Samba

Samba is a Brazilian musical genre and dance style, with its roots in Africa via the West African slave trade and African religious traditions, particularly of Angola and the Congo. Although there were various forms of samba in Brazil in the form of various popular rhythms and regional dances that originated from drumming, samba as a music genre is seen as originally a musical expression of urban Rio de Janeiro. It is recognized around the world as a symbol of Brazil and the Brazilian Carnival. Fred Astaire and Delores Del Rio danced a version of samba - the "carioca" - in a 1933 film. The 1939 World's Fair cemented the American love affair with samba. Today, the many versions of samba are a mainstay of pre-Lenten carnival in Rio De Janeiro and of Latin ballroom dancing everywhere. Now it's a solo dance, a couple's dance, a street-dancing exhibition, and a hybrid, merged with rock, acrobatics, and even reggae.