Zouk

Brazilian Zouk is a partner dance originating from Brazil in the 90s. Initially, the dance was practiced to Lambada music (4/4 timing signature). Originally, it was danced to Lambada music. But as this musical style went out of fashion, dancers turned to Caribbean Zouk (from the francophone, Caribbean Islands), and eventually the dance was known as Brazilian Zouk to distinguish it from the musical style, and nowadays simply "Zouk" is used too. Also, dancers started experimenting with other styles of music such as R'n'B and others. Also, as Zouk was developing in Brazil, it took several evolution paths, depending it was being danced at dance schools or as a street dance. The most characteristic feature of Brazilian Zouk is as the follower performs movements with the upper body out of axis and intricate leading and following techniques to achieve this. Other features are body dissociation and body movements. Brazilian Zouk is a dance with well defined basic steps and rhythmic patterns, the representation of which might vary depending on the substyle, that still leave elasticity towards the musical genre being danced to, which in its turn allows it to be in constant pattern creation and/or improvisation.