Zouk and Kizomba

They both pollute our salsa nights !
(even worse in France than in other countries, since zouk comes from the French Caribbean !)

You may want to look this up on wikipedia :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kizomba
 
Same music, different dance :P

You play something like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7TyFvA2RoQ

and in the UK everyone starts dancing kizomba. In the Netherlands everyone starts dancing zouk.
 
At the frech speaking countries they call the music Zouk. At portuguese speaking countries mostly in Angola they call the music Kizomba and they sing in portuguese instead of frech.
 
tresto said:
They both pollute our salsa nights !
(even worse in France than in other countries, since zouk comes from the French Caribbean !)

You may want to look this up on wikipedia :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kizomba
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MacMoto said:
Same music, different dance :P

You play something like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7TyFvA2RoQ

and in the UK everyone starts dancing kizomba. In the Netherlands everyone starts dancing zouk.
Click to expand...

I just hope that the fad doesn't carry on for too much longer.
 
From what I've seen, you're in for a disappointment - a number of people I know through salsa are completely in love with kizomba. I've already made my criticisms elsewhere on this forum, although I will state that kizomba's popularity with salseros is a symptom not a cause.
 
my fiestas have been kizomba free until now:applause:

but we have an event coming up where an instructor who has apparently danced kizomba since way back in kizombalandia so ...

as a matter of interest, if i had to play a few

any tips on the like top 3 or 4 songs?

is there a "lamento boliviano" of kizomba? (if you know what i mean);)
 
I don't have any interest in zouk.

No complex interplay of music, no call and response, I find the music fairly repetitive. Listened to a fair few tracks just to see if I could 'get' it but they pretty much all sounded alike - nothing that had the life of salsa music.
 
As far as I can see, Zouk is a more interesting dance than Kizomba, but the music is dull and in both cases when done at a lowish level just looks like an end of school disco smooch - you might as well be playing "I'm Not in Love" by 10cc or "If You Leave Me Now" by Chicago.

I really wish that I could understand the appeal of the dance and why it's destroying the salsa scene.
 
KP-salsa said:
As far as I can see, Zouk is a more interesting dance than Kizomba, but the music is dull and in both cases when done at a lowish level just looks like an end of school disco smooch - you might as well be playing "I'm Not in Love" by 10cc or "If You Leave Me Now" by Chicago.
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When Salsa is done at a lowish level it may not look like the end of a school disco smooch but I can't say it looks particularly interesting either ;). As for the music being dull, I guess that all depends on personal taste. Some people think Mozart is dull, others think R&B is dull. I guess I'm lucky enough to enjoy almost any kind of music (I say almost cause most Merengues seem to be an exception to that rule :) )

I really wish that I could understand the appeal of the dance and why it's destroying the salsa scene.
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Although I don't dance either I can see the appeal of Zouk in a similar way that I can see the appeal of Bachata. It's something else. Don't get me wrong, I love salsa but just as I love steak, sometimes I want something else like fried rice with chicken.

As for it destroying the salsa scene, that could only happen if it actually replaced the salsa scene. If I look at the Netherlands then the number of Zouk dancers has grown a lot and rapidly. And I agree that in the beginning it did cut into salsa dance time. Or rather, into Salsa and Merengue time. But now Zouk has grown to the point that there are Zouk Rooms and/or Zouk parties which means my Salsa nights are now back to being ruined by Merengues instead. I much prefered it when Zouk was cutting into the Merengue time to be honest but then, that says more about me than it does about Zouk or Merengue :)
 
bas said:
Although I don't dance either I can see the appeal of Zouk in a similar way that I can see the appeal of Bachata. It's something else.

As for it destroying the salsa scene, that could only happen if it actually replaced the salsa scene.
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Unfortunately, kizomba seems to be replacing bachata in the clubs. Where before you would have had 4-6 bachata songs, now it seems to be just one or two, with a long stream of kizomba kicking in between the regular salsa tracks.. I do prefer bachata to kizomba it must be said.
 
sunsoul said:
I do prefer bachata to kizomba it must be said.
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Ditto! But only if it's the right bachata. I actually also prefer merengue to kizomba, but again with the same reservation. And since I don't get "the right" kinds regardless I guess I'll have to get used to kizomba and zouk :(
I assume the simple structure and it's resemblance with pop, R&B or rather "commercial" bachata is what appeals to many dancers. Others might just like an additional opportunity for grinding.
 
KP-salsa said:
As far as I can see, Zouk is a more interesting dance than Kizomba, but the music is dull and in both cases when done at a lowish level just looks like an end of school disco smooch - you might as well be playing "I'm Not in Love" by 10cc or "If You Leave Me Now" by Chicago.
Click to expand...

Exactly, except the music's a lot worse than the school disco classics mentioned (neither of which I'm particularly keen on).
 
If you like dancing Kizomba or Zouk, but don´t like the music. Check out Tarraxa, Tarracha. It´s based on Kizomba, but with RnB flavour (ok, you have to like RnB!).
 
Well, I still don't like Zouk (boring!!!), but I'm now starting to understand why so many of my fellow salseros/salseras are getting into Kizomba. And I'm even starting to like it myself.

In Kizomba, every step is led. The pattern variations are not only direction/movement, they are also timing. You can do 2,3,4,5 and more beat moves, with different weight shifts, and all of this is completely led.

To me, here is the big difference : in salsa you lead moves, and your partner will kindly execute them, with her own steps/weight shifts, and within a "fixed timing" frame (break on1, on2, ...) there can be slight exceptions but it's kind of a fixed framework.

Kizomba is about leading the steps and the weight shifts. The connection is very different. It's slow, not flashy, very intimate. It implies that the guy takes complete control, and that the woman really surrenders to him.

I'm still in love with salsa because of the incredible music, but Kizomba is pretty damn cool !
 
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