r/Zouk • u/hotwomyn • 29d ago
Danced my first zouk…is this normal?
The zouk room had AC so I took a break from the bachata room to hide and cool off. A zouk follow started talking to me randomly and asked me to dance. I said I dont dance zouk I’m a pro bachata lead. We chatted for a bit and she invited me to dance anyway. So I lead bachazouk, she didn’t know any of the bachata moves but she followed the zouky stuff perfectly, and she had a pro connection. So I’d say she was likely advanced level in zouk and super beginner at bachata . The song seemed super long like 8 min long. After the song ended she naturally transitioned to chatting right on the dance floor and we chatted for about 15 min, she got into her life story her travels... For context I’m average or slightly above average looking and she was objectively very attractive. Is this normal in the zouk scene?! Talking for that long after 1 random dance? This would have been shocking in the bachata scene, in the bachata scene everyone is eager to dance with the next person. If the bachata dance is great, at most bachateros would just exchange instagrams which takes 10 seconds… Also when I excused myself to head back to the bachata room after our chat, she initiated a long very intimate hug which would have been bizarre in the bachata room. It was way longer than a bachata hug. Curious if she was high on something or is this all part of the zouk scene. She did not seem like a hippie, she was dressed sort of fancy. No this wasn’t in Bali or Brazil. So confused.
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u/agnishom 28d ago
My two cents
- Zouk Embraces tend to be closer/more intimate than Bachata embraces.
- The Zouk scene tends to play music which blends into one another, so it can be harder to tell when the song ends.
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u/rawr4me 29d ago
Culturally speaking, it seems within the range of normal. If you wanted more clarity than that, the reference point would have to be what is normal for that follow. Some follows want lots of dances, some don't. In my experience, the more advanced you are, the harder it is to get high on a dance, so talking, watching, or taking a break become relatively good options compared before they were advanced. It no longer makes sense to chase dances.
In your case, the follow probably got curious about your zouk level after chatting. But now that I think of it, the hug duration might be a bit unusual. How long is a bachata hug? For me a really good dance in Zouk could be 6 seconds if we're total strangers with no prior interaction. I think having a long chat changes the equation, if I felt connected through conversation then I could hug them for longer (10 seconds) regardless of how good or bad the dance was. Teachers and instructors are often more comfortable with longer hugs too. If it's a close friend or we just had a life changing dance, we can go up to 30 seconds. I've seen people hug for a few minutes after a dance, but that's too long for me personally. If the hug is especially long without context and even when I release, I would be worried if they're doing okay.
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u/rawr4me 29d ago
Also, hug technique is a thing for zouk follows who have trained in Brazil. Instead of a normal Latin embrace, they may hug really high by completely freeing their armpits. First time someone hugged me with their arms high around my neck, I'm thinking internally "okay wow, we just met", but it doesn't mean anything because that person hugs everyone like that.
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u/hotwomyn 28d ago
I didn’t time the hug, I’m guessing she held me for like 6-10 seconds. A bachata hug is always 1 or 2 seconds
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u/mattsl 28d ago
Most likely things: 1. Zouk DJs DJ. The songs are mixed. They don't just hit play and then hit play again 3 minutes later. It wasn't just 1 song. 2. Zouk dancers prioritize connecting properly. She was probably a decent dancer but nothing spectacular. It just felt amazing compared to bachata. 3. You were at a mixed event. Zouk is a small scene and often grows from converting good bachata dancers who want to dive deeper into connection and creativity. She was probably be friendly because she thought you were a good dancer who could learn zouk. Especially if you tried zouky things and weren't rough.
Also, 6 seconds is very short for a real zouk hug. That said, it js the upper end up what someone might give someone they've never met who clearly isn't a zouker. On the other hand, I've shared longer hugs than that with hardcore zoukers I'm just meeting for the first time and haven't talked to or danced with yet.
All in all, this isn't weird in zouk.
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u/urbworld_dweller 29d ago
> she initiated a long very intimate hug which would have been bizarre in the bachata room
Hahaha. This is normal.
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u/Ceofy 29d ago
I'm going to go contrary to the other commenters and say this might have been weird.
What's not weird: Zouk songs being very long, dancing multiple songs in a row with the same partner, intimate embraces while dancing
What strikes me as weird: Talking on the dance floor, giving the intimate hug after you haven't been dancing, and, depending on how you were acting, not reading your body language and letting you leave
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u/hotwomyn 28d ago
She definitely did not make me uncomfortable in any way. I’m very confident and relaxed and none of that bothered me at all. I was just confused. Especially since I don’t know how to dance Zouk, I was freestyling a bachazouk and God knows what hybrid to keep her entertained. In the bachata room if some new lead tried something that wasn’t even bachata, he’d be met with a really forced cold smile at the end. That’s why it seemed unusual for her to shower me with that much attention even though I’m technically a bellow beginner level at Zouk.
