<p>Brazil has long been drunk on funk, from the 70s when DJs introduced James Brown to the barrios, to the early-2000s style of rudimentary electro, baile funk. But few people knew about the dance craze that was coalescing from within those parties until much later. Passinho is danced to funk carioca’s foundation of soul, funk and disco crossed with Miami bass and its specific drum beat – complex, fast, shot through with skittering samples – inspires a hyper-energetic blur of moves. Unlike the masculine moves of baile funk, passinho work capoeira, samba, breakdancing and rapid-fire, wholly improvised footwork into a more fluid mix. Most of these moves took root in inter-favela dance duels; like NYC ballroom’s Houses, its dançarinos proudly belong to crews who compete against each other. But passinho has also proliferated online via pixelated homemade videos shot on old mobile phones, many of which have gone viral thanks to dedicated passinho YouTube channels (one popular 2008 clip has over 4m views). It reached worldwide notoriety when a group of passinho dancers performed at the London 2012 Paralympic Games’ closing ceremony and Beyoncé, Chris Brown and eve n Ricky Martin have since featured the style in their music videos. </p> <ul> <li>Kate Hutchinson</li> </ul>