Zouk in the Netherlands .....gezellig!

There are a couple contenders in Europe for the title of the biggest zouk city. For quite a while Prague, Barcelona, London and Amsterdam have been at the top of the list. All the aforementioned cities have a large number of zouk teachers, dance schools, congresses and party nights and are pretty much neck and neck for the #1 zouk destination in Europe.

Lately, I've been hearing that the zouk scene in Amsterdam is not like it was in its heydays and perhaps Prague and Barcelona are now in reign...? Be that as it may, I was in Amsterdam last week and certainly had to go check out the local zouk scene!

See the end of the post for full list of zouk in Amsterdam & Netherlands!

Gdansk and Sopot - Polish city & beach holiday combination!

It's been a busy spring and start of the summer for the blogger - but still time for small trips! During Easter, mid April, we headed to Gdansk (or formally Gdańsk - and in German, BTW, Danzig), Poland. My second trip to Poland this year!?

Gdansk is the biggest city in Northern Poland, located on the Baltic coast. It is Polands main sea port and home to about 450.000 people. It's also part of Tricity (Trójmiasto), together with Gdynia and Sopot. Gdansk has an interesting history, as a free city, as part of the Hanseatic league as well as under German rule. It is and has been a part of Poland since 1945.

The most famous view of Gdansk

AfroLatin Flow - a hot dance weekend in Helsinki!

It was the warmest weekend of May when AfroLatin Flow arrived to Helsinki. Not just hot artists and sensual dance styles but also warm weathers, yay! Those three put together means we were in for a very steamy weekend!

Helsinki in the end of May - yay!

AfroLatin Flow is a three-day festival for the kizomba, zouk and bachata dancers, organised by IDNZ. There was quite a number of talented artists involved:

Kizomba, Semba and Tarraxinha: Sara López, Mafalda Amado & Alphonse Delette, Zé Barbosa & Marta Miranda, Rui & Catarina from AfroLatin Connection, Jazzy Cubango & Giselle Dias, Nemanja Sonero & Laura Zaray, Greg Martin.

Brazilian zouk: Pasty Pieternelle & Josta Ruby, Kwok One, Ossi Kimmelma.

Bachata: Carlos Cinta, Iñaki Fernandez, Andre Haikal & Arina Vesman


From the line-up you could notice that the kizomba-semba-tarraxinha team was the biggest one! It certainly was the main style in the parties but in the workshop tracks you could spend pretty much the whole time doing just one style (kizomba, zouk or bachata) - but surely those that wanted to mix styles got the most out of this event!

I was "taking it easy" that weekend - which meant I only signed up for the five night party marathon, and skipped the workshops this time.

Zouk summer season in Helsinki - 2014

The summer has started in Finland! This summer-loving country pretty much slows down to a halt ... but we keep on zoukin'!

Check out below the summer schedule for zouk!

Dates are subject to change and more classes & parties are sure to appear during summer - always check with the respective organisers for their latest schedule.

50 signs of zouk addiction

For my fellow zouk dancers.... I was going to make just a short list. But hey, I managed to stop at 50!!?!

1. You go shopping for clothes or shoes and see something you like. The first thing you think is "but can I dance in this"?

2. The clothes in your wardrobe are getting a lot smaller, shorter, lighter and less modest.

3. You become to know a new level of how bad your shoes can smell.

4. (Zoukeiras:) You start looking at other people's long hair with admiration and envy.

5. Most of the websites you visit contain the word "zouk" or "dance" in their url.

6. You've already decided to shut your laptop but then you think "I'll just watch one more dance video".

7. You have to get a new hard drive because your old one runs out of space from all the dance videos you have.

8. You start changing your user IDs and profile names to something that contains the word "zouk".

9. Your ringtone is a zouk song.

10. You think it's completely normal to get extremely close A) a person you don't know at all and B) a completely sweat-drenched person.

