There’s sensual dancing, and then there’s kizomba. This Angolan dance form is mesmerizing to watch, and its unavoidable sensuality is helping it spread across the world.
Kizomba is both a dance and a style of music, which developed in Angola in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The dance derives strongly from zouk, which is a Caribbean Carnivalesque quick rhythm originating in the islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, and which calls to mind reggaeton and Brazilian funk. Zouk drifted to Angola, where it mixed with traditional Angolan music and semba, the Angolan origin of Brazilian samba, resulting in kizomba. The word zoukmeans party or festival; if zouk is the party, kizomba is what’s going on in the back bedroom among the muffled beats of the party raging up front.
In fact, Jorge Elizondo, one of the first instructors to bring kizomba to these shores, told OZY: “It’s not meant to be performed. It’s not about tricks or turns. It’s about the one-to-one connection with your dance partner.”
As in so many sensually driven dances, the man’s leg spends much of the dance firmly lodged between the woman’s thighs; it’s the iconic move of kizomba. But don’t get it wrong: Kizomba is not a frantic, throw-me-around-the-dance-floor surge. Quite the opposite. Its sensuality resides in its steady simmer, never boiling over.
Kizomba is both a dance and a style of music, which developed in Angola in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The dance derives strongly from zouk, which is a Caribbean Carnivalesque quick rhythm originating in the islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, and which calls to mind reggaeton and Brazilian funk. Zouk drifted to Angola, where it mixed with traditional Angolan music and semba, the Angolan origin of Brazilian samba, resulting in kizomba. The word zoukmeans party or festival; if zouk is the party, kizomba is what’s going on in the back bedroom among the muffled beats of the party raging up front.
In fact, Jorge Elizondo, one of the first instructors to bring kizomba to these shores, told OZY: “It’s not meant to be performed. It’s not about tricks or turns. It’s about the one-to-one connection with your dance partner.”
As in so many sensually driven dances, the man’s leg spends much of the dance firmly lodged between the woman’s thighs; it’s the iconic move of kizomba. But don’t get it wrong: Kizomba is not a frantic, throw-me-around-the-dance-floor surge. Quite the opposite. Its sensuality resides in its steady simmer, never boiling over.
