Zoukaholics: Melbourne, Australia T’was the week before Christmas, When I drove to the fam’s house; Had to make it to Zoukaholics, For I knew it’d be grouse; The music was chosen by the DJs with care, In hopes that The High Heeled Zouker would soon be there; The studio, atmosphere and dancers were great, So when in Melbourne go…
Zouk Ecstasy ZouXtaZ. Zouk Ex ta Zee – Zouk Ecstasy… get it? It literally took me until the last workshop of the congress to work that one out. And that is only because someone told me. It is an accurate portrayal though – A congress in the packed paradise of Phuket, Thailand over 4-7 January was my jam this summer.…
Urban: a new flavour of Zouk Zouk is such a beautiful, soulful dance. It is complex yet simple; multidimensional yet stilling. One of the things I love about Zouk is that it is so dynamic; it can be danced to almost any type of music and fused with so many different styles. Last weekend I had the pleasure of hosting…
This Saturday I traveled to Sydney with the Canberra K&L Zouk Team to perform at Equilibrium; a monthly social put on by Latin Dance Australia. I always knew that some of the Canberra crew would travel to Sydney to dance (a 3.5 hour drive with no traffic… a 5 hour drive with traffic). And after this weekend I have decided…
Learning a new skill can be hard; but nothing worthwhile is ever easy. I have posted about learning to learn, but today I want to explore learning to lead AND follow to make you a better dancer. While my experience is with Zouk, I am sure it resonates with other partner dances. I was never interested in learning to lead.…
My first routine My last blog recommended learning a Zouk routine to survive the post congress blues, so I thought I’d share some of my experiences with it. I remember my first routine almost like it was yesterday. It was two years ago – almost exactly – that I started learning the 2015 International Zouk Day Flash Mob routine (check…
What is this feeling? I am well rested. I have no more sore-spots on my feet… but there is a gaping hole in my heart where times spent dancing Zouk into the wee hours of the morning used to be… Forgive me Zouk powers. It has been two weeks since my last Zouk congress. Last month I doubled my congress…
Casa do Zouk! I lost my Zouk Congress cherry in Prague. I had never even been to a dance congress in my own country. Until Now! Last weekend was Casa do Zouk – the largest Zouk congress in Australia. Hosted by Kadu and Larissa at Queensland’s Surfers Paradise, it was a nice ‘welcome back to Oz’ party for me after…
Honolulu Zouk Last week I posted about Island Zouk Lounge I attended on Thursday, so this week my post is about Honolulu Zouk, Hawaii’s other Zouk group! People living in Hawaii are lucky for a couple of reasons; they get to live in Hawaii. And they have two different but equally great options for learning and dancing Zouk. The Sunday…
Island Zouk Today’s blog is a bit different to usual – I am writing from Lanikai beach, Hawaii!! It is about 31 degrees with a nice breeze carrying the Zouk beats to me from my laptop. Today I will tell you about Island Zouk; one of the dance groups here with a super awesome Zouk social on Thursday nights. Just…
In a recent blog of mine I explored the notion that we are all beginners; and that some were just more experienced than others. It follows that if we are all beginners, we are all still learning… but this isn’t necessarily something we all do very well. My concept of learning has changed over my two years of dancing Zouk.…
Dancing is not about what you look like – it is about how you feel. When starting our dancing journey, many of us can over think it. Focused on how to learn new moves our attention is split and sometimes, we can even forget the joy of dancing. Knowing all of the moves is great, although does not necessarily mean…
Over the June long weekend, the Goulburn Railway Barracks hosted the inaugural Zouk Station Getaway. For those of you who don’t come from Down Under, Goulburn is a little country town almost half way between Sydney and Canberra – the perfect location to bring together dancers from both cities for a little dance retreat. The venue Mark McEwen, one of…
When it comes to dancing – when it comes to life – we are all beginners. Some of us just have more experience beginning than others. When you first start on your dance journey, in my case my Zouk journey, it is easy to get overwhelmed by the advanced dancers. What I didn’t expect was that after two years of…
Your dancing cohort: the awesome people that help you learn to dance. Get to know the people you learn to dance with. Appreciate them. You have different backgrounds, different jobs and lives, but you will always have your dance roots in common. You might not know it yet, but in terms of the dance community, your dance cohort are your…
To dance, or not to dance? I mentioned in my latest post that despite only having my two-year Zouk-aversary I really only started dancing when I experienced the power of connection. I started when I found myself dancing while at the Prague Zouk Congress. But the events that led to me walking into a dance studio in the first place…
In my first blog post I explained what was in the name ‘Heels-Travel-Zouk’ and how I found myself dancing overseas and then found myself online with ‘How I Got Here‘. But that is only part of the story – the externals. The actual catalyst for me entering the blog-o-sphere was my experience at the Prague Zouk Congress from 28 March…
I found myself dancing overseas, and then I found myself starting a blog… Strangely I had never read a blog before I decided to start one myself. In fact I just doubled my ‘read blogs’ quota the other day – I went from one to two – when I was researching how to blog. I am still getting to grips…
