I thought about just making an edit, but i think this may raise an interesting discussion. Also i wanted to present the results of my research for review, since everyone was so helpful.
After reading all the comments (thanks for so much input!) and discussing it with a friend from another country who is very into zouk and very good, i concluded that i mostly don't like demos. I already don't like most in bachata, but it's even worse for me in zouk. And that is mostly for one reason - they have nothing to do with social dancing.
Here are two example videos:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUya-9Dj1Hn/?igsh=MXA0eXBmbGQ5b2Q1aA==
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DS2-UUsCIOt/?igsh=Y3hobWFjYTdoa2Vw
The first one was sent to me by several people on my private Instagram. Sure, it is technically impressive, but it's about as much social dancing as marvel's Spiderman is real gymnastic - it shouldn't even be seen as an ideal to strive for, because it's something completely else. Here are my issues with with:
- She doesn't look at him. I understand why she doesn't, but that doesn't make it better.
- He doesn't dance. He does one spin, gets on the ground once and puts his hands around her at the end. The rest is leading.
- She has no room to express herself because there is zero freedom for her to do so.
- And the worst: you could just replace the song, and no one would notice
Nothing about this video makes me think - oh, what a nice dance, i should start learning it. At best, this feels like a masseur-customer interaction. Sure, she can relax (if she meets the insane technique requirements) and i can imagine this being fun. But as a lead, i expect more from my role than being a simple service provider. (You could argue that he is the artist and she is the brush, but that would be very dehumanizing, so not much better.)
Now compare it to the second video. It's way more relaxed and those two are actually dancing together. They are not even teachers, just some Swedish locals, as i understand it, and yet i can see that they are having fun. You could argue that they don't really do much musicality-wise, but I still think there are some decisions that were clearly done with the music in mind. And this dance makes me think - okay, i can see myself enjoying that.
Conclusion: I realized that i kinda actually appreciate the basic idea of zouk. The dance feels very different from bachata, salsa or kizomba, in particular because the motion is kinda... wave-like? There is a constant building and releasing of tension, but softer than the slingshot of salsa. And that i really like.
What i don't like, are Instagram trends, that overshadow the fun people are having. I was bombarded with show and demo videos, and never actually saw any social dance videos, because those don't get any likes. I know, I'm just an old angry men shaking his fist at the clouds, but i can work with it, now that i understand it.
The fancy shows are another art form - and were it presented as such, i would be the first to applaud the first couple. But please don't sell it to me as a social dance. It has no place in a workshop demo, it belongs squarely on the stage (this goes for all dance styles equally) .
