Botafogo, also sometimes spelt as Bota-fogo or Bota Fogo, is a dance step in

Samba Samba () is a broad term for many of the rhythms that compose the better known Brazilian music genres that originated in the Afro-Brazilians, Afro Brazilian communities of Bahia in the late 19th century and early 20th century, It is a name or ...

. Depending on relative positions and handholds, there are several versions of Botafogos while the basic footwork technique is the same. The name comes from

Botafogo Botafogo (local/standard alternative Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: ) is a beachfront neighborhood (''bairro'') in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is a mostly upper middle class and small commerce community, and is located between the hills of M ...

place in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. A generic Botafogo step pattern may start from either foot, either forward or backward, and its three steps are counted as "1..a2". During the dance the Botafogos are usually repeated several times, from alternating feet. A sample footwork is as follows: *Start facing, e.g., diagonally to the wall. *On "1" step forward with the left foot slightly diagonally across the body (i.e., step in CBMP) *On "a" step sideways with partial weight transfer. During this and the next steps, make a quarter turn to the left. *On "2" replace the full weight onto the left foot. *End the figure facing diagonally to the center. The ballroom Samba has the following named variations of Botafogo: *Travelling Botafogos Forward *Travelling Botafogos Back *Criss Cross Botafogos *Shadow Botafogos *Contra Botafogos *Botafogos to PP and CPP (to

promenade position The promenade position (abbreviated as PP in dance diagrams) is a dance position in ballroom and other dances. It is described differently in various dance categories. Connection The promenade position is a V-shaped dance position with the lead ...

and counter promenade position)

TV show references

Botafogo dance moves are often mentioned various times on the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

television show A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming platf ...

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

's ''

Strictly Come Dancing ''Strictly Come Dancing'' (commonly referred to as ''Strictly'') is a British dance contest show in which celebrities partner with professional dancers to compete in mainly Ballroom dance, ballroom and Latin dance, Latin dance. Each couple is ...

'', when the dancers perform various Latin dances. They were also used on the professional dancers' challenge during the Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two (a companion show to the main Strictly Come Dancing TV show) 2011 season. The dancers were challenged to perform the most botafogos in 30 seconds to set a new

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, list ...

. The winner was Artem Chigvintsev with 79 botafogos. Again it was featured on ''Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two'' in 2019 with Graziano Di Prima winning with a record 90 botafogos.

References

Botofogo, how to dance
You Tube {{DEFAULTSORT:Botafogo (Dance Move) Social dance steps Samba