The first edition of this article where I wrote down Brazilian zouk dance moves in Portuguese with GIFs to illustrate, turned out to be very popular and helpful to many dancers (Read it here). This is understandable since in zouk classes many moves are referred to in Portuguese but not everyone speaks it or knows the Brazilian pronounciation.
Second part is long overdue but finally here! I wrote down some more Portuguese names for zouk moves and created GIFs to accompany them, so you can finally understand what the instructors are referring to in classes. Let’s go!
1. Chicote
Chicote means “whip” in Portuguese and it is used to describe when followers throw their hair back as an accent by looking up. Often used in lambazouk. There are multiple variations how to do it – softer and sharper. It can be lead with body contact but also “wirelessly” with visual leading.
See pronunciation
2. Boneca
Boneca is a move common in lambazouk and it means “doll” in Portuguese. It’s often led visually as you can see from the image below, but can also be led by contact (eg leader is behind the follower).
3. Toalha
Toalha means “towel” and it describes this move where follower does head movement but is also turning with her back to the leader.
4. Pião
Pião movement is named after a spinning children’s toy. In this movement the follower and leader are in a closed frame and both rotating around a central axis that is between them. It’s also possible to add head movement to pião.
5. Gostosinho
Gostosinho is used to describe this “comfy hug”, for a lack of a better word. Done at the end of a basic back-and-forth for example. Since it means delicious/lovely/pleasant it can also be used to describe a good dance as a whole.
6. Balanço
“Balanço” in Portuguese means “swing” and it is used to describe the movement in zouk that is similar to basic back-and-forth but you are slightly angled and stepping backwards or forwards 3 times instead of 2. It can also be called “base paraense” and it comes from lambada.
Hope this list was helpful for you. Lambazouk really is taking over the zouk scene at the moment and many dance moves from lambazouk have names in Portuguese, therefore it might be useful to know them.
Let me know what other things you need help with in Brazilian zouk and I’ll see how I can help you!
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