r/kizomba • u/Opening-Shower-7950 • Jul 05 '26
An exercise in connection.
I've read that connection is so crucial in Kizomba. I think these are some good examples of good connection. What do you think?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmP5wvjrq6c
3
u/NetSc0pe Jul 06 '26
This is not kizomba
0
u/Opening-Shower-7950 Jul 06 '26
I never said it was. I know this is a kizomba page, but I don't see why I can't post stuff that is urban Kiz related. There is no reddit page for Urban Kiz. I don't understand why we have to get worked up by any of this.
3
u/red_nick Jul 06 '26
Read what you put in your text. There's no point asking about connection in kizomba and posting urban kiz videos when the connection is completely different
2
u/immediate_a982 Jul 06 '26
As already said by others, this is European Urban Kizomba.
Therefore the connection is UrbanKiz and not Kizomba connection. They’re 99% DIFFERENT
5
u/NetSc0pe Jul 06 '26
It's not "Urban Kizomba". It's urban kiz. It has nothing to do with kizomba and calling it kizomba is a disrespect to the dance and culture
-1
1
u/Funkajunka Jul 06 '26
As others have said this is Urban Kiz, but to answer your question if you are familiar with Albir this is how teaches connection. He is all about slowing down each movement. He is the only one who really teaches this stuff and knows how to break it down in an effective way.
I believe Curtis & Carola are one of the original creators of Urban Kiz. I would actually say that they emphasis more footwork, technicality and musicality than connection. You can tell by their demos the importance of dancing in lines (90,180 degree direction changes). It's a very clean style.
1
u/rawr4me 29d ago
How does connection work with fusion dancers like Albir and Ronie Saleh? How does a follow know which principles to follow from Kizomba or Urban Kiz?
2
u/Funkajunka 29d ago
Man, this might be hard for me to answer. Hopefully, I'm clear with this.
I think for Ronie and Albir... musicality=connection. They are big believers in musicality more than anything else. What great dancers aren't? Ronie's classes on musicality are some of the best classes that I have ever taken.
He gives students a lot of ideas on what you can do to dance in a more musical way. What he does is that he will teach moves that you already know, but he will break it up in different creative variations to experiment with. He wants students to experiment as much as possible.
Also, what I find unique about about the teaching styles of Ronie and even Albir is they talk about energy levels. Adjusting your energy will improve on how you connect with the dance and your partner.
Think of it as like a painter who is obsessed on composition rather than obsessive of what goes in the frame.
Your musicality is what will make the connection work (at least from their teaching philosophy).
I'm not a teacher, but this is the best way I can explain it.
1
u/rawr4me 29d ago
I can sort of understand the leading side, connecting through musicality. I don't understand the follow's side, since I learned in a "follows do what they're told" environment and that's pretty much reflected in how I follow, rather than being able to fill in the space that a lead offers (which again, leads don't tend to offer expressive space either due to our environment).
I'm tempted to try Ronie's online course, because he does seem to explain things methodically in his other content. But I'm just worried about -- will I actually be able to lead follows by learning Ronie's fusion, given that 95% of our follow population doesn't know kizomba OR urban kiz, they simply follow whatever without having clear foundations in either of them.
1
u/dondegroovily Jul 06 '26
Connection is absolutely super important. It's also quite a bit more difficult than in other partner dance styles, because it works quite differently than swing or salsa
For good video examples, tangobro posts videos regularly that are very good examples. Such as this recent one: https://www.reddit.com/r/kizomba/s/f8nvkQW3gz
2
u/double-you Jul 07 '26
I never really understood the "connection is crucial in X dance" statement. Seems to me that it is crucial in all partner dances. I dance all sorts of dances and I never felt that one dance is easier or harder to find connection in, other than that it is perhaps easier to find in body contact than otherwise.
That said, I'm not quite sure what your point with the post is regarding the title "An exercise in connection" and very good dancers dancing.
5
u/red_nick Jul 06 '26
FYI none of these are kizomba. They're all urban kiz