Forro in Fortaleza

I went Forro dancing the other night in Fortaleza with one of the Fulbrights who is studying Forro music. We went to a Forro club/restaurant/bar called Kukukaya, one of the biggest places in Fortaleza for live “traditional”forro music. (I’m not really sure of the difference between traditional and non-traditional forro music but Mike assured me there is one.) As soon as we pulled up we realized, lucky us, that tonight there was a big forro musician playing, Dorgival Dantas! because we saw his big, ginormous tour bus. With his picture plastered, long blonde hair flowing and all, on one side. Me, having no idea what forro dancing or music was like, became immediately suspicious of what was about to unfold as Mike and everyone else seemed to be fairly excited about this brazilian with long flowy blonde hair.

Kukukaya was fairly crowded and with no-table free we hit the dance floor within minutes of entering. I read somewhere that Brazilians created forro music for the white people that couldn’t dance samba. And while I am horrible at samba, forro was relatively easy to pick up with its one-two step. After about 15 minutes, we apparently had caught the eye of a brazilian couple who offered to trade partners with us. Incredulously, I began to dance with this Brazilian guy in his early 40’s who wanted to do fancy forro dancing with twists and turns and spins. And while let’s say I’m sure I didn’t meet his expectations as a dance partner, we laughed and had a great time. Thankfully after one song, which was a very long song, perhaps 10 to 15 minutes, we switched back. While we continued dancing to the warm up band, we noticed this old couple on the dance floor. The man was wearing a hat and what looked to be his Sunday’s finest, while the woman was equally well dressed with her hair all done up in a twist. The two were dancing very well and very traditionally and the old man kept giving me these toothless grins as if to say, I’m glad you two gringos are dancing forro. They looked like an old couple from the countryside that was out for a night in the big city.

The crowd at kukukaya was of all ages, from those that were clearly underage to the cute elderly couple. Some people were drinking heavily, while others and surprisingly me included, were not drinking at all. Around 1 AM the main act came on with Mr. Long Flowy Blonde hair bursting out onto the main stage, accordion in hand, ready to wow the crowd with his forro music. I gotta say it was a sight to behold, to see all those people jamming out to some guy with an accordion. Click on this link to check out some forro music by Dorgival Dantes . Yes there was a drummer, guitarist and not to mention triangle player in the background but the music was surprisingly catchy and easy to listen to. We stayed until about 2:30 AM forro-ing the night away. I arrived back at my pousada, exhausted, with hurting feet but happy to feel that I had crossed the threshold into exploring something culturally cool and uniquely brazilian. All in all, one of my favorite nights out in Brazil to date!