Teacher

Cesar Neves
04/01/1987
Partner – Director – Teacher at the Pé Descalço School

Born in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, he started dancing because of a volunteering social initiative made by his teacher and partner Luis Henrique Resende.

In 2005, in addition to being a teacher, he was already partner of the Pé Descalço School. The development increased exponentially in 2009 when invitations to give workshops started coming from south eastern Brazil. In 2011 he went on his first European tour, passing through Germany, Portugal, Netherlands and France. In 2012 he won second place in the Brazilian Forró Cup and made a second tour abroad, this time not only in Europe but also to Asia, invited to teach workshops in Japan. In 2013 once again he is invited to tour in Europe, covering Germany, Russia and Portugal. This same year he taught in Forró in Rio, in Rio de Janeiro and organised the Minas Gerais stage of the Brazilian Forró Cup. In 2015 he is again invited to Japan and in 2016 to Germany, Russia, Portugal. From Portugal he went straight to Porto Alegre’s 4th Forró Encounter with Juzinha. This same year he organized with two other partners the BH Forró Festival, the first Forró dance festival in his home town. In March of 2017 he started a new stage of his career opening a Pé Descalço unit in London, UK.

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Fernando Correa Graduated in Physical Education, dancer and musician, Fernando studied and taught dance and percussion lessons at the “Instituto Brincante” in São Paulo and has been playing and teaching forró in the past 15 years, in private lessons and dance schools in Sao Paulo .

Despite of being born in Sao Paulo, the most urban city in the country, since his childhood, Fernando identified himself with popular traditions of Brazil, listening to the Coco de embolada, Repente Poetry, traditional work songs and especially Capoeira.

In 1999 he started in the xenhenhem of Forró, in the nights of São paulo,
Campinas and in the festivals of Itaunas.

Since 2004 he has been traveling throughout Brazil in the parties and sambadas of
Coco de Roda, Cavalo Marinho, Samba de Roda, Ciranda, Maracatu, Bumba meu Boi, Carimbó and others “brincadeiras”.
Fernando seeked for learning with the ancient masters of these traditions, and thanks to these profound experiences within the traditional music of Brazil he could get closer of the roots of the rhythms that compose current forró!

In 2016 he made his first tour in Europe teaching Forró and since March 2017, he is established in Nice – France, teaching in the Forró de Nice association and giving workshops in some cities between France and Italy and some festivals as well(Nice Forró Festival- France, O Baião Vai- Lisbom). Besides that Fernando has been playing zabumba along Léo Correa – Forró de Rabeca and has also played Rabeca for some cities and festivals where he has passed.

As a musician and dancer, Fernando sees no boundaries between playing and dancing.
One and the other … everything is one thing and the challenge is to make that feeling manifest, exchange it among the dancers,the players, the public. Harmony, connection, fluidity, sound, silence, movement, pause … all together, interspersed, mixed… at the same time!

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Thamyra Miranda began his career in dance in childhood. Since then she participated in several activities aimed at improving her relationship with the body: Jazz, Classical Ballet, Contemporary, Ballroom Dance, Urban Dance, Acting, Music, Contact Improvisation and also several courses for training in the area of Forro, Popular Brazilian dances and Ballroom Dancing.
She has a graduate diploma in Dancing at FMU, with an emphasis on Arts, Sport and Education, and also perfects her studies at the Training Course on Ballroom Dance Teacher Jaime Arôxa, Course for educators at Instituto Brincante and Dancing School at Theatro Municipal of São Paulo.
She is currently Director and Teacher at Pé Descalço School, São Paulo unit, where she teaches and promotes laboratories, physical and social experiences for students.
Develops, in parallel, the PD Social project, which offers scholarships, professional, artistic, human and personal development, young people from disadvantaged classes.
Since 2014, teaches and participates in several workshops and forró festivals in order to research and promote culture in other regions of Brazil and the world, such as: Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Espírito Santo, Santa Catarina, France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Russia.
She was judge in Forro championships in Brazil, such as: the prestigious Copa Brazil Forró, in 2015 and 2016.
In 2016 also began its participation in the Terceira Categoria dance group, which is developed in-depth research on the scenic dance through forró language.
Traveled to various regions of Brazil researching the Forro and popular Brazilian Dances.
Her current focus is to continue to research, foster and develop Brasilian popular culture and dance.

