Brazilian zouk is a Latin-American social dance that is danced to a variety of different music, which also sometimes influences how it is danced. Let’s take a look at different music styles zouk can be danced to with video examples for each. Let’s go!
Zouk
First and foremost, zouk is danced to zouk music that has it’s distinct rhythm and around 70-80 BPM. Dancing to this music gives you the fundamental understanding of the Brazilian zouk dance and it’s rhythm, which then helps you adjust zouk for other music styles.
Traditional Zouk
Traditional zouk music is made up of styles like zouk love, ghettozouk, cabo zouk, zouk béton and similar*. Historically, when zouk was created, this caribbean music is what it was danced to. In the zouk community nowadays, traditional zouk music is mostly used by lambada dancers. It tends to have a higher BPM than other music played at parties.
*This type of music is also used by kizomba dancers, which can be very confusing. Read a bit about the history of zouk here to understand these connections better.
Zouk Remixes
The DJs in the zouk community also remix pop songs to zouk rhythm. I recently went to a zouk festival in Brazil and zouk remixes were really the main type of music played at parties.
Lyrical
Brazilian zouk has some roots in contemporary/jazz dance, therefore it is easy to adapt it to lyrical music. The flowyness of zouk really comes through when using this type of songs and they give the counterbalances and head movements opportunity to shine.
R’n’B
Zouk is also danced to R’n’B music. The rhythm in R’n’B is not the same as in zouk, therefore dancers sometimes modify the way they do basic steps to fit music better. Dancers who have a background in hip-hop enjoy this type of music since they can use their previously learned moves for styling.
Reggaeton
In recent years it has become popular to dance to songs with a strong beat and high energy, like reggaeton/latin urban. These songs are mostly in Spanish, since it’s a popular music genre in Spanish-speaking countries of Latin-America. Similar to reggaeton is also moombahton.
Electronic
I am not very knowledgeable in the electronic music category but I know that zouk can also be danced to certain styles like chillstep and lo-fi. You mostly hear this type music in the “chill” rooms of zouk festivals where people tend to dance with one partner for a long time and don’t want sharp music changes.
These were some examples of what type of music you can dance brazilian zouk to. (I accidentally picked mostly videos of Rau & Isa but they also have the most interesting and varied music choices and lovely demos!) The variety of music is one of the strong suits of Brazilian zouk and there really seems to be something for every taste. This isn’t an exhaustive list of styles, but should give you an idea of what to expect.
What type of music do you prefer to dance zouk to? Mine are probably zouk, reggaeton and lyrical, depending on my mood. Leave yours in the comments! 🙂
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