Brazilian dance craze created by young people in Rio’s favelas is declared cultural heritage

By JULIA DIAS CARNEIRO and DIARLEI RODRIGUES
Associated Press

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The passinho is a Brazilian dance style created in the 2000s by kids in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas. And it has been declared an “intangible cultural heritage” of the state of Rio, bringing recognition to a cultural expression born in the working-class neighborhoods. The creators were of passinho were young kids with plenty of flexibility — and no joint problems. They started trying out new moves at home and then showing them off at funk parties in their communities and, crucially, sharing them on the internet. Dancing also became a means for young people to move seamlessly between communities controlled by rival drug gangs. It offered young men from favelas a new way out, besides falling into a life of crime or the all-too-common pipe dream of becoming a soccer star.