About K&L

Kadu and Larissa are Brazilian dance professionals who spend up to 46 weekends each year teaching, performing, choreographing and judging at the world’s most important dance events. They are dance partners since 2005. Some of their biggest achievements was to choreograph for So You Think You Can Dance Australia. They are the founders of Casa do Zouk event and Brazilian Zouk Council.

Upcoming events

Online dance classes

Learn from world renowned Brazilian dancers Kadu and Larissa. K&L classes explain technique, timing, connection on a series of movements and drills. More than 100 classes offered at sign up. Ask questions on the videos and have them answered by Kadu and Larissa. Join K&L’s monthly LIVE Q&A’s. Subscribe for as little as $27.99 USD per month and take your dance to the next level!

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Dance Events

Casa Do Zouk is an exciting event dedicated to Brazilian Zouk lovers, being held at Mantra on View Hotel in Gold Coast – Australia on July 27 to 31st, 2023. More than 35 Brazilian zouk workshops and 4 nights of parties.

Brazilian Zouk World Championships – more than 40 hours of workshops with international and national dance teachers, 4 nights of parties, Phoenix, USA. August 17th to 21st, 2023

Gift Cards

The gift every dancer wants! Choose the package most convenient for you you.

Subscribe for unlimited access to our Brazilian Zouk, Samba de Gafieira and Dance Conditioning classes.

Receive more than 100 classes at sign up. Enjoy your membership by clicking on the plan that suits you best.

Gold membership – USD39.99 per month

What is Zouk Dance?

Zouk Dance definition by the Brazilian Zouk Dance Council.

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 Samba de Gafieira, Brazilian Bolero and Forró.

In the 80’s Lambada was a very popular dance in Brazil, especially in the night clubs in Rio de Janeiro. Over time, Lambada gained worldwide notoriety through films and it’s music.

What caused Lambada to lose its popularity?

  • It was a fast dance style with many challenging body movements, which made it harder for people of all ages to learn.
  • DJ’s started to play less and less Lambada music.
  • It became the forbidden dance due to how sensual the dance was.

In mid 90’s Brazilians discovered the rhythm Zouk from French Caribbean, which had many similarities with Lambada music. The Lambada lovers saw an opportunity to continue dancing their beloved dance style. Soon the Lambada dance style started to adapt to the Zouk music. However, Zouk music was slower than Lambada, so it was necessary to make alterations to the dance including to its basic steps.

This transformation happened in many states in Brazil. In Rio de Janeiro, Jaime Aroxa, Renata Peçanha and Adilio Porto at Jaime Aroxa Dance School realised that in class it was difficult to teach the Lambada basics on the spot. With the influence of other Brazilian dance styles such as Samba de Gafieira, they included a new basic travelling forward and backwards. The linear Salsa also influenced them to create linear movements like “Lateral” and “Bonus”, because the Lambada movements were all circular. These changes started to help students learn the dance faster. Following that, other movements were created such as “Raul”, “Soltinho” and “Bonus”, which gave origin to our popular basic kit.

Many of the teachers and students at Jaime Aroxa Dance School helped contribute to the spread of this new teaching methodology, which spread to other schools and other cities around the world.

In other states such as Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais, the transformation of Lambada to Brazilian Zouk Dance originated in different ways creating different styles of Brazilian Zouk.

Even though this dance gets its name from a French style of music, it is still considerate a Brazilian dance, based on its direct ties to Lambada and being created in Brazil by Brazilian dancers.

Improv Zouk Dance

Brazilian Zouk World Championships

Online dance classes

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