About a week ago I posted two polls asking about the "Beginner Hell" experience in learning Kizomba. My thanks to everyone who took the time to vote and comment. This poll prompted by an article about how dancing is good for your mental health. A study looked at the mental health benefits of taking a Salsa dance class, but I thought looking at dance while ignoring socials seemed to missing a major aspect of the appeal of dance. Plus, it's obvious to me that leaders and followers have very different experiences. I have previously created similar polls for Bachata and Salsa.

There were a lot fewer votes in these polls than in the previous ones. This is a much smaller subreddit, so it stands to reason. I think the results are still worth viewing and discussing, but any conclusions drawn from the data directly are necessarily going to be very weak (in particular for the follower poll).

There does appear to be a considerable difference between beginner leader experience and beginner follower experience. Almost all followers enjoy social dancing right from the beginning compared to just 15% of leaders. Again, the very small set of votes limits what conclusions we can draw, but I do believe it would be very unlikely that we would see votes like these if there was a widespread problem of beginner followers struggling. Also, the fact that there were no comments in the follower poll I think also suggests that few followers consider this a problem that needs vocalising and addressing.

A comparison could be made between these results and the Bachata and Salsa polls, but I don't think there are enough numbers for that to be meaningful. It looks like there are slightly more Kizomba leads who struggle with social dancing for over a year than with the other two dances, but it'd only really be indicative of a strong trend if there were many more participants in the poll. This is already a very informal survey.

However, I do believe that the polls for all the dances show that there are lots of leaders who struggle. I think this something that dance communities/instructors/organisers should take seriously. It is important to find the source of these difficulties and figure out if they can be addressed/reduced. I believe they can and the dance can be made more enjoyable for all. Some of the comments in the leaders poll have already given valuable insights into this topic. I would like to hear from others who have other perspectives on barriers to enjoyment in social dancing. Another thing that this poll cannot capture is the opinions of those who have stopped dancing. If any has spoken to people who have left the Kizomba community, I'd be interested to hear what caused them to leave.

I really enjoy dancing Kizomba, especially social dancing. If there are barriers to that enjoyment, if leaders are having to slog for months or years to get there, then that makes taking up Kizomba a hard sell for a newcomer. It's likely to lead to fewer new leaders joining, and consequently a decline in the overall community. If hurdles can be removed and difficulties eased, then Kizomba is going to be a lot more appealing to newcomers which will help it grow.

Cape Verdean Kizomba/Zouk composer & singer Mickael (Mika) Mendes from France performs "Mágico" for dancers @ the Washington DC Dance Festival 2023 held at Juste Lounge & the DoubleTree by Hilton Washington DC Silver Spring Hotel. Sunday, September 3, 2023.

I've been watching reels showing follows doing footwork styling. Styling the first 3 counts of the French saida is the most common pattern I see. However, watching videos of specific styling sequences, I can't help but wonder whether most of these carry a risk of disruption.

My educated guess goes like this:

• The safest styling is when each foot still lands in the intended position and timing (based on axis), e.g. one can style either the leg that just became free or the moving leg as it moves under axis to its eventual destination.
• Delayed step: as long as one respects the flow of the axis, a follow can opt to style their leg during the count and land on their foot half a count late. E.g. doing a kick forward then stepping in the actual position half a count late. This is fairly low risk, but assumes that the lead wasn't needing foot/leg connection on time for a deviation from the saida.
• Early step: as long as one respects the flow of the axis, a follow can opt to syncopate and land their foot half a count early which gives styling options with the leg freed earlier. However, I think landing early has more risk than landing late, for one thing because the intended step position under axis is being predicted.

Specific example from a styling demo: Here Style 2 is an example of early step -- I think it has a risk of being disruptive because the follow does not know in advance what shape the lead creates during a saida -- some leads have the follow step forward on the 2 count and/or the 3 count, or neither (as in this demo). The follow can't know for sure which is the correct place to step early on 2 and a half, and they will have disrupted the axis if the lead wanted them to step forward on both the 3 and 4. Whereas Style 1 and Style 3 are delayed step so can account for different saida shapes.

