During the year 2020, the Brazilian Zouk community has offered numerous online courses with all kinds of topics and styles. District Zouk itself offered a variety of different kinds of online training, with solo work, musicality, mindset, history, and more. 


In this course with Gui Prada and Hermela Alemayehu, we want to do something different. We invite you to learn by experimentation, trial, error, discussion, and feedback, instead of our classic follow-along format. Our goal is to help you acquire knowledge from your self-investigation based on guidelines we’ll provide each unit.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Each Unit has a "challenge" where we propose an exercise, a drill, a way of building your dancing, or a sequence for you to work on. 


In our hour-long training sessions work together on the Unit's challenge. We review and practice it, providing additional information, technique and suggestions for training.

DO I NEED A PARTNER?

This Training Lab will be a better experience with a partner since the challenges relate to partnerwork. 

WHY SHOULD I JOIN?

There is great value from learning through self-discovery. By joining this course, you’ll be challenged to develop your creative side through the challenges we propose. 


In the progression of learning, the creation step is the highest one -- when you can create new things building on the knowledge acquired previously.  


We've designed this course to stimulate you to create movements in Brazilian Zouk and develop your dance from the knowledge you already have of the fundamentals and other patterns. 

Prerequisites

In order to get the most out of this course, we recommend you have at least 6 months of experience with Brazilian Zouk and are familiar with all of the fundamentals, such as:

  • Basics - in place, linear (Passso Básico) and side

  • Simple Turn and Viradinha

  • Lateral

  • Body Movements (Sideways and Forward Undulations)

  • Lunge (Preparation for Turns)

  • Cuddle and Lateral Opening

  • Traveling Turns and Soltinho

  • Yo-yo and Direction Changes

  • Bonus

WHAT IS THE CURRICULUM?

Each week we'll present a new challenge. The challenges will be related to the four main groups of knowledge in Brazilian Zouk:

  • Footwork and floorcraft

  • Musicality

  • Use of Vocabulary

  • Elasticity

WHAT IS INVOLVED IN THIS COURSE?

  • 6 hour long recorded training sessions

  • 7 challenges for you to watch and train

  • Stored content so videos can be accessed and reviewed later (for up to 90 days for standalone purchases)

  • Opportunities to submit videos or questions for feedback

Purchase our new Brazilian Zouk Training Lab

Choose this one course, or get a membership that includes this course and others.

Or become a member and get access to all of our content!

Get access to 30+ recorded courses, plus additional benefits to enhance your learning experience. We have 3 amazing options for you to choose from. Click on the button below to know more!
All-in Membership description

Would you like to have a taste of our Online learning experience?

Just sign up to our taster and check out some of our lessons.

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.

Senior Assistant Hermela Alemayehu

Hermela started her partner dance journey in 2016 when she got some friends together to go out salsa dancing. She immediately caught the bug and before she knew it, she found herself learning salsa and bachata and dancing the nights away. Hermela later found Brazilian Zouk in 2017 and fell in love with the connection and fluidity of movement. She immersed herself fully in this style, learning from District Zouk and other local and international instructors. She has attended various festivals and participated in training courses. She is looking forward to sharing her passion and enthusiasm with others.