Chula
"Chula" (SHOO-lah) is a word of Portuguese origin, referring in continental Portuguese to a kind of popular music and dance, with overtones of something course, common, and indecorous.
(The derogatory intimations of the word have led some to use an alternate spelling: "xula". Others prefer to embrace the original orthography, aware of the value of what they have and symbolically standing up to the presumptuous and contemptuous ghosts of another era.)
In Brazil, chula is a musical style (featuring sinuous, African, ebb-and-flow guitar or viola playing) based on the rhythm now known as "samba". In terms of the music itself the term is interchangeable with another way of saying the same thing: "samba de roda" (circle samba).
The term also -- particularly in the Recôncavo da Bahia -- refers to a manner of presentation in which during the singing of a verse of a song -- or a "chula" -- the dancing stops, to be renewed again when singing again pauses. In this sense the "opposite" of a chula is "samba corrido" (running samba), where the dancing is continuous and the song style is call-and-response.
An excellent CD of chulas is available -- actually a set of two CDs -- the second consisting of raw and authentic field recordings made in the region of Santo Amaro, Bahia (recorded by Roberto Mendes), and the first consisting of highly wrought songs written and performed by Sr. Mendes himself (many of the songs having been co-written by man-of-letters Jorge Portugal), with accompanying performances by Bahian notables including Caetano Veloso, Margareth Menezes, and Barravento.
Field Recording, Chula 14 from Roberto Mendes' "Tradução"
The CD's title is "Tradução" (Translation), available on the Atração label.