If you can find a copy of the original " Burn The Floor " you will see the whole company performing Batucadas. It comes just after the guy with the head scarf swings his partners head close to the floor. Play it in slow motion if you wish to copy the Batucatas. The company do it with turns as well as to the front, also they do a lot of them.

I see the Hearn Latin Book is now published. And it even has a description of the Batucadas !

so you know how to do it?

i looked at the video - and if you are talking about the very first thing they do on there - i think they're called batucadas - but i may be wrong.

ive seen them in the past but its not something im that familiar with. i too would love to know more about how to do them.

but, ive got a feeling you use a delayed lowering with a veering of the knee as you lower - this would cause rotation of the pelvis and so the other leg would tend to swing infront

keeping the non-stepping foot more or less rooted would also seem to be important as the heel of the front foot would then be forced to release as the uppper part of the leg swings across - i think this is what you mean by the see saw effect


reversing the veering then causes the opposite swing but here you just let the foot move in preparation the next step.

looks like you step on 1 point the knees on & and straighten up on a then back on the other foot on 2 etc.


not sure whether thay helps, hopefully someone can add more

What I'll add as someone who is doing it in part of an Open Samba routine but not 100% proficient...it is one of the easier steps I've learned. Won't say I've mastered it.

I tend to agree that the swivel comes from the placement of the back foot, but there is also an almost imperceptible and nauseatingly quick double knee rise on every step. A tiny jerk forward and than the actual movement to place the foot back, of course no weight replacement until the full thrust backwards, and step is done entirely on the ball of the foot at least for the lady (movement is too fast for putting the foot down and up again).

I'm not particulalry technically proficient in dance...so I may not be describing well.

I know what you mean. That movements on the beginning of the video are terrible. That isn't even close to how we dance it here in Brazil. It's called "Samba no P", which means in english "Samba on feet".

If you want to do it like a professional dancer, like we do it here, try to learn from this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6iceoj8-go

Why make such a big thing out of the Batucadas. If you can start LF in front heel to toe . Place it behind in the Latin Cross position. Put the weight forward onto the RF and then back onto the LF. Counting 1 (a) 2. Just repeat on the other foot. The timing can be altered with a couple of slow ones and then back to speed. Louis . Can I do the Batucadas. Yes I can. Along with a class of some twenty or so pupils.

If I understood it right you call 'Batucadas' the movements that here in Brazil we call 'samba no pe'. You don't need to say that you and your class of twenty pupils can do it because I didn't said that you can't. But if you are teaching a movement like that you should be aware that in it's country of origin nobody does it that way.

There is a lot of difference between Brazilian samba and ballroom samba.
Here is a link for the ballroom version.
http://danceuniverse.co.kr/video/dayvideo.php?page=4&style=
Then click the upper right one: Donnie Burns and Gaynor Fairweather, Samba Group 2A.