SC-Z: About Zouk

-About Zouk-

Zouk, also referred to as Lambazouk, is a dance that originated in Brazil. It is a modern type of Brazil’s “Forbidden dance,” Lambada, danced to the zouk music of the French Caribbean islands. However, the Caribbean people have their own way of dancing to the zouk music. Consequently, confusion sometimes can come up when referring to the Brazilian Zouk. So to be more specific, people sometimes use the name “Lambazouk.”

This dance is a partner dance where the men leads the women. It is a very sensual, and passionate dance with the 3 focus points being the hips, dips and hair-movements. The hair-movements especially are what really put this dance apart from other type of dances. Another noticeable thing about Zouk dancing is how the ladies sometimes behave like a doll, completely dependent on the men’s movements.
Zouk is danced on a 3/4 beat, and instead of using numbers to count the beat, the words “tum chik chik” are often used to represent the 1, 2, 3, and 5, 6, 7.

Nowadays, Zouk is danced to many different types of music that use the same underlining beat. One similar type of music to the zouk music is kizomba, a South African genre of music usually from Cape Verde and Angola. A more well known type of music that Zouk is also danced to is reggaeton.
Currently there are also DJs who create their own zouk music. The DJs sometimes use completely different genres of music. They then add the ground beat that is required for Zouk dancing. The library of possible musical genres that Zouk can be danced to continues to grow and expand.

Overall, Zouk is a very relaxing and enjoyable dance. It follows the same standard way of partner dancing, where men lead the women, it brings an innovative way of counting beats, and It can be danced to many different genres of music.
Briefly said: Zouk was made for success!