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Betinho forrozeiro since 1999, I have a great passion for it, take it for fun, as a lifestyle and and make my profession out of this wonderful rhythm that is Forró. Born in Belem – PA, where I would dance what is called a tacky or corny version of Forró, I came to know Forró Pé de Serra in Belo Horizonte, MG – Brazil, in 1999, a style that I easily adapted to and started dancing at the Forró clubs of the city. I participated in Forró Pé Pé Descalço School from its first year until mid 2017. Already knowing how to dance for a few years, I was part of the school’s style foundation and created several moves performed by the students, among which, the most famous is the x300. I was a school examiner from the beginning but I never took an exam though. I was a teacher from 2009 until I left. Today I run my own Forró school named Forró do Rei and keep on forming forrozeiros. I have given workshops in some cities in Brazil and Japan and also study the Roots style to increase my knowledge and add to my dance. Known for creativity, agility and unique dance style, I intend to spread my knowledge throughout the world.

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Gilmar Arruda began to dance forró in 2003 through friends and over the years he learned and improved his forró in the style “Forró de Itaunas” foot work and fast songs”(roots) and other styles of forró. In 2007 was champion of the first Brazilian championship of forró style of Serra de Serra in 2011 participated again and was in second place. After that he taught classes in forró workshops and festivals in Brazil. In the year 2014 he toured Europe; France, Russia and England. Today he arrives with an innovative proposal for the foot style of saw.
Começou a dançar forró em 2003 através de amigos e com passar dos anos foi aprendendo e aprimorando seu forró no estilo “Forró de Itaunas” (roots) e demais estilos de forró. Em 2007 foi campeão do primeiro campeonato brasileiro de forró estilo Pé de Serra em 2011 participou novamente e ficou em segundo colocado. Após isso ministrou aulas em Workshops e festivais de forró pelo Brasil. No ano de 2014 fez um turne pela europa ; França, Rússia e Inglaterra. Hoje ele chega com uma proposta inovadora para o estilo pé de serra.

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Felipe Raso was born in Belo Horizonte – Brasil, and started dancing forró at the age of 10 but started to studdy it with 17. He got obsessed to discover how the body comunication worked. He graduated at Pé Descalço hiest level at 2012 and now he has his own Pé Descalço unit! He won a forró Brasil Cup in 2012 and 2 Pé Descalço’s jack and jills.In 2013 he became technical director of Pé descalço first unit been responsible to manage huge dancers such as Lucas Dumont, Milena, Valmir e Juzinha. in 2014 he went abroad and taught forró in the united states and learned how to dance lindy hop, winning competitions there as well. His passion is to teach and his dream is to see the entire world dancing forró and having fun.

Partner

Gabriela Berrogain, was born in Brasilia, Brazil, and is a dancer and forró teacher. Despite having danced urban dances all her life, she joined the forró at 19, where she fell in love at the first dance.

Gabriela won a scholarship at Companhia de Dança Marcelo Amorim in 2012, where she learned to dance a bit of all rhythms : forró, zouk, samba, tango, bolero, among others, but soon chose samba and forró as her focus.

In 2015, she started at Academia Lá Na Dança and began teaching forró and samba de gafieira.
She has participated of forró, zouk and samba study groups with reference teachers, taught classes at Forró Ispilicute (Brasília), at WFC (Workshop de Forró na Capital) and Dança Cerrado Congress.

She was given the opportunity to do a European tour through France, England and Germany, in 2016, teaching forró pé de serra and roots and plans to return soon to enjoy even more forró in Europe.

