Zouk is a name associated with a few distinct kinds of dance and music. As we focus here on the Brazilian Zouk dance, we can mention that it is quite different from the Caribbean Zouk dance or from the Angolan Zouk dance (know also as Kizomba).
The Brazilian Zouk dance originates from Lambada, and it has today two main branches, the Rio-style and the Porto Seguro-style.
Initially Zouk in Brazil was developed in Rio de Janeiro as a slower, smoother and more sensual form of Lambada, and those characteristics are now easily seen in the Rio-style. Some of the new moves of Zouk were adopted and adapted also by some Lambada dancers who needed to keep their dance closer to Lambada, and thus their style is called today LambaZouk or the Porto Seguro-style.
It's worth to mention that in the last few years other styles of Brazilian Zouk emerged, such as Neo-Zouk, Soul-Zouk, Flow-Zouk, Hip-Hop(or Black)-Zouk, etc. and it is arguable how related they are to either the Rio branch or the Porto Seguro branch, or both. Also, the group of all the styles and branches together is named Zouk-Lambada.
The Brazilian Zouk scene in Toronto started under the inspiration of great Rio-style Zouk dancers, and that is why presently "Toronto Zouk" as a dance school is focused to bring Rio-style Zouk in Toronto to more advanced levels of proficiency.
For those who are not familiar with Rio-style please watch on this page a few videos which show it in various scenes. For more videos and also for videos of other styles please visit our YouTube channel:
Toronto Zouk YouTube Channel
Rio-style Zouk videos:
Freddy & Andressa - workshop demo @ Amsterdam Zouk Congress 2012 Renata Peçanha & Jorge - workshop demo @ Zouk Congress - Rio 2012
