Greetings! I am a middle school music teacher who is currently choreographing a song for my show choir. If at all possible, I like to have the students learn dances appropriate to the style and time period of the music which they are singing.

The song I'm working on is called "Something Latin." It talks about the Mambo, Rhumba, Samba, and Tango, all of which I have heard of and am comfortable with thanks to some classes in college. HOWEVER, it talks about the "carioca" in conjunction with the cha-cha. Any ideas on what the carioca is?

Thanks for any help!
Courtney

I think it's a Brazillian dance, but I don't know more than that.

I thought at first you were refering to that sing song in the local pub.

I've never heard of a dance called "carioca", but it doesn't surprise me. My first guess was that it must be Brazilian, because in Brazil, a carioca is a native. In a more specific context, it's a guy who spends his life hanging out at the beach. So I looked it up in Webster's dictionary, and here's what it said:



So there you have it. It is a Brazilian dance after all. They say it's some sort of derivative of Samba, so if you take a look at Samba -- real, authentic Samba, not the ballroom version -- you'll get a general idea of what the Carioca might look like.

Regards,
Jonathan

The Carioca IS the 'origin' of the modern Samba.... it was a Brazilian 'street dance' in the 20s and 30s, so you'll see the elements in the Latin International syllabus (the whisk, the basic movement). As all dances go, so did the 'bastardization' of the Carioca into the current 'street' version of the Samba in Brazil; it resembles Salsa much more than the Carioca. Look at Bronze International syllabus for the look of the original Carioca.

Famed as the basis for a major dance number by fred Astaire in the 1933 classic movie "Flying Down To Rio", the Carioca rhythm was used for 22 minutes in the Ginger/Fred spectacle.

the Carioca is a brazilian dance resembling the samba.

Try this:

http://www.streetswing.com/histmain/z3caric1.htm

OB