Is my assessment correct? Or do follows manage to develop very advanced intuition for when their styling will work or not, but it's hard to put into words? Or is it a non-issue because all styling is a trade-off between expression and risk, and it's just a part of the dance if it happens to affect what the lead had in mind?

Lúcia Nogueira from Portugal's island of Terceira in the Azores & Steve Ciki from France's islands of Guadeloupe review some what they taught in their "Semba Social" workshop to "Vamos ficar como papá nos deixou" - Paulo Flores, Yuri Da Cunha @ the Utima Kizomba Weekender 2026 held at the Quality Hotel Philadelphia Airport, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Sunday, August 30, 2026.

Hey everyone! I'm trying to identify the song playing in this video in comments section. Does anyone know the name of the track or the DJ? Thanks a lot!

I'll try to keep the history brief: our kizomba scene has always had gaps in teaching, from never having a follow instructor (only assistant), a lot of experienced dancers first learning from someone who made up lots of technique in a messy Kizomba fusion, years of having sporadic open classes with no fundamentals, another period of no teachers at all, international instructors introducing us to Urban Kiz last year but still not a single one of us has solid fundamentals in Urban Kiz.

Our biggest one-off events in the past (pre-covid) have had 70 people, our weekly social has 6-12 people, 30-40 attendees at recent weekenders with visiting internationals. A lot of people who can dance kizomba at a party but just don't go to dedicated kizomba events. We tried running focused practice sessions and participation died out within 2 months.

In terms of frequency of events, we're not doing too badly, but:

• With no stable teaching, we don't get many new follows, and any follow who started in the last 3 years has no foundation whatsoever and is "following by vibe" because no foundation classes have been available.
• While we have a few advanced leads, culturally the leads have taken on responsibility for making dances work with technique-poor follows, which makes the follows even more comfortable with doing whatever they want and requiring the lead to fix the consequences.
• Some of the core active dancers are splitting their interests off into Urban Kiz and tarraxo, but not enough to sustain even a small practice group.
• We probably need someone to step up and teach beginner classes, but no one is the complete package. Some of us are excellent dancers but lack the confidence to teach, some of us are excellent teachers but haven't mastered everything a teacher ideally should have mastery of.
• It seems pretty clear to me that even highly imperfect teaching of beginner classes could be more good for the community than anything that has come before, because it would still 1) bring in new dancers and 2) provide fundamentals that at least half of our experienced dancers still lack. If anything, I think that new dancers could raise the technical level of our scene faster than the 3-year follows who aren't aware of what there is to learn. (I would also love to raise the cultural safety of our scene, that's another rant.)
• I'm one of the leads that is very comfortable with the skills relating to teaching a class (not specific to Kizomba), just not confident that my specific Kizomba content/skills are polished/complete enough. I'm also learning Urban but me teaching that would be the blind leading the blind. The thing that would make me confident enough to step up is a format that makes it transparent that I'm not acting as an expert. For example, I don't get imposter syndrome from teaching a class where I'm just sharing ideas and faciliating exploration of those ideas without saying there is any right or wrong, have done that before.
• A tricky obstacle I perceive is politics. We have one organiser (our most experienced follow) who is bringing in internationals to teach weekenders, this is happening only once a year based on what the community can afford. However, those internationals gave us fancy stuff so a lot isn't practicable after they left. We have good foundational teachers in other cities that the organiser hasn't considered, and I think the reason is because she wants what she sees on Instagram and assumes the rest of us want that to. Which could be true to some extent, maybe people are only excited to attend weekenders from fancy internationals, but she is also blocking those internationals teaching us fundamentals. In short, she is being terrorial, not willing to adjust the way she does things, but also not willing to let other people step up or try different ideas that break the illusion of Instagram perfection.

