Lambazouk Workshop with LambaLena!!!!

Here goes another Lambazouk Workshop at my house in Northridge!! 7:00 unpartnered technique/ladystying 8:00 partnered technique 9:00 practica (Practice everything and anything! Exchange ideas, ask questions, open forum, help each other, dance and have fun!!!! Theme: THE BASICS, change facings of the basics, variations of basics, stylizing the basics. Pick and choose the hour you want $10 1 hour $15 2 hours $20 all 3 hours! Private message me for address. Hope to see you there!!!! ************** If you can do lambazouk, you can easily learn any other styles of zouk. It is said to be the more difficult style of zouk, as it is highly dependent on the counts and structure of the music. It's movements are foundational for all styles of zouk. Once you get lambazouk, you can understand how to break rules and add the contemporary stylings as you wish. This is because all zouk dancing is an evolution of lambada. When you have the original structure in your body, you will have more freedom in making the dance your own. Every week is a different theme or category of lambazouk. They include but not limited to: Turns Head movement/Hair whips Cambré (dips) Wifi (visual lead & follow) Traveling steps Connection (minimal force necessary to produce desired reaction out of the follower) Boneca (rag doll) LambaLena Bio Lena has been part of the LA Zouk community since 2009 and has been teaching Lambazouk since 2011. She is a classically trained ballet dancer for almost 20 years with a BFA in ballet teaching and performance and also holds a Master's degree in physical therapy. She has recently returned from a 6 month world tour with the Brazilian dance show, "Brazouka", the story of legendary lambazouk dancer, Braz dos Santos. She has learned invaluable information of Lambazouk and traditional zouk styles from this experience as well as from various teachers from Brazil and Argentina. She is really looking forward to sharing this information with everyone so we all can enjoy the feel-good energy of LambaZouk! FYI, LambaZouk on Wikipedia: LambaZouk, also called the Porto Seguro-style, is often thought of as the evolution of original Lambada, although in its current iteration it has divulged far from original Lambada. This dance is characterized by high energy (energia) and feel good attitude (alegria). Although it is a fast and energetic dance, it flows smoothly and the moves are continuous and rhythmic, and dancers follow circular (and to a lesser extent slot-style) movements as they relate to each other. One way in which the present LambaZouk differs from the original Kaoma-like Lambada style, is that they have removed wiggling shoulder movements (also sometimes seen in Cuban-style salsa). Instead the shoulders are kept fixed while the hips move (swing) to create a sensual effect. A number of movements have been added to the modern version of this dance mainly created by Didi Santos of Brazil. LambaZouk is characterized by the following movements: Head movements (Cabeça - head moves in the same direction as shoulder; Boneca - Head moves in the reverse direction as shoulder for half measure (1-2-3)) (Hair) whip movement (Chicote) Back arch/dip (Cambre) The original Porto Seguro style is also unique in the way steps are performed to music (in this sense it is closer to Lambada). Here, the steps are performed with equal emphasis (same amount of travel) on strong beat and the two beats that follow (including the pause after the strong beat). This is done specifically to facilitate musicality by matching sharp movements (Chicote and Cambre) with the strong beat. When danced this way dancers fluently incorporate sharp movements to accentuate strong beat without stopping the dance (pausing to catch up). Even though this timing is popular in LambaZouk it is by no means exclusive. Many LambaZouk dancers also dance by taking longer step (or turning the follower) on the dominant beat (like Traditional Zouk). It is also a common practice to switch between the two timings within the same song (by doing multiple contra-tempo turns for the follower). For comparison on timing, Traditional Zouk emphasizes strong beat by having dancers take a long step on the strong beat. In LambaZouk style (as explained earlier) a popular way is to step equally (length-wise) on strong beat and following two beats. This creates continuous movements. LambaZouk is danced to rhythmic, up-tempo music (tempo is generally fast or medium, rarely slow), whereas Traditional Zouk is more suitable for slow tempo music (often with long pauses). Kizomba music is very popular in LambaZouk owing to its rhythm and pace. Because the music faster, and head movements are more sophisticated and done more often, dancing LambaZouk requires better technique and timing in order to perform head movements without injuries.