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Bruno Prado was born in Rio de Janeiro and is known as Teacher, dancer and choreographer. He has begun his journey in 2008, where he started to learn all the brazilian ballroom dances. He is practicing Forró since 2009 both inside and outside of Rio de Janeiro and is qualified by the dance school of Alex de Carvalho.
Bruno brought a joyfull style with a lot of energy in Forró by creating his own style. It has been nearly 3 years since he is making Tours all over Europe. His main goal is to spread Forró all around with fantastic performances and an endless sympathy, conquering more and more place in the world for the sake of Forró.
Together with his dance partner Diana Richter he develops the brazilian couple dances (Forró, Samba de Gafieira and Zouk) in Düsseldorf, Germany.
So far he already took part in more than 30 festivals as a teacher as well as congresses and workshops.

Partner

Diana Richter, born and raised in Düsseldorf, dances with passion since she’s three years old. She works as a professional dancer, teacher and choreographer. She is most familiar with Modern Contemporary dance, Hip-hop and Elementary dance. Before that she practiced Ballett , cheerleading and dance floor and participated in many competitions.
She studying sports and dance in Cologne and also finished a three years dancers education. Since 3 years Diana also practices Forró and teaches it now alongside with Zouk and Samba de Gafieira. 2015, she became a member of a dance theater ensemble which produced successful performances throughout the last years.
Diana gives also classes and workshops in Ladystyling and Latin dance.
Because her love and passion for dance is such inspiring and so important to her it is a honor for her to share this passion with other people.

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Milena Morais, started dancing in May 2009 at Pé Descalço, at the age of 13. In October 2012 she won the red collar! Soon after, in January 2013, she began teaching at the unit (Savassi), where she has also been a director since February 2015. She has also been part of the presentation group since December 2012 and has been one of the examiners of the school since October of 2012.
She has already held workshops in many cities in Brazil (Governador Valadares, Juiz de Fora, Brasília, Niterói, São Paulo, Porto Alegre, Montes Claros, Itajubá, Uberlândia) and other countries (Japan, El Salvador, Sweden, Portugal, Russia, Netherlands, France). For her, dance is a way of knowing, expressing herself and learning how to relate to others in a respectful and human way.

Partner

Valmir Coelho, started dancing in 2006, ate the age of 14, at Pé Descalço. In 2011 he won the red collar! After this he began teaching at Pé Descalço, until now !
He has travelled the whole world dancing, presenting and helding many workshops in other countries, like El Salvador, Canada, United States, Italy, France, Russia, Japan, Ireland, Germany, Portugal, Netherlands, England, Sweden.
He also has a video with almost 50 million views on Youtube, at the Forró de Domingo festival in 2014 and, in 2015, with his Forró de Domingo festival video he got 1 million views.

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Diandra Souza, dancer for about eight years and teacher about five, Diandra Souza started dancing forró at Pé Descalço. Diandra gave workshops in many places of Brasil and in Europe, like German, France, Spain, Portugal and Japan and teach in two unity of Pé Descalço. She believes that dancing is not only the best exercise for the body and mind, but that it is also the best way of making friends and to achieve a peaceful life.

Partner

Lucas Dumont, dancer about 10 years and teacher about 7. Started dancing forró, samba and bolero, and today dances as well zouk, west coast swing and a little bit of salsa. Lucas participate of the Pé Descalço Presentation’s Group since it borns and gave workshops in many places, in and out of Brasil, like German, France, Spain, Portugal, Russia and Japan. Teachs in the first and oldest unity of Pé Descalço, and believe in the methodology and how dance can make something good to people. He believes that dance is a harmony and balance of 3 things: the dancer, the partner and the music.

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Wellington Figueiredo is a forró teacher who has hugely contributed to the growth of Forró Ireland in the recent years. He has shared his passion for forró with many students.
At the age of fifteen he started learning Axé as it was the dance most played at that time, one year after stated in a ballroom dance school, learning the four rhythms (Samba de gafieira, Bolero, soltinho, forró), after he went to the latin rhythms and later he started Tango classes. As an addict in dance his passion was to dancing all the time.
Wellington is originally from São Paulo, Brazil but has been living in Europe for over four years. He spent the three years in Dublin, Ireland and has moved to Greece where he keeps spreading his love for forró. He have a combination of different styles to teach forró, not focussed only on steps but in leading that in his opinion is the key for a good dance.

Partner

Polina Dimea.

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