**You’ve also made a short film about the dancers where one of them says: ​“Culture doesn’t arrive inside the favela.” Does this mean they’re forced to create their own? And is that culture passinho? **

Yeah exactly, the favelas are famously marginalised areas of Brazil, cut off from formalised culture. Things like museums and galleries would never reach the favelas, and youth from the favela going to visit them would often be frowned upon and wouldn’t feel welcome in them. So, naturally, they created their own art and culture, which is now taking over Brazil and spreading around the world. It’s incredible to see how far the culture is spreading and the love people have for it. Passinho is relatively new – it only really started to develop in the early ​’00s and is absolutely owned by the youth of the favelas.

**How did you meet the passinho dancers that you photographed? **

I met the dancers through a good friend of mine, an incredible filmmaker called Matheus Daft. He actually grew up in one of Rio’s favelas with a lot of the dancers, so it was amazing to get to get to know them all and they made me feel super welcome.

**Have you stayed in touch with them? **

Yeah, we have all stayed friends and I visit them each year. I actually have one of the dancers staying with me now in London as he’s doing a European tour of his passinho.

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