Oito Costas com Costas
Forró figure-eight through a back-to-back pass
ForroLevel: Improver1 min read2 citations
Oito costas com costas ("figure eight, back to back") is a turning figure in forró, the social partner dance rooted in Brazil — the largest South American country, and the one nation in the Americas that counts Portuguese among its official languages.[1] It extends the dance's lateral two-step basic into a looping floor pattern: the partners trace a figure eight and, at each crossing of the loops, rotate until their backs briefly face before unwinding to re-face. The leader keeps one hand joined — typically his left to her right — and raises it to open the embrace, sending the follower along the first loop while turning the opposite way so the pair pass back to back; he then reverses to lead a mirror-image second loop and closes to the basic. The follower sustains the basic's pulse, rotates roughly half around the shared axis to reach back-to-back, re-faces, then mirrors the opposing loop. Danced in 2/4 forró time, it suits relaxed mid-tempo music and sits within Brazil's broader popular-music tradition, long marked by the blending of domestic and imported genres.[2]
How it's danced
Lead and follow cues
Count2/4 forró time. Built on the lateral quick-quick basic (one weight change per beat); the full figure spans roughly two short phrases (~8 weight changes) — about four counts for the first loop into the back-to-back pass, four for the mirror loop back to facing. Forró has no On1/On2 frame; the figure floats over the lateral pulse rather than breaking on a fixed count.
Lead
From the lateral basic, raise the joined hand (commonly his left to her right) to open the embrace and step to initiate rotation. Send the follower along the first loop while turning the opposite way so the two pass back to back; let the joined hand travel over or behind to keep the link through the crossing. At the eight's centre reverse the lead into a mirror-image second loop, then lower the hand and close to the basic facing her. Rotation is staged: open about a quarter to bring the pair side-by-side, continue to roughly half-around (back-to-back) at the crossing, then unwind — two opposing half-passes, not one continuous spin.
Follow
Keep the basic's pulse alive and follow the raised hand into a rotation, turning about a quarter to side-by-side and continuing to roughly half-around so the backs meet at the crossing; re-face as the loop completes. Mirror the motion the opposite way for the second loop, then settle back to the lateral basic facing the leader. Maintain the hand connection throughout — let it pass overhead or behind rather than releasing — and stay low in the knees so the rotation stays grounded.
Song timingComfortable at relaxed mid-tempo forró — roughly the pace of a moderate xote (about 110-135 bpm felt pulse) — where the back-to-back pass has room to breathe. Faster baião and arrasta-pé (150 bpm and up) compress the rotation and demand a tighter frame; very slow tempos open room to stylise the pass. As a turning figure it reads best over a steady, danceable groove rather than at the genre's fastest extremes.
Learn first
Prerequisites
- Forró básico (lateral two-step)
- Basic volta/giro (turn)
- Costas com costas (standalone back-to-back pass)
- Maintaining a hand connection through a turn
Watch out
Common mistakes
- Releasing the joined hand at the back-to-back crossing, severing the connection that defines the figure.
- Under-rotating each loop so the partners never reach true back-to-back and the eight collapses into a single flat arc.
- Losing the lateral basic's pulse so the loops drift off the 2/4 beat.
- Leading the rotation by pushing the follower around rather than through the raised-hand frame.
- Standing up out of the soft-knee forró posture so the turn floats and the embrace pops open.
Don't confuse with
Easily confused moves
- Oito alone — the plain figure-eight without the back-to-back pass.
- Costas com costas used alone — a single back-to-back rotation, not the full figure-eight.
- Ocho — the Argentine tango figure-eight, a solo footwork pattern, not a partnered passing figure.
- Salsa or bachata figure-eight styling — different dances and mechanics; 'paso cruzado'/'cruzado' refer to cross-step footwork, not this figure.
Around the world
Other names
Forró universitário (São Paulo and national dance schools)
Oito costas com costas
the codified full name of the figure-eight performed through a back-to-back pass
Forró universitário (informal usage)
Oito
shortened where the back-to-back reading of the eight is the default
Forró universitário (informal usage)
Costas com costas
emphasising the back-to-back pass; also names the standalone back-to-back rotation
International forró scenes (Europe and elsewhere)
Oito costas com costas
Portuguese terms are generally retained outside Brazil
References
How to cite this article
Choose a style and copy the citation.
Bailar Editorial Team. (2026). Oito Costas com Costas. Bailar Biblioteca. Retrieved June 29, 2026, from https://bailar.site/biblioteca/move/forro-oito-costas-com-costas
Bailar Editorial Team. “Oito Costas com Costas.” Bailar Biblioteca, 2026, bailar.site/biblioteca/move/forro-oito-costas-com-costas. Accessed 29 June 2026.
Bailar Editorial Team. “Oito Costas com Costas.” Bailar Biblioteca. Accessed June 29, 2026. https://bailar.site/biblioteca/move/forro-oito-costas-com-costas.
@misc{bailar-move-forro-oito-costas-com-costas, author = {{Bailar Editorial Team}}, title = {{Oito Costas com Costas}}, year = {2026}, howpublished = {Bailar Biblioteca}, url = {https://bailar.site/biblioteca/move/forro-oito-costas-com-costas}, note = {Accessed: 2026-06-29} }
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