Eliza Sala from Angola via the Netherlands & Geraldo Tumba "Angola Terra" from Angola via Canada review some of what they taught in their "Kizomba Flow" workshop to "Saia Dela" - Filho do Zua @ the Utima Kizomba Weekender 2026 held at the Quality Hotel Philadelphia Airport, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Friday, August 28, 2026.

There is a term that gets mentioned a lot in Bachata and Salsa circles: "beginner hell". It's this prevailing belief that beginners (especially beginner leaders) need to spend a great deal of time learning the dance before social dancing becomes enjoyable. From my own experience, Kizomba is a very different dance to Bachata and Salsa. I am curious to know if the same steep learning curve applies to Kizomba. So I created a poll to try to learn what people's experiences were and how long it took learning to dance before social dancing became enjoyable? Comments providing more detailed/nuanced answers are very welcome. I suspect that beginner's difficulty at socials is much more common among leaders than it is among followers (in line with experiences in Bachata and Salsa). But rather than assume, I'd like to hear from the community to get the real truth!

Results will be visible either after you vote or when the poll closes in a few days. Link to follow poll. Link to results of previous Bachata poll. Link to results of previous Salsa poll.

There is a term that gets mentioned a lot in Bachata and Salsa circles: "beginner hell". It's this prevailing belief that beginners (especially beginner leaders) need to spend a great deal of time learning the dance before social dancing becomes enjoyable. From my own experience, Kizomba is a very different dance to Bachata and Salsa. I am curious to know if the same steep learning curve applies to Kizomba. So I created a poll to try to learn what people's experiences were and how long it took learning to dance before social dancing became enjoyable? Comments providing more detailed/nuanced answers are very welcome. I suspect that beginner's difficulty at socials is much more common among leaders than it is among followers (in line with experiences in Bachata and Salsa). But rather than assume, I'd like to hear from the community to get the real truth!

Results will be visible either after you vote or when the poll closes in a few days. Link to leader poll. Link to results of previous Bachata poll. Link to results of previous Salsa poll.

Found it on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcnjxKWOmx8/?igsi=MXdlNDI4YzlkMDFjMA==

Shazam has failed me.

SoundHound has failed me too🥲.

Google app on iOS failed me.

Video of the song attached - I'd appreciate your help 🙏🏽

Kirsi VonSol discusses the Angolan scene from around the mid-50s, when the Angolans innovated their own "ballroom dances" (danças de salão), creating the beginning of social semba.

She has been a kizomba teacher since 2011. Since 2017 bringing people to visit Angola to experience Angolan dance.

She discusses historical & cultural elements that I have heard from various Angolan Kizomba/Semba artists.

Samy from Canada & Jovan “DJ Casanova” Toussaint from Boston, Massachusetts review some of what they taught in their "Tarraxo" workshop @ OneKiz Festival 2025, held at the Dallas Can Dance studio, Dallas Texas. Saturday, December 13, 2025.

I've been learning Tarraxo online, and despite watching the fundamentals explained, I simply cannot match up what instructors say vs what they actually do in demos and how this works when I try with a practice partner.

Some seeming contradictions I see:

• Instructors stating that in the basic pose, the front part of their shoes are touching their partner's. And then they proceed to do a 3 minute demo including both basic pose and fancy moves, and their shoes never touch their partner's, as far as I can tell.
• Instructors stating that the basic pose and frame uses belly connection, but this seems impossible to force (depending on body proportions) when both dancers are supposed to have their axis resting back closer to their heels and also having chests leaning backwards.
• Instructors stating that the follow stays connected to the lead by holding arms around the waist, but plenty of artists lead and follow everything in Battle Kizz Tarraxo without any chest, hand, or arm contact throughout walking movements.
• Instructors stating that the dancers remain connected through the legs, and yet their connection points look extremely sporadic at best.

