Brazilian Zouk: Starting From Scratch
Starting from Scratch is our first online Brazilian Zouk course designed for those who want to learn the dance from the very start. We will cover basic timing, fundamentals, and body movements of Brazilian Zouk.
Welcome to where everything starts!
If you are curious about what Brazilian Zouk is, already dance Brazilian Zouk and live with someone that doesn’t dance and want them to learn, want to refresh your fundamentals, or are just curious about how we teach them, this is the course for you.
This is our first online beginner course with Gui Prada and Julissa where you will learn the very first fundamentals of Brazilian Zouk. If you want to know what they are, just scroll down a little until you reach the Curriculum section.
This will be a combination of solo training and parternerwork, so if you don’t have a partner, no worries, we got you covered.
The course was recorded during 4 weeks, between September 21st and October 12th, 2020.
COMBINATION OF SOLO TRAINING AND PARTNERWORK? HOW DOES IT WORK?
This course is designed to give equal focus on both leaders and followers’ foot and body work by showing and executing movements separately before getting into partnerwork.
In our 1 hour of full class together, Gui and Julissa will teach a new fundamental of this amazing dance. During most of the class time, we will show and break down the steps for each role, executing them apart from each other so you can clearly see the mechanics of everything. We will then get together as partners to talk about leading and following, connection principles, and show how the movements work.
I DON’T HAVE A PARTNER. WILL I STILL BENEFIT?
Definitely. The way this course is structured allows for those who don’t have a partner to benefit as much as those who have a partner since we spend most of the class’s time on the solo execution of the fundamentals.
We are excited to offer one more option of partnerwork class for those who don’t have a partner. We are positive that if that is your case, you will benefit from it.
WHY SHOULD I JOIN?
Brazilian Zouk is a beautiful and fun partner dance that is growing in popularity around the world. On top of that, it changes the lives of many of those who learn it. Once you start, you will be introduced to a community of people from around the world that love this dance, plus you’ll have a great physical activity to practice.
This course will be a great opportunity to get to know Brazilian Zouk from the start with quality and care. In addition, this learning group will provide you with regular times to learn and ask questions of our instructors, additional opportunities to practice, and a community to share videos with and get feedback.
Curriculum
Here is what we are going to learn in this course:
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History of the Dance
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Timing
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Basics - in place, linear and side
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Simple Turn
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Viradinha
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Send Away
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Lateral
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Body Movement
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Connection
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Your Instructors
Senior Instructor Gui Prada
Gui Prada started dancing in 2004 inspired by the movie "Shall We Dance?". He began to dive deep into dance in 2006 as a work-study trainee of the Jaime Arôxa Dance School in Rio de Janeiro. Jaime Arôxa, one of the creators of Brazilian Zouk, was the head instructor and was a mentor for the most accomplished dancers in Brazil. During his 6 years as a member of the school's team, he learned all Brazilian partner dances (Forró, Samba de Gafieira, Soltinho, Bolero and Zouk) as well as Argentine Tango. After he left the school, he continued dancing and learning from other remarkable instructors, including Fabiano Vivas, Kelly Reis, Érico Rodrigo, Guilherme Pimentel and many others. Since then he has focused his training and research on taking the best of each of these dances and applying it to the close embrace, with the purpose of conveying a sense of well-being and relaxation to dance partners. In 2016 he attended the first Zouk Retreat in Valencia, led by Xandy Liberato, Brenda Carvalho and Anderson Mendes. After that, his research on partner dancing took a new direction, as he continued working with Brenda and Anderson to seek for the application of the concepts explored at the retreat in different ways by using the references of the other Brazilian partner dances and Argentinian Tango. As a result, the importance of the basic steps and concepts became evident, since it is through them that all dances reach another level. Gui is looking forward to sharing his technique and training with students here in Washington DC to help them improve their basics, comfort and confidence on the dance floor.
Assistant Julissa Hernandez
Julissa, a Washington DC native, was formally trained for over a decade in classical ballet and several years in modern dance (Alexander Horton technique). She discovered Zouk while traveling in Brazil in 2012, but did not begin to learn it until the NYC Zouk Festival in 2016. Since then she has traveled to various festivals in the states and internationally to learn and dance as much as possible. Her biggest sources of inspiration have been Kuna Malik Hamad, Anderson & Brenda, William & Paloma, and Hudson & Jessica. She has taught alongside artists such as Kuna Malik Hamad, and Jerry Lai. She is eager to grow as a student and teacher, and help inspire more dancers in this community.