Zouk Classes in Perth

History of Brazilian Zouk

What is Zouk?

Zouk is a French word that means “Party”.

Brazilian Zouk is a Latin dance which began in Brazil during the early 1990s. It originated from a Brazilian dance called Lambada with influences from other Brazilian dances. 

In the 80’s, Lambada was very popular in Brazil and quickly gained worldwide notoriety through its music, especially because of the popularity of the band Kaoma, Beto Barbosa, among others, and different styles of music such as Samba-Reggae, Caribbean Zouk, Flamenco music, mainly Gipsy Kings, among others. TV shows, films and DJ’s also helped promote the dance and the music.

Lambada was a dance that dominated most nightclubs in Brazil, especially in Porto Seguro, São Paulo, Belo Horizonte and Rio de Janeiro.

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Lambada’s popularity began to decline in the 90’s, and the remaining lovers began to use primarily Zouk Caribbean music to continue dancing Lambada. During this period people naturally began to call the dance French Lambada, because of the music being sung in French Creole. Following that the community began to call the dance Zouk.

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Many other factors influenced the decrease in its popularity. It is important to mention that many Brazilian dancers/instructors were fundamental to help maintain the growth of the dance and they are dance references until today. Some of them are members of the Brazilian Dance Zouk Council such as: Jaime Arôxa, Renata Peçanha, Philip Miha, Rodrigo Delano and Gilson Damasco. Important dancers who supported and promoted the dance in their cities until today, among others. 

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As a result of the Zouk music having different characteristics from Lambada, soon the Lambada dance began to adapt to the Zouk music. the dance was naturally modified, acquiring different characteristics in various states of Brazil and some places in the world, creating interpretations and different styles of Zouk. 

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There was a time when several names were created making it difficult for the community to promote Zouk dance. Several meetings and debates took place and the community understood that the name Zouk was inappropriate because the dance and music already existed in the Caribbean. 

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Around 2006, there was an important meeting at the Minas Zouk Congress (currently BH Zouk Congress) in Belo Horizonte, in order to define the official name of the dance and unite the community. The Brazilian Zouk name was decided by majority of votes. Until 2012, there were many meetings, lectures during dance congresses around the world to bring awareness and popularity to Brazilian Zouk name.