Video Challenge: The Balancing Act of Samba

Brazil’s new video trend is like the Cinnamon Challenge, but a lot more graceful and less messy.

It started with a call-out on Nov. 18 by a Sunday magazine news show, Fantastico, in the spirit of the upcoming carnaval season. The challenge: Look sexy dancing samba while balancing a book, CD, or DVD on your head or by holding it tightly between your thighs without dropping the item.

It’s not that easy! Most people just bounce up and down alternating their feet and spinning their arms around when attempting to dance samba, yes, even in Brazil.

But the folks in the bottom video on this site seem to have gotten it right.

The TV show, which is broadcast on the international network Globo, also had ten women in a dancing competition trying out the challenge in order to win the coveted role of becoming its official samba muse. The winner gets to represent Globo during the festive season.

Even though carnaval officially starts March 4, 2014, the samba fever is already catching on.

Just watch Beyonce give samba dancing a try during a September show at minute 2:00 of this video.