International zouk competitions

The dancers are a competitive breed of people. And why not? If you got skills, step up and show them! There are a couple of international competitions coming up in my favourite dance form, Brazilian zouk Sign up and be a zouk star!

May 30 - Jun 1 2014: Zouk World Cup

in Zurich, Switzerland held at the Zurich Zouk Congress (KSG, Limmatstrasse 114, Zürich), organised by KriZouk.

Qualifiers on May 30, 11:30 pm: Improvisation to 2 songs, one slow and one fast. All the competing couples will dance at the same time.

Finals on Jun 1, 11 pm: The finalist couple perform a choreographed zouk show (2-4 minutes).

Criteria: Musicality and rhythm; Creativity; Harmony; Use of space; Clothing.
The judges award 5-10 points for each criteria for every couple. The finalists will be chosen by the highest accumulated points of the qualifiers. Points from the qualifiers and the final will be summed up to for the total points for each couple.

Judges: Renata Peçanha, Jorge Peres, Rodrigo Delano, Renato Veronezi, Babi Pacheco, Bruno Galhardo, Eglantine Oliveira, Leandro Wakko, Masha Oliveira and more.

Prizes: Full passes of international zouk congresses.

Registration: Fill in the form here.

Registration fee: 50€ (includes entrance to Friday and Sunday parties).

Registration deadline: May 20 2014.

Note: The competition will be held only with the registration of 6 couples. Otherwise the competition will be canceled and registration fees refunded.

Styling for the whole body (and mind): Part 2 of zouk ladies' styling tips

This a follow up to the part 1 of zouk ladies' styling. There I looked into various parts of the body and how to best style them. Here I attempt to summarise the key ideas in styling - "styling for the whole body (and mind)".

If you have ladies' styling tips of your own please share to them to us here, or on DTW Facebook page! I'm always interested to hear about ways to become a better (and a better looking) dancer :) 

<< Missed Part 1? Go to previous post

Zouk styling summary

Less is more

After all the styling tips, there's one that I don't want you to forget: Less is more. It looks messy if you do all kinds of styling at the same time; run one hand by your side, the other around your head, the hip is turning, head going around.... And you look more like "I'm itchy" than "I'm sensual". A better way is to do the styling moves separately - you can even connect them: Turn the hip. Then place your hand(s) at your hip and run it (them) up your side, then around the head. Leave the hand(s) gracefully on one shoulder or open downwards and then roll the head around (relax the neck).

Zoukeiras, it's our time to shine! Part 1 of zouk ladies' styling tips

One of the first things someone told me about zouk is that the main job for the leader is to make the lady look beautiful! Probably everybody wouldn't agree that it is t-h-e main thing (but it sure sounds nice in my ears). But it's not only the leader's job to do that, it's also the ladies' job - and styling certainly makes a big impact in that.

In this post I will share the tips I've collected during the years regarding zouk ladies' styling. There are some universal ideas of what movements look nice and what don't - but still, the two important things I think you should remember in styling:

First of all: We are all unique and have your own individual style! Don't be stressed about not looking exactly like your zouk teacher, about moving just like her, having her physique, flexibility or looks. Be proud of your individual style!

Secondly: Every zouk style has different styling, to some degree. What fits one style may not fit the other - but learning more than one way to style does not hurt! Some concepts still remain the same in all styles and I try to focus on these here.

“It's better to live your own life imperfectly than to imitate someone else's perfectly.”

Elizabeth Gilbert

Below a number of "key concepts" in the follower's styling in zouk, as simply written as possible. Many of these have notes also about dance technique in general, how to move in a way that helps you also follow better and make your movement feel & look more elegant. These tips here have helped in my dancing and would say apply to any zouk style (zouk-lambada, Rio style, hiphop zouk, etc). I've included some style specific tips too!

If you have ladies' styling tips of your own please share to them to us here, or on DTW Facebook page! I'm always interested to hear about ways to become a better (as well as a better looking) dancer :) 

Brazil on the Baltic Sea!

