What's Brazilian Zouk?
Get to know more about this amazing dance
Putting it simply...
Brazilian Zouk is a partner social dance developed first in Brazil and that slowly has been taking over the world. Among its distinctive characteristics, you will see a mix of playful footwork, body movements, and Brazilian Zouk's unique head movements for followers. Today, almost every major city around the globe has a Brazilian Zouk scene of passionate dancers ready to embrace everyone that wants to join.
Brazilian Zouk can be danced to a very wide range of music styles from lyrical songs without a beat, to high-energy music with strong beats. You can check out some of our playlists to have an idea.
And this is just the beginning. You can find many other playlists available on Spotify, Mixcloud, and Soundcloud.
A little bit of history.
Brazilian Zouk is the result of modifications done over the course of years to another Brazilian dance called Lambada - which is still alive today. Making a long story short, during the 90s Lambada started to lose steam as a national and international music phenomenon. The boom of Lambada music all over the world that started in the last year of the 80s was about to become history.
In the dance scene, however, the dancers never stopped dancing Lambada. Since the early days of this dance, people have been dancing Lambada to different kinds of music, including a genre called Zouk, which originated in the Caribbean countries of Martinique, Guadalupe and Saint Lucia. Over the course of time, Zouk music and its variations became more and more common in Lambada parties. With less and less Lambada music being played, Zouk became the main music genre in the parties, and dancers slowly started to refer to the dance as Zouk or Zouk-Lambada.
The change in the music, the change in the venues where people went out to dance, and the desire to keep the dance alive prompted changes to the dance itself. Elements of other Brazilian partner dances such as Bolero and Samba de Gafieira were incorporated, as well as elements of classic dances such as modern and contemporary. The dance changed to a point where it became something different from Lambada, something new.
Eventually, the professionals responsible for spreading and teaching decided to call this dance Brazilian Zouk, since there is already a Zouk dance in the Caribbean. More and more festivals started to be organized in different countries, and today you can find big scenes in North America, Europe, and Australia.
Brazilian Zouk never ceases to evolve and change and if you would like to know and learn more, join us at District Zouk or District Zouk Online.
Where to find Brazilian Zouk?
Well, in the DC area you can find many opportunities to learn Brazilian Zouk with us at District Zouk. Get to know more about our classes and events.
You can also find a class in almost any big city in the United States, and Canada here in the north.
Around the world, almost all major cities have their own Brazilian Zouk scene with classes and events. The best way to find them is on Facebook or Instagram. You can just type zouk and the name of the place you're going and you might find something.
Ready to Start?
We've got you!
If you've never taken Brazilian Zouk, this is where you start. Our Basics 1 course guides you through the essential foundations of the dance and it's an amazing way to get started. You can scroll down for more details on what's covered and click on the button below to get your ticket and start learning!
