Feeling Forró - with Layssa Valentina

FEELING FORRÓ
with Layssa Valentina

Join us for a special afternoon of connection, creativity, and embodied dance exploration with guest teacher Layssa Valentina, a Brazilian dancer and facilitator based in Brisbane.

Rather than focusing on new dance moves or technique, Feeling Forró invites participants to explore the qualities that bring dance to life: presence, connection, musicality, and authentic expression.

Through guided exercises, mindful partner work, and creative movement explorations, Layssa will guide participants to deepen their relationship with rhythm, physical connection, communication, and musicality.

The ideas explored throughout the workshop can be taken directly into social dancing, offering new ways to listen, communicate, and create with your dance partners.

WHO IS THIS WORKSHOP FOR?

This workshop is designed for dancers who already have some familiarity with forró music and dance.

Participants should be comfortable dancing basic rhythms and social dancing in a partner setting. The focus will not be on learning fundamental steps or technique, but on exploring connection, creativity, musicality, and communication within the dance.

Basic forró experience is recommended.

No partner required.

ABOUT LAYSSA VALENTINA

Layssa Valentina is a somatic facilitator, dance teacher, and creative guide from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She has been teaching movement and dance around the world for over 20 years and, six years ago, developed her own methodology combining partner dance with mindfulness, somatic awareness, and conscious connection.

Her work blends movement, creativity, nervous system attunement, and embodied presence to help people reconnect with themselves and others through the language of the body. Rooted in softness, authenticity, and intuitive expression, her sessions invite participants to explore trust, communication, sensuality, and human connection in a grounded and conscious way.

Through movement and shared experience, Layssa creates spaces where dance becomes both art and healing, a return to the wisdom already held within the body.

WHAT IS FORRÓ?

Forró is a social partner dance and musical tradition from Northeastern Brazil. Known for its warmth, playfulness, and strong sense of community, forró is danced through connection, musical conversation, and shared enjoyment of the music.

Today, forró is danced around the world, bringing people together through movement, culture, and human connection.

DANCE ETIQUETTE

This workshop explores connection through partner work in a respectful and consent-based environment.

We encourage participants to:

• Respect personal boundaries and communicate openly.
• Accept and decline dance invitations graciously.
• Approach exercises with curiosity rather than performance.
• Help create a welcoming and inclusive space for everyone.

Everyone is invited to participate at the level that feels comfortable for them.