In the quite long period of time I've been out of the dancing scene, a lot of stuff happened in Bucharest. Salsa evolved quite a bit. Bachata is danced differently now than the way it was back in 2006, when I first started dancing. People are now dancing West Coast Swing. The Afro craze started (zouk, kizomba, semba, tarraxinha).
I've missed on the whole zouk period and I don't really feel like getting into it, but kizomba is slowly (slooooowly) growing on me, although, due to the fact that I only know some basic steps, I find it boring if I they play more than two songs in a row and I start to fall asleep (the fact that the music is quite slow does not help either).
Kizomba is the result of an evolution. It describes both, a music style and a dance style. Kizomba is an Angolan word which means "party" in the Kimbundu language (one of the most widely spoken languages in Angola within the ethnic group called Bantu). The Angolan expression Kizombadas in the 50's referred to a big party, but there was no link with the dance nor with the music as we know it today. Traditional dances (primarily carnival dances) like Semba, Kabetula, Kasukuta, Maringa, Caduque, Rebita, Cidralia , Dizanda, were predominant at that time. In Luanda, the Angolan capital, you can see almost all of these dances one by one during the "Carnaval da Victoria".
Apart from Angola, Kizomba dance and music is also performed in other Lusophone countries (Portuguese speaking countries) such as Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Equatorial Guinea, São Tomé and Príncipe, East Timor, Brazil and the territory of Macau. Yet, its popularity is also growing rapidly in the Western world and nowadays Kizomba can be found also in Portugal, UK, France, Belgium, Spain, The Netherlands, Luxemburg, USA, as well as in some Eastern European countries.
Kizomba - music genre
Kizomba music was born in Angola (in Luanda) in the 80's following the influences of traditional Semba music (the predecessor of Samba from Brazil) and Zouk music from the groupe Kassav from the French Caribbean Island Guadeloupe. On this basis, Kizomba music emerged as a more modern music genre with a sensual touch mixed with African rhythm. Unlike Semba, Kizomba music is characterised by a slower and usually very romantic rhythm. Given that Angola is a former Portuguese colony, Portuguese is the principal language spoken in Angola and thus, also most Kizomba songs are sung in Portuguese. However, Kizomba songs of the very beginning were sung in Kimbundu and in other National languages of Angola.
Kizomba - dance genre
What people call Kizomba today is an evolution of the traditional dance Semba. Angolan people used to dance Semba since the 50's. This tradition remained unchanged even when the groupe Kassav from the French Caribbean Island Guadeloupe came to perform Zouk music in Angola in the 80's. Angolans simply danced their traditional Semba movements also to the Zouk music. Parallel to that, another special way of dancing called Brucha Brucha (men dancing with men) evolved. Brucha Brucha was a mix of Semba with other African dances and was sometimes danced on Zouk music from Kassav too.
In the 90's, when the actual Kizomba music got more and more popular, the Kizomba dance started receiving more and more credit and began to take the form it has today. What happened is that Angolan Semba dancers started to adapt their Semba steps according to the tempo and flavour of the Kizomba beats. Technically speaking, Semba danced in a slow way to Kizomba music is the basis of the Kizomba dance we know today. Angolan Semba dancers love their Kizomba music and when Kizomba music is played they often danced and still do dance Semba on the tempo of the Kizomba music they are listening to. We can say that at the beginning of its development, Kizomba was dancing Semba at a slower tempo according to the beat of the Kizomba music. This was the origin and is partially true until today – what makes the difference now is that with time, certain typical Kizomba movements have been developed (moves explicitly danced to Kizomba music and not necessarily to Semba music).
Due to the Cuban presence in Angola during the civil war (1975 – 2002), their overall culture and especially dance culture strongly influenced Kizomba. Hence, Cuban elements can be found in the Kizomba dance. Milonga and Tango were also much appreciated in Angola as a result of globalization and both dances equally influenced Kizomba dance as we know it today. Some people even describe Kizomba as "African Tango".
There is a considerable difference between Kizomba "the music" and Kizomba "the dance": Kizomba "the dance from Angola" has NO Zouk influences. Kizomba "the music" has Zouk influences from Guadeloupe and Martinique. So when you hear that Kizomba has Zouk influences, always bear in mind that it refers to Kizomba "the music" and NOT to "the dance".
Confusions between zouk and kizomba arose after many Cape Verdean emigrants arrived in France where they were exposed to the French Antilles compas music "zouk-love" in the 80's, they mixed it with a traditional Cape Verdean style, the coladera, creating the cola-zouk, which is very similar to kizomba and typically sung in Cape Verdean Creole. It is this rhythm that was confused with kizomba, and was heard in Portugal when Eduardo Paim arrived there and released his first record with kizomba music. Currently, in Lusophone countries and communities around the world, due to it being difficult to distinguish between zouk, cabo love and kizomba, all these styles have been called kizombas, however in a rough and generic way, one can say that Zouk is sung in French and Antillean creole, cabo love in Cape Verdean Creole and kizomba in Portuguese or Kimbundu.
Kizomba is known for having a slow, insistent, somewhat harsh, yet sensuous rhythm; the result of electronic percussion. It is danced accompanied by a partner, very smoothly, slowly and sensuously, and with neither tightness nor rigidity. There are frequent simultaneous hip rotations coordinated between dance partners, particularly in the quieter refrains of the music. The basic step of the dance has the lead take two steps forward, then on the third beat, brings both feet together, tapping their foot. The lead then repeats, but going backwards, finishing where they started. The dancers should be in a similar hold to the one typically used in salsa, but where the lead rests their right hand below the follower's left shoulder, they rest it below the follower's right, making for a lot closer hold.
Sort of like this:
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kizomba
http://www.salsa-dancers.com/kizomba.html
http://www.kizombalove.com/Kizombalove,45
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