Brazil, the Baltic Sea. What does the two of them have in common?

Well, two weeks ago a group of us went on a Brazil themed cruise over the Baltic Sea, from Helsinki to Stockholm - that's what!

There are a tens of cruise liners crossing the Baltic Sea between Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Germany and Russia every day. Brazil was (and still is) a seemingly popular theme on the cruise liners Viking Line and Silja Line this spring! I obviously JUMPED on this like the Brazil, samba & zouk fan that I am, and organised a little trip for the group of us dancers!

So what's in a Brazil cruise on the Baltic Sea?

Obviously a big fat Brazilian buffet! The picanha wasn't as delicious as in Brazil (could it really be?) - but at least they had the picanha, yummy. The food was great, the selection was enormous and the company was fantastic!

Samba and capoiera shows! There was a couple shows each evening in the night club by a Brazilian dance goup. The samba costumes were quite beautiful actually!

How to improve your musicality? 6 exercises for dancers

This is a sequel to Getting a grip with musicality - the most vague and insightful part of dancing.

There I discussed about musicality in dancing, how to define it, the theories involved in general, in zouk and in leading and following as well as what musicality means to me.

From theory to practice - how can you improve your musicality? 

“And if the music's good, you dance."

- Unknown

See my zouk music playlists

Perhaps you've taken a musicality workshop with your dance teacher or at a congress, and you have already an idea how to work on your musicality (I fully recommend taking workshops and private classes!). But there's plenty of exercises you can do on your own, and this will allow really to dig into details and work at your own pace. Below a collection of exercises that will flex your musical muscles! I hope you'll find these tools useful - I've worked with a variation and combination of these over the years and I feel they've helped me.

NB: If you're worried about wearing out your favourite song in the exercises below then by all means pick song that is not your most loved tune. I wouldn't worry though; the song may wear out for a while as you do this, but you will get more kick out the exercises with a song you really enjoy and will probably in the end love it even more. And after intensive listening sessions you can take a little break from that song and it'll be sure to regain its power.


Ok, lets get to work!!

Getting a grip with musicality - the most vague and insightful part of dancing

Musicality is to me one of the most important aspects of dancing. The best dance partners are gifted in many respects; technique, style, connection and they are overall great people. Musicality is one important trait among those, it helps an otherwise good dancer rise to an extraordinary dancer. And for me it's the thing that makes the magic happen on the dance floor.

In the words of ballet teacher Deborah Wingert. “Musical dancers don’t just turn until they stop. They turn until they have to move on to the next point in the music. Musical dancers never get so caught up in steps that they ignore the music.”

Theories on musicality

Musicality - no matter how important it is to me - is something that I've always struggled to really explain or quantify. Even some of the definitions I've come across are extremely vague, such as this by choreographer Wade Robson: “Musicality is understanding music on a technical level, and then dropping all of that knowledge so you can sit deep inside the music. It’s dancing inside the music, as opposed to floating on top of it.”

Well, how is dancing "inside" the music more musical than "floating" on it?? Or if your dance teacher tells you to increase pace or make a movement bigger it is usually quite clear, but if he or she would tell you to increase musicality, what do you do?

2014 zouk congress calendar - updated!

This is an update to the extremely popular 2014 zouk congress calendar! The list below includes all major* zouk events around the world during 2014. Most of the events are now confirmed, even up until the end of the year! Those that are not confirmed are also on the list with their 2013 dates. The cancelled events are at the bottom of the list. If you'd like to see the previous version of the 2014 zouk congress list from Sep 2013 you can still view it here.

To help you plan your personal "zouk world tour" all the links and dates have once again been checked & updated, and all the events that appear for the first time in 2014 are marked as NEW. Also a couple new type of events have been included in the list - these are events that are designed to be "only" big international zouk parties with no or very limited amount of workshops. On the list these are marked with PARTY. My blog posts of the events can be also seen along the list! Any questions? Dig in!!