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Where to Samba in Rio de Janeiro

If you're Brazilian, or, a Cariocaphile (a Rio lover) then you've already started the countdown for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Back in October, we were down in the "Marvelous City" and right smack in the middle of Copacabana Beach with the rest of Rio for the world announcement. Don't worry, our writer Shira Levine cased the joint to check things out for those of you considering getting your Olympic Games on in, uhhh six and half years. Questions or suggestions? Let us know.

In Rio you can samba anywhere. (The clubs, the beach, your mom's house.) Here are a few places we shook it Carioca style. (Save the classy fist-pumping Jersey Shore-style samba for stateside Mardi Gras celebrations.)

Off-season (as in not during the February month of Carnival)is a much tamer and less expensive way to to channel your inner Carmen Miranda. While it might take two nights of sweaty samba dancing for non-Cariocas to catch onto the double time quick steps, once you nail it you'll be shaking your moneymaker as if Jesus Christ the Redeemer himself was en route from Corcovado Mountain for the second coming. (Our first observation of the samba was that it looked like someone desperately needing to use the bathroom.)

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