I think one of the best parts of being a Brazilian zouk dancer is that you can easily combine travel with dancing and find many zouk festivals and local communities abroad. I have found that those who love warm, sunny locations have a surprising number of options to choose from! Therefore I decided to compile a list of tropical/warm destinations that host zouk festivals or have a local scene, that you can consider as your next destination.
1. Brazil
Let’s start with the most obvious one. Brazilian zouk comes from Brazil, which has a tropical climate and a huge amount of zouk festivals and events. There are weekend-long festivals like International Rio Zouk Congress or Ramalhos Zouk Festival in Rio, One Zouk in São Paulo, Zouk Hour in Florianopolis and more, but also longer immersion programs for helping foreigners experience Brazilian zouk in Brazil like Rio Zouk Immersion (who is also kindly the sponsor of this blog post!). It is also possible to simply fly to a bigger city in Brazil at any time and join the weekly zouk classes and parties held there.
2. Mexico
Mexico hosts one of the biggest zouk festivals called ZoukMX, which consists of pre-festival training, the main festival and after-festival activities. In total you could spend a full month in Mexico training zouk. In past years they’ve also had teacher’s training course within that month, which I think is super cool.
3. Bali
If you like to vacation in Asia and fancy flying to Bali, you might want to take part of the week-long Bali Zouk Retreat. Artists are carefully selected and a limited number of participants are allowed for maximum learning.
4. Australia
There is no doubt that Australia is one of the best places in the world for beautiful beaches and hot weather depending on the time of year. There is also a longstanding community of zouk dancers there. You can attend festivals like Casa do Zouk near Brisbane, BraZouky in Melbourne, OneZouk in Adelaide or Brisbane Zouk Festival.
(NB! This year, 2024, BraZouky is also hosting an event in Hanoi, Vietnam – another tropical location!)
5. Hawaii
Hawaii, the ultimate tropical location has a zouk scene as well. The most active communities seem to be in Honolulu and Big Island. In previous years they have also hosted zouk festivals, so if Hawaii is on your bucket list anyway, keep an eye out for events there!
6. Colombia
Colombia is a newcomer on this list with having a relatively new zouk scene. They hosted Colombia Secret zouk retreat and festival in 2023 in Medellin and I think it’s worth keeping an eye on whether they organise something like this again.
Where would you travel first? Let me know in the comments below!
Disclaimer: This blog post is sponsored by Rio Zouk Immersion.