly attended classes, including those with Simbora Dançar and Pé Descalço. In 2021, she started to participate in the organization of dance events,  and  in August of that year, co-founded the BE.Forró association with other passionate dancers from Bern. In parallel, she delved deeper into salsa and solo dance. To further enhance her solo dance skills, she completed a short training program in Berlin to learn even more techniques and styles.

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Márcio Ramos

Márcio is a Brazilian with a long history of partner dances. His first contact was in 2007, with a "ballroom dance" class series (Forró, Salsa, Gafieira, Bolero, Soltinho), and since then he has never stopped dancing and learning, with Forró being from the start and until today his favourite

"After my first contact in Curitiba-PR, I then helped out as staff at two ballroom dance schools in São José dos Campos-SP and then attended Pé Descalço school in Belo Horizonte-MG, reaching "preta avançada" in the school. I am also probably one of the biggest dance nerds you will meet So if you have any brainy questions come to chat, I love to talk about those!"

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