Brazilian Zouk Dance Council

All Star/Champions 1st place at the Brazilian Zouk World Championships 2022, Phoenix USA

Walter and Ruana

All Star/Champions 1st place at Casa do Zouk 2022, Gold Coast Australia

Leo and Renata

Novice Prelims at Rio Zouk Congress 2019 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

What is Brazilian Zouk Dance?

Brazilian Zouk is a Latin dance which began in Brazil during the early 1990s. It originated from a Brazilian dance called Lambada with influences from other Brazilian dances.

In the 80’s, Lambada was very popular in Brazil and quickly gained worldwide notoriety through its music especially because of the popularity of the band Kaoma, Beto Barbosa, among others, and different styles of music such as Samba-Reggae, Caribbean Zouk, Flamenco music, mainly Gipsy Kings, among others. TV shows, films and DJ’s also helped promote the dance and the music.

Lambada was a dance that dominated most nightclubs in Brazil, especially in Porto Seguro, São Paulo, Belo Horizonte and Rio de Janeiro.

The most popular nightclubs in the 80’s and 90’s:

Porto Seguro – Reggae Night and Boca da Barra
Rio de Janeiro – Roxy Roller and Ilha dos Pescadores
São Paulo – Lambar, Mel and Reggae Night
Belo Horizonte – Casa Blanca and Cabaré Mineiro

In the 90’s Lambada’s popularity began to decline and with that the remaining lovers began to use primarily Zouk Caribbean music to continue dancing Lambada.

To learn more about Brazilian Zouk

About the Council

Since 2014, the Brazilian Zouk Dance Council serves, supports, and promotes all aspects of Brazilian Zouk. We encourage the growth of this great dance throughout the world. The Council is supported by its board of directors – Gilson Damasco, Renata Peçanha, Alex de Carvalho, Larissa Thayane, Kadu Pires, Jaime Aroxa, Raquel Ramalho, Philip Miha, Bruna Kazakevic, Rodrigo Delano, Andressa Castelhano, Ruana Vasques and Freddy Marinho.

The Council is designed to:

Improve communications and provide information services and record keeping for the Brazilian Zouk Community.
Promotes the growth of Brazilian Zouk to the general public.
Provides a central place for information for dancers, clubs, promoters, organisers, teachers, judges, competitors and interested parties.
Maintains a global website.
Maintains a competitors registry showing placements from all major events, with points accumulated for each competitor.
Maintains a Members Registry for communication between members.
Maintains an Instructors Registry with a listing of dance instructors that are members of the BZDC in good standing.
Coordinates and maintains a global calendar listing of dates and locations that allows for better planning for organisers and those who plan to participate.