What is Brazilian Zouk?
Is it funk? Is it Zumba? Is it Bachata?? And why do people love zouk so much?
Brazilian Zouk is a form of partner dancing commonly danced socially. Zouk can be danced to different genre of music, which makes the whole dance versatile and great fun.
Many dancers enjoy Brazilian zouk due to its delicious sensual flow, grounding and connection.
Once the fundamentals are mastered, dancers enjoy the freedom of creativity and enable them to express themselves in their own unique ways depending on what style of music is playing on the dance floor.
Basic Steps
Brazilian Zouk is a 3 step dance over a bar of 4 beats.
Lunge & Turn
One of the most common movements used to transition into yummy and fun moves.
She turns, he turns
Beginner fun movement you can easily use on the social dance floor.
History of Brazilian Zouk
In the ’80s, Lambada was very popular in Brazil and quickly gained worldwide notoriety through its music especially because of the popularity of the band Kaoma, Beto Barbosa, among others, and different styles of music such as Samba-Reggae, Caribbean Zouk, Flamenco music, mainly Gipsy Kings, among others. TV shows, films and DJ’s also helped promote the dance and the music.
Lambada was a dance that dominated most nightclubs in Brazil, especially in Porto Seguro, São Paulo, Belo Horizonte and Rio de Janeiro.
The most popular nightclubs in the 80’s and 90’s:
• Porto Seguro – Reggae Night and Boca da Barra
• Rio de Janeiro – Roxy Roller and Ilha dos Pescadores
• São Paulo – Lambar, Mel and Reggae Night
• Belo Horizonte – Casa Blanca and Cabaré Mineiro
Lambada’s popularity began to decline in the ’90s, and the remaining lovers began to use primarily Zouk Caribbean music to continue dancing Lambada. During this period people naturally began to call the dance French Lambada, because of the music being sung in French Creole. Following that the community began to call the dance Zouk.
(Brazilian zouk council, history of Brazilian Zouk, https://www.brazilianzoukcouncil.com/dance-education/history-of-brazilian-zouk/)