BEYOND SAMBA
Capoeira, Frevo and Bossa Nova: Brazil's Other Dance Styles
A Rio folklore show is built on more than samba. Here's what capoeira, frevo and bossa nova actually are, and where each Brazilian tradition comes from.
See Rio Samba Night dates on GetYourGuide ↗Capoeira: part martial art, part dance, part game
Capoeira developed among enslaved Africans in Brazil, blending combative movement, acrobatics, music and elements of play into something that resists a single label — it's often described as part martial art, part dance and part game. Two players move through kicks, sweeps and evasive, almost dance-like escapes inside a circle of onlookers called a roda, with the pace and style of the exchange set by the music rather than fixed choreography. Capoeira Angola is generally the slower, more traditional style, while Capoeira Regional, developed in the 1930s, is faster and more acrobatic — both are still practised and taught today.
The berimbau leads the roda
The berimbau — a single-string percussion bow made from a wooden stick, a steel string and a gourd resonator — is capoeira's lead instrument, and the one that effectively conducts the roda. Its player sets the tempo and rhythmic pattern that tells the two capoeiristas whether to play slow and controlled or fast and acrobatic. Alongside the berimbau, a roda typically adds pandeiro and atabaque drums and call-and-response singing, but it's the berimbau's pattern that everyone else, including the two players themselves, is listening to and following closely throughout the entire exchange from start to finish.
Frevo: a Carnival style from far outside Rio
Frevo comes from Recife and Olinda, in Brazil's north-eastern state of Pernambuco — geographically and culturally distinct from Rio's Carnival tradition, even though both fall under the same word. It's fast, brass-driven music paired with an acrobatic dance style, traditionally performed with a small colourful umbrella used almost as a prop and balance aid for low kicks and jumps. When a Rio folklore show includes a frevo number, it's a deliberate nod to Brazil's wider Carnival culture beyond the city itself — a reminder that "Brazilian Carnival" is really several distinct regional traditions rather than one uniform style centred only on Rio.
Bossa nova: samba slowed down and taken global
Bossa nova grew out of Rio's Zona Sul beach neighbourhoods in the late 1950s, largely credited to musicians including João Gilberto and Antônio Carlos Jobim, who fused samba's underlying rhythm with softer jazz harmony and a more intimate, conversational vocal style. "Garota de Ipanema" ("The Girl from Ipanema"), written by Jobim and Vinícius de Moraes, became the style's best-known international calling card. In a folklore show, a bossa nova number is typically the quietest, most stripped-back segment of the evening — voice, guitar and light percussion in place of a full costumed ensemble and driving bateria.
Maculelê and other regional traditions
Maculelê is a rhythmic Bahian stick dance, historically performed with wooden batons (and, in some traditional accounts, machetes) struck together on the beat in a choreographed call-and-response pattern, often staged alongside capoeira as a related Afro-Brazilian tradition. It's one of several regional styles — alongside frevo and others — that a Brazilian folklore show can draw on to represent the country's dance heritage beyond samba alone. Exactly which regional numbers a given show includes can vary by producer and by night, so treat any specific line-up as indicative of the type of variety on offer rather than a fixed, guaranteed programme.