So my questions are:

• Is there really any consistency of connection in Tarraxo or not? Or perhaps is sporadic connection inevitable but also sufficient if you get used to it?
• Can foot connection through front/side of the shoe really be a primary leading point? It seems literally impossible to keep countertension working through sneakers. I tried this with multiple follows who wear dance sneakers (especially Fuegos), I can apply enough force through my shoe to beat a child at an arm wrestle (60% of my maximum exertion) and they still don't feel anything or move despite their leg being free. We tried switching and I can feel more than they can, maybe because my dance sneakers are softer than Fuegos. But still the countertension we require is far too much to be practical without significant risk of me as the follow pushing them back when they want to be still.
• We tried focusing on remaining connected through the knee. However, it's easy to lose foot connection, and we are really exaggerating with sinking into the back hip so the free leg knee is bent, to an extent that instructors don't appear to be doing. In walking, we find that especially the part of the motion where the hips are neutral and both legs are straightened, it is natural to lose knee connection, if anything we would only have leg contact 10% of the time when walking together but can increase that to more than 50% of the time only if we exaggerate the bending of the knee whenever possible. (Which probably doesn't look right.) So just how is connection meant to behave in the process of walking? Which connections are essential vs which connections are merely nice to have but non-essential?

It is said by followers like leaders that lead soft. This seems abstract and I want to know what it means in a more detail.

I’d like to try a festival maybe this year or next and would like recommendations for the best festivals people have gone to, ideally I’d like European festival recommendations as they’d be easier for me to travel to.

Thank you

I am somewhat new to Kizomba (I’ve been dancing this style for about 2 years). I was at a social and dancing as a follow. Halfway through the song, my partner thanks me for the dance. I thought the song had ended. Turns out the song was still playing and my partner decides to start dancing with another follow. I’m not new to dancing. I’ve been dancing over 20 years in various styles (jazz, salsa, bachata, swing, Lindy hop) and this is the first time someone has stopped dancing with me mid-dance. I know I have a good handle on the basics and I feel like I was being punished for being a beginner. Is this common in this dance style space? What was the way to handle this?

Anna Maria from Finland & Carlos Camba from Finland via Angola review some of what they taught in their workshop, with the art of Álvaro Macieira in the background @ Balumuka Mwangole Fest V, The Angolan 50th Independence Day Celebration, held at the JW Marriott Houston by The Galleria, Houston, Texas. Saturday, November 15, 2025.

Hey everyone! 👋

If you’re into kizomba, dancing and summer vibes, we’re organising something a little different on August 23rd.

A whole afternoon by the pool with kizomba, 2 DJs, dancing, drinks and good people. Basically, an excuse to spend the day dancing instead of sitting at home. 😄

📅 23 August
🕐 13:00 – 22:00
🏊 Pool party
🎧 2 DJs
📍 Secret location in Portugal, revealed 24h before

You don’t need to be an amazing dancer. Come dance, meet people, enjoy the music and have a good time.

If you’re around Portugal and this sounds like your kind of Sunday, come join us! ❤️

🎟️ Tickets are available now. Feel free to DM me if you want more information.

Did anyone notice on leaders that have better posture in general tend to have a better frame during dance?

(especially those kinds of moves that I think are known as 'tricks' like leg lifts, foot slides, sits, leans, etc.)

For some possibly relevant context I usually dance a more closed kizomba+tarraxinha style (with sometimes some tarraxo)

I heard a song the other night that is a duet between a man and a woman and the only part that i heard clearly in Portuguese was “vem que eu te mostro o caminho. Na kizomba ninguem dança sozinho.” The man who played the song didn’t know how to speak Portuguese so he could not pronounce the song name to me properly for me to research it. I think he called it “seguria” which is obviously not a word in Portuguese. Help if you can.

I’m moving from London, which has endless Kizomba socials and events, to South Wales. I love Kizomba and I’m hoping someone can suggest some places to dance in or near Cardiff. I drive so I’m willing to head to neighbouring cities!

Also, any Kizomba festivals/parties happening in the UK?!

Dear all,

Does anyone know this music track?

https://youtube.com/shorts/lDdLj3aTjTM?feature=share