Building Your Dance: Learning and Combining Zouk Fundamentals
Learn a new set of fundamentals and how to combine them in smooth and creative ways.
We have one more beginner series for you!
This course is a continuation of the Starting From Scratch series, which taught us all the fundamentals between the Basic in Place and Bonus.
We're past the beginning point now and the time has come to build our dance and get some ideas about putting the fundamentals together! You'll see and be able to create combinations and use all of what you already know in interesting ways.
This will be a combination of solo training and partnerwork -- if you don’t have a partner, no worries, we’ve got you covered.
Starting From Scratch?
If you haven't taken our Newcomer/Beginner series, take a look!
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.
Each class we'll learn a new group of fundamentals of Brazilian Zouk and ways to put them together. During most of the class time, we'll 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'll 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'll spend most of the class 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?
This course introduces you to the last set of fundamentals that are done in a vertical position. Once completed and combined with the prerequisites, you'll be able to go into Brazilian Zouk’s famous head movement fundamentals with more ease. You'll receive not only this amazing foundation but also ideas on how to combine the fundamentals you have learned so far.
Creating the dance is often listed as one of the challenges for those in the beginning and we intend for this course to do exactly that. Build the dance in a smooth and creative way!
This is also a way you can support our instructors, some of whom teach dance as their full-time occupation, and they can support you during this time.
Prerequisites
This course assumes you have completed Brazilian Zouk: Starting From Scratch parts I through III or another course that covered the following fundamentals:
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Basics - in place, linear (Passso Básico) and side
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Simple Turn and Viradinha
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Send Away and Lateral
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Body Movements (Sideways and Forward Undulations)
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Lunge (Preparation for Turns)
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Cuddle and Lateral Opening
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Traveling Turns and Soltinho
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Elástico
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Yo-yo and Direction Changes
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Bonus
WHAT IS THE CURRICULUM?
This course will pick up from where we left in Starting From Scratch (Part II) and talk about:
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Abre Lateral
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Lunge from Lateral
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Abertura
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Pião
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Lateral S
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Sideways and forwards isolations
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Circular Isolations
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Creating different combinations
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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.