District Zouk
Welcome to District Zouk, your reliable source of Brazilian Zouk content in DC! We have online and in-person courses and workshops for you to learn all year round. Scroll down to learn more about us and our offers.
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At District Zouk, we're constantly offering many opportunities to learn. Regular classes, weekend workshops, practicas, and socials are going on all year long with local and visiting instructors. With our email list, you can receive all the updates and be on top of everything.
Starting this week!
Check out our schedules and come learn with us
We're changing our weekly schedule a little this cycle to include 30 minutes of Practica between classes.
We've done it in the past and we're very excited to bring it back. Students will now have more time and opportunity to practice what they learned with our instructors and assistants ready to help and provide feedback.
Get more information about our Monday Drop-ins
Get more information about our Progressive Courses
For our weekly, progressive classes, that's how it will look like:
If you already have some experience with Brazilian Zouk and are not sure what course to join, get in touch and we'll help you.
New to Brazilian Zouk?
Here is where you start!
Basics 1 is our entry course, bringing all the foundations of Brazilian Zouk and guiding you into its first patterns. You'll get to learn the first set of principles of the dance with our amazing team of instructors, starting your journey the best way possible.
Next Saturday!
On April 20th, Lunna Gomes will be back in DC for some amazing workshops
Our next socials are near!
April 20th and May 3rd have workshops and socials scheduled for us to learn and dance
A very special date approaches.
Save the date and come celebrate with us!
Details coming soon.
Join us for our drop-in lessons on Mondays.
Every Monday, all Mondays, on Mondays.
Our weekly Monday drop-in classes and practicas are an amazing way to start learning Brazilian Zouk, refresh the fundamentals, and get some practice time in.
If you're new to Brazilian Zouk and want to experience this beautiful dance a little bit, our drop-ins are a great way to get started
See our dedicated page for more information.
Did you know we have a Code of Conduct?
DZ's Code of Conduct helps us promote a safer and welcoming environment to the community.
When attending our classes and events, all participants and instructors agree to abide by the terms of our Code of Conduct. We encourage everyone to read it and get acquainted with its terms. The Code of Conduct also lays out the process one can follow in case of violations.
You can have access to our entire library of online courses!
We have 3 different options of memberships for you to choose from. Visit our membership page to learn more about them.
Check out the courses we have for you.
We separated everything into categories to make your life easier.
Our Instructors for this cycle
Each cycle of progressive classes we rotate our instructors to provide you with a great variety of teaching styles
Senior Instructor Ashley Kent
Ashley Kent has been dancing from an early age, including training in jazz, tap, ballet, modern, west African dance, salsa, kizomba, Brazilian zouk, and lambada. She got hooked on afro-latin partner dancing while living abroad in Ghana and Sudan. When she was introduced to Brazilian zouk in Washington DC in 2012, she fell in love with it. Ashley helped build the thriving Brazilian zouk community that exists in DC today, founding District Zouk in 2014 and offering consistent weekly classes since then. She has continued her own training via trips to Brazil, professional development programs, one-on-one training with some of the top international instructors, and cross-training in other dances. Seeing new people fall in love with Brazilian zouk and lambada and grow in their own dance journey keeps her energized. Ashley loves sharing her love for this dance, building community, encouraging people to learn both roles in partner dances, and creating explosive moments of musicality.
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Full Instructor Raven Benko
Raven (She/her) began her dance journey 13 years ago in Latin Ballroom dances in Boulder, CO. She discovered the joy of Brazilian Zouk in 2015 and began teaching in Seattle at Salsa Con Todo Dance Academy in 2017. After placing first in the Zouk US Open in 2018, she taught with District Zouk in DC for a year and helped establish their first Safe Spaces committee. Raven focuses on connection and enjoyment of zouk for social dancing; working to build bodily awareness and empathy grounded in a careful exploration of foundational Zouk technique with her students. She also pulls from her training in yoga to incorporate healthy alignment, muscle control, and personal safety into her teaching.
