Carolina Cardoso de Menezes

Maxixe is a lively Brazilian couple dance and the music that accompanies it, often nicknamed the "Brazilian tango." It crystallized in Rio de Janeiro in the late 19th century as a hybrid of Afro‑Brazilian and European dance musics. Musically, maxixe sits in duple meter (2/4) with buoyant, off‑beat accents and syncopation derived from lundu and the habanera/tresillo cell, but propelled with the forward motion of the European polka and schottische. The style flourished in urban salons, theater revues, street festivities, and early carnival, moving deftly between refined piano pieces (sometimes labeled "tango brasileiro") and small ensemble settings with guitars, cavaquinho, flute, and clarinet. As a social dance it was animated, close‑embrace, and playful, which lent it both popularity and controversy. Stylistically it bridged the 19th‑century salon world and the emerging 20th‑century sound of Rio, helping to seed choro, marchinha, and eventually samba.