Last night was the second time my eyes are glues to a social dancing couple since I started zouk.
The first one is a couple who were dancing in a small club when I was beginner, they dance very original and freely, I remember I was wishing to be able to dance like that. Time has since passed and I hardly take notice of other people dancing at dance floor nowadays. However, yesterday, A coupld was dancing something different as others when I noticed them. One was a teacher I am familier with. who was a lady?
I have not seen her before but I can tell she is not amature dancer in the way she dances.
She dances with confidence and create drama while entertaining us. Her skill of dancing is polished but something different from zouk dancing we normallly see. She slips down by holding onto leaders arms several times but without losing balance. More importanty, she then slides up without making any efforts and I have no idea how she does. She even slipped down diagonally and even flipped up and down with one leg before getting up!!! That was awesome and weviewers clapped hands when she did that! Hmmm..... How come I have never seen her before? I asked her friend who was sitting next to me, what kind of dancer she is? Then I nod it. She is a professonal TANGO dancer!
The main reason I love zouk is there is a room for creativity and free expressions we can make through music, express our feelings into music. So the more you know many dance, the more zouk you create fascinating. if we have to stick to a typical zouk lambada or brazilian zouk alone, it rather boring to me. Every one has different taste on music and dance style, so we do not have to agree to it. Just I like aithentic zouk. And certainly dance I saw yesterday was entertaining and I saw other people did too.
So do we want to take up tango now? Many zouk dancers move onto zouk once they master zouk style and they say tango is great to learn. Surprisingly, tango is only few of dance styles I have not tried yet. I did salsa,zumba,bachata,kizomba,bollywood,bellydance, contemporary and lyrical jazz. but not tango. Why? The reason it deterred from taking up was the first, its formality, the second, I heard there remains traditional sexism in tango circle, such as only men can invite women to dance, and they tend to invite good dancers who are good enough to dance with them. The third, the image of tacky tango shows between busty tango emale dancers and ugly male dancers on the show. Maybe I just cannot fit me in the formal steps and cannot remember it! My body does not seem to designed to dance for tango either. ( need fuller bust? ) For me, Tango is beautiful only when beautiful couple dance....Maybe I am discriminatory, dance should be for everyone. ( Saying no in my heart, I am discriminating fat dancers, secretly saying loose weight!! make an effort to tummy in!!) For same reason, I am sensible enough not taking up for tango as I do not have beautiful face and body for tango! (somehow I think my body is suitable for zouk though) Still no harm just try few lessons maybe and see how it affect on zouk dancing? If i did, I will report how it goes. but not likely to do so. Anyone who does tango as well as zouk, please report to us in kazouk!
By the way, salsa and kizomba is also good to learn together with zouk. Salsa is for sharp move and connection for kizomba. Both dance does not much time to learn either. Someone said Celoc is similar to zouk but easier form. There is forro and samba. kazouk welcome to receive an insights relations between those dance and zouk. Some does Jui Jitsu or kendo and zouk, anyone find good relations of two or three things, please let us know.