Full Instructor Adayl Iost
Adayl (He/him) is a Brazilian dance instructor and has been teaching for 12 years. He specializes in bringing Brazilian joy to his dances. Part of Grupo Embalanço, from Araraquara - Brazil, he participated, taught and performed in dance Festivals and Congresses in Brazil and around the world. His training background and personal inspirations are the masters: Brenda, Bruno G and Raiza, Paulo and Luiza. Adayl’s teaching technique focuses on partner connection, clean fundamentals, flow, incorporating body movements and a lot of musicality into the dance.
Visiting Instructor Igor Fraga
Igor Fraga, originally from Brazil, started his zouk journey in 2012 training with ZoukNY founder, Kim Rottier. Since then he has taught all over North America in various congresses and festivals. For many years, Igor has been dedicating his work to residencies around the US helping the communities grow and improve. He specializes in fundamentals work for beginners in the dance. He’s also the director of a very successful beginner track program at the NYC Zouk Festival called Dare 2 Zouk and has gathered many trophies from JnJ competitions.
Our Assistants
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.
Junior Assistant Krystal Williams
Krystal started social dancing consistently after a summer salsa immersion program in the summer of 2012 allowed her to experience some of the beautiful things that being a part of a caring dance community can add to your life. Although she’d taken partner dance classes before, the friendships formed from that program were what led her to get more involved. They introduced her to bachata with Ferocity Dance Company in 2014, another nurturing dance community, and then to Brazilian zouk with District Zouk in 2015. Krystal joined the District Zouk performance team in 2016 and has been learning and growing under the tutelage of District Zouk ever since.
Krystal is a dedicated learner who consistently pursues opportunities to learn from both local instructors and instructors from all over the globe. She joined the District Zouk teacher training program in August of 2018 and has been working hard to become a capable facilitator of the District Zouk methodology ever since. Krystal understands the power of a welcoming dance community and seeks to help contribute to cultivating and preserving that experience for future dancers. She also understands some of the hurdles quiet bookish people may face when trying to become a part of a dance community and hopes to encourage both herself and others to get out of their heads and comfort zones and express and connect with others on the dance floor.
Assistant Sarah Epling
Sarah fell in love with Brazilian Zouk in 2019. It was an opportunity to experience a physical representation of her background as a musician and artist. In particular, it was the variety of music, flow of movement, and deep connection specific to Brazilian Zouk that drew her in.
Sarah has studied with Paloma Alves, Julissa Ju, Bruno Gallardo, Paulo & Luisa, Jerry Lai, Brenda Carvalho, Pedro & Ana, as well as District Zouk instructors Elena Rovito, Gui Prada, and Alisson Sandi.
Sarah began Assisting at District Zouk in 2022. When she’s not dancing she’s enjoying music, art, nature, being near or in the water, photography, mythology, and being with her dog.
Assistant Brenda Zetino
Brenda Zetino is a part of the District Zouk teaching team. She has been dancing for many years, but formally began taking lessons in a variety of Latin dances in 2012. She dances salsa, bachata, zouk and kizomba but specializes in Brazilian zouk. Zetino has trained at dozens of renowned dance congresses , teacher training programs and festivals as far as Brazil, Europe and Mexico. In the summer of 2018, Zetino enrolled in the Rio Zouk 30 Day Immersion Course, where she received 30 hours of dance training with Núcleo de Dança Renata Peçanha and another 30 hours with Escola de Dança Jaime Arôxa. She has also trained privately with many top zouk instructors around the world. Zetino has dozens of performances under her belt in a variety of dances. She has performed for groups including Ferocity Dance Company, Island Touch, Sara Lopez World Team Project, La Fuerza and of course, District Zouk, among others. She is inspired to keep learning, dancing and helping others along the way.
Assistant Comfort Ahonkhai
Comfort is a member of District Zouk’s core team who has always been fascinated by movement. Her introduction to dance started as informally choreographing dance routines to Destiny’s Child with her cousins as a kid, then transformed to dancing in her high school marching band. This captivation with movement drove her to seek a career in Physical Therapy and to choose dance as her form of creative self-expression. She found Brazilian Zouk in 2018 on the streets of Washington DC during an event celebrating international food, music, and other forms of culture. It took only 3 months before she decided to submit to this form of art and has traveled to various countries seeking to fully immerse herself into the people, culture, and techniques of Brazilian Zouk and Lambada. Fun fact: Comfort was a Division 1 athlete. Have a conversation with her to guess which sport!