The corridinho is a form of Portuguese folk dance, namely in the

Algarve The Algarve (, , ) is the southernmost NUTS statistical regions of Portugal, NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities (concelho, ''concelhos'' or ''município ...

region. The origin of the dance itself is unclear and believed older, although it gained popularity in the 1800s. The name derives from ''correr'', ''to run'' which partly describes this type of dance. The dance was performed in a round (''dança de roda'') in the open air. The oldest musical instruments recorded were small

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

s or fifes (''pífaro'') and

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica incl ...

s, (''harmónica'') until the

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

was implemented and dominated ever since. Corridinho has left a legacy and is still popular in some former Portuguese colonies like Goa,

Daman and Diu Daman and Diu (; ) was a union territory in northwestern India. With an area of , it was the smallest administrative subdivision of India on the mainland. The territory comprised two districts, Daman and Diu Island, geographically separated ...

Dadra and Nagar Haveli Dadra and Nagar Haveli is a district of the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu in western India. It is composed of two separate geographical entities: Nagar Haveli, wedged in between Maharashtra and Gujarat states; and ...

Mangalore Mangaluru (), formerly called Mangalore ( ), is a major industrial port city in the Indian state of Karnataka and on the west coast of India. It is located between the Laccadive Sea and the Western Ghats about west of Bengaluru, the st ...

in India and a small part of

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

(Sri Lanka) where it is called '' Baila''. In

Macau Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...

China, it is known as Portuguese-Macaense folk dance. The '' Branyo'', a folk dance of the Kristang people in Malaysia, derives from the Corridinho, and further developed into the popular Malay '' Joget'' dance. In Portugal today, the dance is mainly found in the southern region of Faro in the Algarve and is often performed by the ''ranchos folcloricos'' (folk groups) as part of the municipality's tourist attraction. The corridinho is considered a product of history and performance that represent Algarvian contexts (e.g. Algarve life depicted in plain sound and loud talking). It is

dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

d by couples who always move together. They form a circle with the girls inside and the boys on the outside. By rotating the circle, the pairs move side by side. Corridinho is composed of three parts: o corrido, o rodado e an escovinha (the run, the rotation, and cropped). The "Run" starts with a circle, made up of pairs of men and women. When the music starts, the pairs begin to spin. To start the "Rotation", the beat gets more lively and intense, the pairs begin to perform a "fast-paced

waltz The waltz ( , meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom dance, ballroom and folk dance, in triple (3/4 time, time), performed primarily in closed position. Along with the ländler and allemande, the waltz was sometimes referred to by the ...

". When said is done, the dancers return to their original positions and can either end there or continue. The "Cropped" is a shorter version of the dance done again after a complete round cycle. Although bearing some resemblance to the

polka Polka is a dance style and genre of dance music in originating in nineteenth-century Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. Though generally associated with Czech and Central European culture, polka is popular throughout Europe and the ...

and mazurka, corridinho is a very traditional Portuguese dance where people challenge each other's fitness and enjoy social entertainment in groups.

References

Portuguese folk dances Circle dances {{Portugal-stub