MAXIXE

ballroom dance that evolved in Brazil about 1870 and became an international craze in the years before World War I. A fusion of elements from the habanera, the polka, and rural Afro-Brazilian dance, it was danced by couples in ballroom position and often included improvised figures. Related to the tango (and sometimes called tango maxixe), it was the precursor of the ballroom version of the samba.