What I learnt from Dancing Zouk
When I first moved to London in 2018, my new house mate Adam kept pestering me to come to a dance class with him. “I’ve been learning Zouk — Give it a shot” he insisted, “If there’s one thing I regret, it’s not having learnt Zouk sooner”. I replied “What’s Zouk?”. It sounds awfully like Zumba, which I associated with the home-fitness VHS videos my aunty was fond of. Simply put, I was a computer programmer with two left feet. I wasn’t interested.
Two years on, 2020, I am now obsessed with dancing. I had forced myself to go to at least two or more classes of zouk a week and I’m aching to expand my palette of movement towards other styles like Forro, West Coast Swing, Tango, Hip Hop, and Kizomba.
What happened?
Despite my initial reluctance, a combination of Adams persistent insistence and the promise of meeting beautiful women eventually bypassed my guard. In hindsight, it was to be the much needed call to adventure that set the tone for the years to follow in London.
So what exactly is Zouk?
The style taught in London was Brazilian Zouk. This style was a fusion of Classic Caribbean Zouk and Lambada. Classic Zouk music came out of the French Carribean Islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, and was characterised by it’s percussion driven slow-quick-quick rhythm and use of instruments such as synths and horn section. The Lambada was a partner dance, similar to Salsa, popular in 1980s Latin America. As Lambadas popularity faded at the end of the decade, the dance community adapted and adopted their style of movement to the music of classic Caribbean Zouk, giving birth to Brazilian Zouk.
This new style was characterised by intricate upper body movements, body isolations, tilted turns and counter-balance techniques. The underlying discipline and structure of the dance lends itself to a dance that leaves room for creative improvisation, expressive experimentation and an aesthetic that is beautifully free-flowing.
This article is a reflection of what I’ve learnt on my journey through the world of Zouk!
Dancing is a real work out!
I was surprised just how much Zouk made me sweat after I got a hold of the ropes. The mid-high tempo songs lent itself to a style that really helped with cardio, balance, strength and posture. Imagine the calories burnt after a 3 hour social dance.
Then there’s the mental work out! I read dancing can buffer against cognitive decline, such as reducing the risk of dementia by 76%. Is this really that surprising? When dancing, your brain will be juggling keeping rhythm, making split second decisions, planning the next set of movements, memorising patterns of motion, communicating non-verbal signals with partners and creatively expressing yourself — it’s really a smorgasbord of a stimulation for that brain of yours.
I think the first thing i came to really appreciate with Zouk was just how much I had previously underestimated the benefits of taking up dancing. Much like Adam, I wish I could go back in time and have learnt this dance sooner!
Zouk: an Antidote to Anxiety, Angst and Aloneness
The news these days is full of crisis after crisis and the world seems divided more than ever. What I loved about the dance hall was that when people entered those 4 walls, that left all that outside the door. In that space, it didn’t matter your social class, your job, where you’re from, or what ever other box society placed on you — what mattered was we were all here to dance, and that alone was enough to break down the barriers that kept us all initially apart.
Read on!
Thanks for reading my first medium article! I’m excited to join this band wagon. Today we’ve learnt exactly what the heck Zouk is, a brief run down of its historical development and the plethora of benefits it promises; calories burnt, new friendships made and fun to be had.
Thus concludes part 1 of this 3 part series on why I love dancing Zouk.
Please read on squire! :