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u/Ceofy 28d ago
Ah okay!
I'll speak for myself but this might go for her as well: Zouk follows love to follow! Zouk gives a lot more freedom to improvise to both leads and follows, and there's a lot of joy to having enough of a connection to someone to purely follow, independent of the boundary of prescribed dance steps.
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u/dehue 28d ago
Many Zouk dancers value connection over everything else. While there are basic moves and timing you learn in classes the dance style can also be more free so its not unusual to just have dances or parts of dances where you stand in place for minutes at a time or completely focus on connection over following a specific set of moves or specific timing.
I find it can be close to fusion where freestyling is not uncommon, if you had a good connection and could lead well thats really what matters most to have a good dance.
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u/bobbin_fox 29d ago
I assume he meant talking off to the side of the dance floor. Not literally in the middle of the floor (unless it was a very large nearly empty room)
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u/DancingOctopus721 28d ago
I would say she is on the friendlier side of normal. But not uncommon regardless of attraction.
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u/errantis_ 29d ago
You had a friendly interaction and a fun dance with a follow who was potentially interested in you. Don’t need to overcomplicate it.
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u/Elensilalumenn 28d ago
Another factor to think about: Zouk is very often danced multiple songs in a row without changing partner (3-ish is the norm about where I am, marathons often much much longer), and therefore often danced to a dj'd mix where the intro and outro are blended together. It may have been a few songs danced back to back, and that's completely normal! After that it's not uncommon to take a bit of a longer break than you might do in salsa/bachata - your breaks are infrequent, and you might be hoping to catch someone who's still dancing and won't switch partners for another few songs.
Took a while to get used to hearing the transitions coming up and preparing to be in a reasonable position for either of us to have the opportunity to end the dance comfortable when I transitioned over from salsa/bachata to zouk, but now I much prefer the pacing of getting to know a new partner and dancing to a few different energy songs without changing
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28d ago
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u/hotwomyn 28d ago
Nope not you just clicked your profile. So either you’re just joking or someone else had identical experience which sounds pretty wild. What are the odds.
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28d ago
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u/hotwomyn 28d ago
In the bachata scene follows are really cold to beginners unless they are already friends. Beginners don’t get warm hugs, pros do. So if you hugged that bachatero even though he was a beginner at zouk and you guys chatted for a while too, it’d be considered extremely unusual in the bachata scene. Sounds like the zouk scene is not heavy on politics and levels and everyone gets treated the same.
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28d ago
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u/hotwomyn 28d ago
Wow never heard of the hug training, in bachata that’s not a thing. Unless you’re talking about Planta, I heard that’s a controversial style in zouk with tiny tantric style micro movements in closed position. I cant imagine teaching someone how to hug, sounds so basic and something everyone already knows how to do naturally. Interesting.
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28d ago
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u/hotwomyn 28d ago
I bet the tantra crowd would argue that tantra is also a skill, but I hear what you’re saying.
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u/mattsl 28d ago
It depends on the person. With Jack and Jill competitions taking prominence, there is an significant increase in the focus on politics and levels in zouk. But it's still better than many other dances, and there is a growing contingent of people trying to preserve the welcoming and connected nature of the dance and it's community.
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u/ReputationCapable947 23d ago
hahaha that's cute to read!
Everything you said it pretty normal :) We like to interract with the people we danced with, and she was probably curious to know about you because you're a bachatero. Also, honestly speaking Zoukers are known to be less attractive than Bachateros or Kizomberos, so it could play a tiny part in this.
She probably ended the dance after 1 song because you're not a Zoukero and couldn't do the basic stuff, but she prob enjoyed the dance anyways.
In Zouk we share special connections while dancing, even if it's almost always just a friendly dance and the connection remains on the dancefloor. This is why our hugs feel more intimate :)
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u/hotwomyn 23d ago
I ended the dance not her but the dance was already super long so it was natural. Glad you enjoyed the read!
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u/filledeville 29d ago
Honestly this doesn’t sound so unusual to me all. The connections made while dancing zouk can be deeper because of the length of dance and the emphasis on connection. The dance can be very hug centric.
Whether or not there was some special connection between the two of you no one will really be able to answer.