Samba is the traditional Carnival dance style performed in Rio’s samba-school parades.
In the parade, samba is expressed through fast, rhythmic footwork, body movement, and coordinated interaction with the school’s music. The passista, a skilled samba dancer, is especially associated with energetic solo dancing, although thousands of participants may samba throughout the procession.
Rio’s parade samba developed alongside Afro-Brazilian musical and dance traditions, especially in working-class communities that formed the early samba-school movement. The dance is closely connected to the bateria and to the samba-enredo sung by the school’s participants.
Samba is a broad cultural and musical term, not one single choreography. It should not be confused with frevo, which is strongly associated with Pernambuco Carnival, or with forró, a Northeastern Brazilian musical and dance tradition. Rio Carnival’s samba has many local styles and performance contexts.