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Zouk is a style of rhythmic music originating from Angola, the French Antilles and Cap Verde Islands, with a music close to slow Lambada. Zouk means 'party' in the local creole of French with English and African influences, all three of which contribute the sound. In Europe it is particularly popular in France, but also our Dutch neighbours seem to like it a lot ... in Belgium, as in the Netherlands we concentrate on the Zouklove or Brazilian zouk dance variant, but there is also a Kizomba(love) dance style and initiative in Brussels organised by the Zoukstyle Dance Company. The Kizomba is a dance style born in Angola in the 80's following the influences of Semba and Zouk. Kizombalove is the dance developed, promoted and taught by José N'Dongola, danced on Kizomba music and contains a.o. Tango elements. In the UK and in particular in Portugal and its old colonies, Kizomba style dancing is more popular on this music. In many cases Zouk / Kizomba music is played on Salsa Parties, as an alternative to Bachata; 100% zouk parties are rare but both Zoukamor (Salsa/Zouk de la Rosa) and aZoukar try to bring the balance up to 50% in their parties. In the Netherlands, but also at the latest Zoukstyle party (2009) , a special "Zouk-room" with 100% zouk/kizomba is sometimes / was available... and of course there is the Casa Baila (Antwerpen) initiative playing 2-hours non-stop zouk from 20:00 to 22:00, on the first Friday of the month...a small location, but an excellent opportunity to exercise your latest moves.
You can dance both styles almost on the same music although certain songs clearly favorize a particular style. For faster music Kizomba is easier to dance but you can of course also go for the Lamba-zouk variant or revolution-zouk style. You can even dance Kziomba on Reggaeton music (Kizombaton ? :-)..
How does Zouklove & Kizomba dancing looks like ? : Check our video section... |
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For Zouk, I can today certainly not do better than what can be found on the Dutch website from Claudio Gomes, "Zoukambassador" for the Netherlands; for Kizomba, I would like to refer to the Wikipedia link, mentioned below (English text) or to the short explanation on the "Danspunt site" (Dutch text)
also read :
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| Music ? |
Below you will find a selection of YouTube videos - selected with help from www.afromix.org - related to this last kind of music; they are mostly classified under "Kizomba". Check the www.afromix.org website the Portal of African and Caribbean Cultures. News, music, arts and culture, society, travel, events. Remark that most Cape Verdean artists mix the different styles of music on their CDs.
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