Botafogo, also sometimes spelt as Bota-fogo or Bota Fogo, is a dance step in Samba. 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 place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

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:

The ballroom Samba has the following named variations of Botafogo:

TV show references

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Botafogo dance moves are often mentioned various times on the British television show BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing, 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. The winner was Artem Chigvintsev with 79 botafogos. [1] Again it was featured on Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two in 2019 with Graziano Di Prima winning with a record 90 botafogos.

References

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  1. ^ "Zoe Ball to present "Takes Two" - Page 14". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2011-11-29.