Carioca (dance)

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Carioca is the name of a dance choreographed for the Fred Astaire movie Flying Down to Rio, where he paired with Ginger Rogers for the first time. It was based on earlier versions of a stage dance with the same name by Fanchon and Marco.

The word "Carioca" itself refers to inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro.

Following the success of the movie, an attempt was made to propagate the Carioca as a new ballroom dance, not very successful. It was a mixture of Samba, Maxixe, Foxtrot, Rumba and Tap. The distinctive feature of the dance (at least in the movie) was that it was to be danced with partners' foreheads in touch.

The song about the dance was performed by Brazilian singer/songwriter Caetano Veloso on his 2004 album A Foreign Sound, his examination of some of the great American songs. The closing credits of The Kentucky Fried Movie feature a comedy version of the song recorded by popular big band era singer Jo Stafford and her husband, pianist and arranger Paul Weston, recording under the names Jonathan and Darlene Edwards.