Darius who reside in Canada was nominated by Sabrina as a special zouker.
- How did you know each other and how have you maintained the friendship?
I met Sabrina at the Prague Zouk Congress in 2013. We randomly met on the dance floor and I asked her for a dance. Immediately I realized we had a great connection to the music and each other. This experience left a great memory for both of us.
Since then, we met at a few other congresses and I visited Paris, where I danced with Sabrina next to the Seine river!
- Ms Sabrina told me that you help blind people to dance zouk, how have you come up with this idea and how do you help this? What kind of activities have you done in the past and what do you feel about it?
I wanted to make a difference through dance. I created a production telling the story of a blind person through dance. To make the show more powerful, I showcased blind dancers on stage. I reached out to the Association for the Blind, who assisted me in auditioning blind dancers. Five people showed up. After the audition, I felt in love with them and decided to teach them social dancing because they were amazingly talented and wonderful people. After only 6 hours of training, we invited these Vision Dancers to our Zouk party, where they demonstrated their skills for our dance community. It was wonderful to see them integrate with the rest of our dancers. Beyond social dancing, my partner and I trained three of the five Vision Dancers on choreography. They performed in the “See Inside Me” dance production in Toronto on May 17, 2014 with stars like Kadu & Larissa, Jordan & Tatiana, and local dancers. This was done as a fundraiser for people who live with vision loss. The success of our project opened doors for us to teach dance workshops for kids and youth at the School for the Blind. I have been giving several talks at conferences to people who work with blind people. We are actively working to make dance as a part of the school’s curriculum for blind children. We have also started an all-ages Zouk social dancing program for blind people in November 2014.
I think Brazilian Zouk is a dance that emphasises on connecting with your partner and the music. It does not heavily relying on visual connection. Therefore, it is perfect for blind people. It not only boosts their confidence, but also creates a fun physical activity that involves socializing with the greater dance community.
My partner Laura and I are the first couple to teach Zouk to the blind in Toronto, Canada. It is a slow process, but incredibly rewarding. We hope one day we can grow this to an international level, and share the gift of dance with the blind community world-wide. The “See Inside Me” dance production is the first full-length Zouk stage production in the world featuring blind dancers. It is going on tour to raise funds to develop dance programs for the blind. (www.SeeInsideMe.dance)
- Would you let us know about a bit of your personal life to know you better otherwise tell us about your passions in life apart from Zouk and any ambition or goal or mottos in your life, please?
I would like to change the world for the better. To make an impact that generations after me would benefit from. We know some problems in the world are really hard to solve, but I believe smaller communities can make a deep impact.
This is why I have combined my passion for dance with my other skills to create a social entrepreneurial project to teach Zouk to the blind. I immensely enjoy teaching and mentoring others, and consider myself a very ambitious person.
- What have you done before you started teaching zouk and tell us if you do different job apart from teaching zouk?
Outside of my professional dance life, I have a career in IT consulting. I studied Computer Engineering and I earned my MBA degree after that.
Before Zouk, I danced Salsa internationally. I have done a teacher training course in Salsa and have several years experience in teaching it. I also performed with Salsa teams and several partners. I have trained in Ballroom, Argentine Tango, Flamenco,
Ballet, Contemporary, and Indian Classical Dances (Kathak, Bharatanatyam) to name a few.
- What is the reason you started to teach zouk? How you started it ?
In 2009 I started fusing lyrical and contemporary with Salsa. My choreography took me to Salsa Team Canada. That year at the LA Salsa congress, I saw a Zouk performance by Oliver and Vali from Australia. I was intrigued by the dynamics of the movement that could be created using this style by fusing it with contemporary dancing, which I was not able to do effectively using Salsa vocabulary. This led me to research the dance and I was introduced to Kadu & Larissa. Their stage work inspired me to travel all the way from Canada to Australia to learn from them. I choreographed a routine and used Larissa’s help to clean my technique.
This started my Zouk life in 2010. After Australia, I travelled to Brazil and Europe several times over two years to get trained by as many teachers and perform at as many congresses as I could. I took three teacher training courses offered by Brazilian teachers to authentically master the technique. Meanwhile, I was choreographing and performing two Zouk routines every year. This investment and my previous Salsa teaching experience gave me the confidence to start sharing my knowledge of Zouk with others in 2013. In summer of 2014, my partner and I launched the Zouk University program in Toronto. This program is a technique-focused education for dancers who are interested in becoming a great social dancer. It is offered in undergraduate and
masters level with a few elective courses. Aside from this, we are offering Zouk teacher training and performance training programs to inspire new dancers and grow our community. (www.dzouk.com/zouk-university)
- Would you mind telling us some impressive episodes you have encountered during your zouk history?
There are many impressive episodes but I will list my top 10:
1. Being the first Canadian to represent Zouk on stage internationally with my first partner Kaylin (Feb 2011)
2. Being the first to dance Zouk under water in Scuba diving gear with Kaylin (Aug 2011)
3. Producing a video dancing Zouk in European capitals (Sep 2011)
4. Establishing the first Zouk dance troupe in Canada (June 2011)
5. Representing Canada at Rio Zouk Congress (Jan 2012)
6. Receiving compliments from Renata Pecanha about
my choreographies (May 2013)
7. Training the world’s first blind Zouk dancers with my partner Laura (Jan 2014)
8. Seeing the emotional reaction of Larissa Thayane backstage when the Vision Dancers performed after her and Kadu during the "See inside me"dance production (May 2014)
9. Organizing Vision Dance Encounter: the first West Coast Swing and Zouk crossover congress in North America (May 2014)
(www.VisionDanceEncounter.com)
10. Organizing Canada Zouk Congress (May 2015)
(www.CanadaZouk.com)
- Any particular message for zoukers?(or any advice to zokers)
The global Zouk community is relatively small. We should all stay united and work together to spread the love of Zouk and grow our community locally and internationally. I think it is best if teachers, promoters and organizers collaborate and support each other. Also teachers should invest in learning new material and keeping up with the trends in teaching, music, and events.
Zouk dancers should take training seriously. We have a highly delicate and technical dance. Training will not only make your dancing more enjoyable but also ensures safety of you and your partner. Learning from videos and Youtube is not the most effective way.
Dancers should support local organizers’ events. If their budget permits, dancers should attend international congresses to get greater exposure to social dancing and education.
-Lastly, please nominate a friend with an interesting profile as well as being a great zouker but from a different country to any zoukers who have featured in Zouk in the past please? ( UK, Holland, France, Brazil and Dubai, Spain) Tell us the reason why he or she deserves to be a special zouker?
I would like to nominate Dana Winter from Dresden, Germany as a great Zouker. Dana is not only an amazing dancer but also the founder of the Zouk Family event.
This event has a unique concept that brings dancers together in a friendly intimate weekend event around Zouk and socializing.
(www.Zouk-Dresden.de)
Lastly, thank you so much for taking time and agreeing to be featured in kazouk.
I am sure, many people would be interested in knowing you more and your connection worldwide will more expand.
Kazouk