Brazilian Zouk Fundamentals

Here you’ll find instructions for basic steps and the fundamental movements that make up Zouk.

I think it makes sense to get this down pat well before you start moving onto undulations, head movements, and other power moves.

I’ve tried to compile the best resources for learning Brazilian Zouk fundamentals and give an outline.

About Brazilian Zouk

The Zouk Vibe

Zouk primarily emphasises connection and soft natural movement.

• In Zouk, you generally don’t hit the floor with your feet to mark the beat. Rather, the rhythm is expressed through body movement.
• If it facilitates communication and connection, it’s okay to not be exact to the millisecond of the beat. As an example, you might step a little bit early to open up to a lunge so the follow can feel the torsion before they step. You may not be stepping on time per se (which would be a mistake in most other dances), but you making this sacrifice for the greater good of the lead/follow connection, which is a higher priority in zouk.
• In Zouk, weight transfers (steps) tend to be more grounded and fluid rather than sharp. For many basic steps, you allow the momentum created in the first step to carry over into the second, rather than stopping the energy.
• Upper body and torso play a major role in expression of musicality.
• Zouk will use body isolations as part of the lead-follow vocabulary, rather than just styling. In fact, most of the leading is done through body movements rather than frame.
• Musicality in Zouk is layered: you can dance to the rhythm, the melody, or the atmosphere rather than just the beat.

There are a lot of technicalities that feed into the zouk vibe that you’ll no doubt pick up along the way.

Zouk is Freedom

In Zouk it is often said that there is no right or wrong, only safe and unsafe. However, it’s still a good idea to practice these basics patterns. This allows you to get a feel for how the connection works. Once you become comfortable with these basics and this feeling, you can start to experiment with your own style and flow that’s unique to you and “break the mold”.

Zouk Music

Technically the term “Zouk” refers to a genre of music that originated in the Caribbean. Brazilian Zouk - the dance - evolved out of an older dance called lambada. Lambada was danced to lambada music. But lambada music was banned because it could get a bit dirty. After this, the music played in clubs changed to zouk which had a much slower rhythm. So the dance had to adapt to this new music. Thus this new dance was created and called Brazilian Zouk. The slower music allowed the dance to flow more freely, being much more sensual, fluid, and expressive. But Brazilian Zouk is not actually wedded to Zouk music. It can be danced to any music that follows a range of tempos, generally from 60-90 bpm. You can find all sorts of music genres: pop, hip hop, raggaeton, rnb, etc. You can check out our list of music to get a feel for the different styles!

The Fundamentals Curriculum

Here’s a list of the basic elements that make up a zouk dance. This is kind of your swiss army knife. Once you’re comfortable moving around the dance floor with this basic vocabulary, and you have some mental space, you can begin to add head movements and other kinds of styling to these movements.

Step 1: Moving your feet

Projection and premovement

When it comes to moving with the rhythm, I find Nate’s article on footwork to be a fantastic resource and a great first building block towards learning how to transfer weight in Zouk. It highlights some really important concepts like premovement, which differs in Zouk compared to other more popular dance styles. Do note though that Nate (and actually, I think Tiago too below) is actually semantically mistaken at least from the more official modern vocabulary.

• Projection (the word) is the movement of your body weight over your foot, while
• premovement is the movement of your foot before you place it on the ground.

You don’t “project” your foot. That’s just semantics though, and the essence of what nate and Tiago’s video below is 100% congruent with this official vocab.

Boom-chick-chick & basic step

The foundational step in Zouk is slow-quick-quick. Here’s their basic step. Best to learn to do this first on the spot, just shifting weight.

Step 2: Lateral

Here’s how to get into lateral step from elastico, but personally I prefer to do it from viradinha. But there are many many ways to do it. None are wrong of course because zouk is freedom.

Step 3: Viradinha

Viradinha means “little turn”. If you actually dissect it you will see it is basically leading a lateral step. There are lots of variations of Viradinha.

Step 4: Lunge

The lunge is a position where one leg is extended while the other is bent creating kind of a springy feeling. The “boom” step is on the spot. It’s a fundamental move in Zouk and is used to transition to many other steps, most commonly a simple turn. Normally you lunge from lateral, but you can also lunge from basic as well.

I can’t find a video right now explaining just a lunge unfortunately.

Improving your lunge

Step 5: Simple Turn

There’s actually two kinds of simple turns, one from lunge and one which is the traveling turn. They both kind of sit on the same fundamental principles but vary slightly. If you watch this video you’ll have a good foundation for both.

And some variations for those interested!

Step 6: Yo-yo

Yo-yo is basically a turn that turns into a wrap. Here’s a simple explanation:

Step 6: Soltinho

There are a couple videos here for Soltinho. Note there are a lot of variations, but this is kind of the fundamentals. This is Tiago’s exercise video, which is great for getting the muscle memory - highly recommend.

… then we have (one kind) of Soltinho - also really well explained.

Step 7: Bonus

The Bonus is a move that combines a left turn, patinha, and another left turn. There is also a bonus from the right, which is basically a traveling turn.

Conclusion

All the above comprise the basic “fundamental” Brazilian Zouk movements. Once you’re comfortable with these, you can add more intricate and playful variations and begin to play with undulations, head movements, and more complex combinations.