Dancers Hope to Shake Criminal Reputation of Funk Genre in Brazil With Passinho Performances [Video]

On July 24, dancers brought the Brazil street dance of Passinho to New York's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

"Our goal is to turn Passinho into how the world sees hip-hop," 24-year-old Cebolinha, one of the dancers, told NBC News. "I want everyone to recognize that this dance is from Brazil."

The dance is often associated with Brazilian criminals and gangsters, but last week's performers hope to change the dance's reputation.

"Eleven passinho dancers came here to do something that when we started was discriminated against," Iguinho Imperador, a 21-year-old dancer from Favela de Manguinhos, said.

Imperador said that the dance still brings conjurs visions of druggies and robbers to many in his home country.

"We've begun to change this description," he continued.

Passinho derives from Funk Carioca, a genre of music popular in parts of Rio that tourists don't often frequent.

"This [performance] helps us in Brazil to fight persecution," DJ Sany Pitbull, a producer of the show and Funl Carioca supporter, said after the performance. "It's as if New York is giving funk music oxygen to continue, to take a breath and continue this fight."

The dancers have dreams of changing Brazil's perception of the funk genre and hope organized performances will help.

"Brazilians have many preconceived notions in regards to this genre, and the scene suffers from these prejudices," Tiago Gomes, project manager at the state of Rio's Secretary of Culture, said. "Events like this one, funded by the consulate, are extremely important for us because if we are able to legitimize funk abroad then we can legitimize it within Brazil."

Dancing is also providing an outlet for children hoping to escape violence.

"For a long time drug dealers where the only reference for these kids, and today, these dancers have become a new reference," Gomes explained. "Kids now grow up wanting to be passinho dancers."