Promiscuous Bachata versus Sensual Zouk Dance

In March 2009 I started a discussion on a Dutch Salsa site (Latinnet) comparing the fast global evolution of Bachata Dance set against the much slower pace of Brazilian Zouk. I had predicted that Bachata would outrun the Zouk as a main Latin Dance. I had not dreamt in my wildest dreams of Bachata rivaling Salsa in some countries, and in such a short time-span.

This article is a short summary of the analysis and the discussion we had lasting from March to August of last year. This is also an eye –opening narrative, which helps to understand the development of Bachata and Zouk in May 2010. 

Similarities between Bachata and Zouk Dancing    

Bachata and Zouk dancing both started as ‘Promiscuous Dances’. Prostitutes on the Dominican Republic danced the Bachata with their potential clients. The Brazilian Lambada, a combination of the ‘ancient’ Carimbo and the more modern Forro Dance, was introduced in the 80’s as a new Dance Craze for the yearly Carnival in Bahia (Brazil). Both of these dances started with dancing close together, what I refer to as ‘Body to Body Dancing'. Some interpretations of the word ‘Lambada’ are associations with the words Lombada’ (= ‘Bumping’) or Lomba (= ‘Loins’). Lambada is the original form of modern Zouk Dance. Both of these dances have a (relatively fast) evolution caused by Commercialization.

Music

Bachata Music was made popular by Juan Luis Guerra in the mid 80’s (Album ‘Bachata Rosa’), and young groups such as Aventura, Extreme, Domenic Martin and Monchy & Alexandra mixed Bachata with the commercially successful R&B Music making it accessible for a global Westernized society in the 90’s and 2000’s. Lambada Music was made internationally known when a group of clever business men from France went to Brazil, bought the rights of hundreds of songs and started the band Kaoma, which had a mega-hit with the song ‘Dansandu Lambada’ (1993). The French-Antillean Zouk Music, which Brazilian Dancers and Instructors had chosen to replace the dying Lambada, started to gain worldwide popularity when artists such as Kevin Lyttle started to mix the sensual and slow Zouk with R&B Music thus creating ‘Zouk Love’.

The Dance 

The Dance ‘Bachata Fusion’ is an invention of the Salsa Dance Instructor Jorge Elizando from Texas (U.S.A.). He launched his first Bachata Dance Instructional DVD in 2005 (‘Bachata Rueda’). He stylized, standardized his dance style, and mixed the original Dominican Bachata Dance with Turn Patters and other Dance Elements from other popular dances such as Salsa, Rueda, Merengue, and Tango. In the early 90’s Claudio Gomez started to teach Lambada in Amsterdam (The Netherlands). After Lambada passed away he created a hybrid dance form by mixing Salsa with LambaZouk. I call this unique Salsa Dance Style ‘Zouk Salsa’. He created a team of Show dancers, educated them in Zouk Salsa and other Brazilian Dances, and made them Dance Instructors.  After the successful introduction of American Style Salsa in the Netherlands (1st European Salsa Congress in 1997) Claudio chose to not learn this new dance style and return to Brazil. There he continued to develop his own Zouk. Zouk Dance started in on the Ilha Dos Pescadores in Rio de Janeiro in 1989. The growing popularity of Zouk Love Music led Claudio to invent his own brand of Zouk Love Dance Style. He returned once again to the Netherlands in 2000 and re-introduced the more modern Zouk variant he learned and mastered. Zouk became a very popular Partnering Dance in the Netherlands and in some other European countries such as Germany and Spain.  

Hybrid Dance Styles  

The initial commercialization of Bachata and Zouk Dance has prompted many Dance Instructors to mix these dance styles with their own flavors and visions: their Hybrid Dance Styles soon started to make their own mark. Some Bachata Dance Hybrids are: Bachata Dominican Style, Bachata Moderna, Bachata Tango (or Bachatango), Bachata European Style, Bachata Creativa, Bachata Italian Style, Bachata Dance School Style, and Rodchata. All of these dance styles have been developed over the past 4 to 5 years. Zouk Dance has also many hybrid forms: Rio Style Zouk (Carioca Lambada), ZoukLove, SoulZouk, LambaZouk, NeoZouk, Zouk-Revolution, Lyrical Zouk, Roda de Zouk, and the wide spread Zouk Porto Seguro Style.

Global Coverage

Brazilian Zouk is danced in Brazil, The Netherlands, Australia, The U.K., Spain, U.S.A., Israel, Belgium, Zwtiserland, Japan, Thailand, Germany, Poland, France, Portugal, and in Denmark. Zouk Dance is bigger in the small country of The Netherlands than it is in its land of origin Brazil. People dance Bachata in all of these countries and more: Bachata is spreading like wildfire on all the continents.

Differences

Bachata was developed and spread in a faster pace than Zouk. This has to do with some key factors. The development of Bachata started with popular International Salsa Dance Instructors using their superior Salsa Dance Business models to develop and market Bachata Dance. They created lots of Bachata Instructional DVD’s in English, they immediately traveled around the world teaching at international Salsa Dance Congresses, and the fierce competition between so many international Salsa Congresses makes them very eager to have new dance hypes. There is also a high degree of cooperation and exchange of services in the global Salsa Dance community. The Brazilian Teachers, however, can be compared with the Latino Dance Teachers at the beginning of the Salsa Dance Craze. Most of them are very protective of their own small business ventures, and they tend to see each other as competitors instead of potential allies. Most of them have not yet brought out clear-cut Zouk Instructional Dance DVD’s out into the international market. The lingual and cultural barrier between the Salsa and the Brazilian Dance scene is also larger. Until now most Zouk Dance Congresses have been organized without any help or cooperation with the Salsa Dance or the Latin Dance scene.

Conclusion

Zouk Dancing has excellent growing potential. The evolution of the Dance will go much faster when great Salsa Dance Instructors and successful Salsa Congress Organizers take an interest in the dance. Bachata Dance has many Salsa Stars such as Inaki Fernandez (the ‘European Bachata King’ from Madrid, Spain), ‘Hips On Fire’ (Boston Massechussets, U.S.A.), Juan Ruiz (Bachateros Online Magazine, Australia), Edie ‘The Salsa Freak’ (L.A. California, U.S.A.), Josie Neglia (also from L.A.), and Susanna Montero (London, U.K.) dominating the Bachata DVD Market. Troy & Georgette (New Orleans, U.S.A.), and Jorge Ataca & Tanja La Alemana (U.S.A.) are spreading Bachata all around the world at dozens of International Salsa and Bachata Congresses a year. 

Which International Salsa Dance Icon will be the first to take on Zouk Dancing?