2025-12-22
Thoughts from Taiwan on Growing a Brazilian Zouk Dance Community
By Glenn Sloat
* Most of this article applies to other social dances like salsa, bachata, kizomba, west coast swing, etc, but I will focus on Brazilian Zouk as it is what I have had the most experience and success in.
Growing a Brazilian Zouk community is not easy. Many people in the general population have an idea of what salsa and bachata and swing are, but relatively few have even heard of Brazilian Zouk. It’s a very technical dance and intimidating to start especially compared to bachata. It can take many months to get new zouk dancers to come to a party, and leaders in particular usually take a long time to actually start enjoying the dance socially. I’ve danced salsa, bachata, kizomba, and zouk and by far the most intimidating to start has been zouk.
Zouk is my favorite dance and the one I’ve focused most of my energy on, and in the past few years our community in Taipei, Taiwan has grown remarkably in quantity and quality. When I visit other scenes, people often ask me how this happened in Taiwan, and so I’d like to share a bit about what I think has been important in our development. Hopefully this can help people looking to start or grow their own scene 🙂
What’s important
1) Regular (weekly) classes by local teachers
Scenes are built and maintained primarily by local teachers teaching regular classes, not traveling artists that come for a weekend or a few weeks. Local teachers bring in and educate new dancers and chart a path for them. Weekly classes with dedicated teachers establish a sense of stability and ideally build a habit of regular learning and practice for students.
In Taipei, Flow and Bailalo have continually hosted regular classes in 2019 and various independent teachers have maintained regular classes at various times.
Events cannot replace regular classes! Believe me, I know. For the first couple of years of learning zouk, I could only go to events outside Taiwan to learn, and that progress was slow because I was lacking all the fundamentals. Our regular students in Taipei now learn so much faster than I did!
When I started teaching, I was super beginner compared to teachers in most other scenes. If we had experienced zouk teachers already I would not have started then. But I wanted to grow the scene, and we had to start somewhere! If there are experienced teachers already doing a good job, and you don’t have much experience or expertise, maybe you don’t need to be a teacher. But if you are starting a scene from scratch or nobody is filling the role of teacher competently, get a solid grasp of the fundamentals and some good reference material to keep yourself on track and get to work. Teach fundamentals and simple variations and build good foundations. Teach students (and yourself) to put a huge value on good basics and improving quality of movement rather than flashy patterns. This is a key for sustained long-term growth. Avoid teaching things you can’t do or explain well- work on yourself to get to that point. Bringing other people up with you will also help you improve yourself.
2) Regular practicas
Students need time to integrate what they have learned intellectually into their bodies and to start to feel comfortable with other dancers outside the structure of a class. Practicas are great for this. A practica is as simple as playing an appropriate playlist or set on a bluetooth speaker after class and letting students practice with each other and the teacher. Practicas are easier to organize and lower pressure for students than parties. I believe it’s best to do them right after class, without an extra charge, to get maximum participation. A practica should be a safe space where students are primarily practicing the techniques they learned in class, so I suggest only allowing students of the class/program and perhaps some trusted friends to join. People who don’t have a good foundation and who are not invested in your class are not helpful. They can cause you problems and distract or drive away students. The party is the jungle; the practica is a controlled space, so don’t give up that control.
At Flow we’ve done a practica after our regular classes since the beginning.
3) Regular parties
Most students learn to dance so they can enjoy dancing in parties. Parties are where social dance magic happens- where we connect with our partners and the music and share an experience unique to that time and space. It’s also where people from different classes/studios/generations mingle and create relationships and dynamics. Ideally parties inspire people to continue learning and dancing and being part of the community. The scene needs regular parties for the community to come together and thrive (and the parties need regular classes to continue the growth of students and replenish the dance pool with new dancers).
Depending on the size and level of your scene, “regular” could be once a month, once a week, or somewhere in between. When you are starting out and your dancers are not very experienced, they are probably not willing to come out to a party very often and they won’t dance for a long time. As they progress in the dance and enjoy it more, they will want to party more and dance more in the party. So do the party less frequently in the beginning, perhaps once per month, so you can get more people to turn up. It’s better to have one decent party a month then two or four tiny parties. Later you can aim for a party twice a month and then perhaps weekly.
This can be split up amongst several organizers, and that can be beneficial in many ways. In Taipei, at present, we have three regular party organizers- two studios (Flow and Bailalo) and one independent party organizer (iZouk). Typically, each week has a party organized by one of the three of us, or two if we are doing a weekender. Because the parties rotate, dancers can go to different places, which keeps each party feeling fresh, and the community intermingles more than if every party was by the same organizer in the same place. Also, none of us get overwhelmed maintaining the party because we don’t have to be in charge of it all the time. Sometimes that is difficult as studios often depend on the party income to survive. But in this case I think this has been beneficial for the community.
In any case, having regular parties that dancers can expect and look forward to is a must.
4) Good music/DJs
I think this is something that is often overlooked in scene-building. Dancers need good music to enjoy dancing! When the music in the party is stale, boring, or not danceable by the majority of the dancers, the experience of the party and the dance suffers. If dancing in the party is not fun, most people are eventually going to stop learning and participating in the community. But when people connect to and enjoy the music, they experience positive emotions- they’re uplifted, inspired, they express themselves, they play with others, they connect to themselves and others… and hopefully they leave the party wanting to dance more. So we need good music!
What do I mean by good music? Music that for most of the dancers is:
-Enjoyable to listen to (very subjective)
-An appropriate genre (also can be subjective)
-Danceable (comfortable speed, suitable rhythm)
-A mix of familiar and fresh music
-An energy flow that keeps things interesting and doesn’t bore or exhaust the dancers
-A good sonic experience (played from quality sound equipment set up correctly and at a comfortable volume)
-Transitioned comfortably between songs
When starting a scene, you probably aren’t ready to DJ, and it’s not the most important thing for you to do. It’s more important to dance and interact with students, to help them enjoy the party and meet other people. During this early time, it’s better to use some appropriate mixes from experienced DJs. Many DJs post their sets to Mixcloud and allow people to use them. Find sets that are appropriate for your dancers and see if the DJ will give you permission to use them for your parties. I cannot recommend * DJ Eflosa * highly enough for this.
If you are interested in DJing, you can start learning and record your sets, then use the recording for your party. As the community progresses to where people are enjoying dancing with each other and you don’t need to dance continuously, you can start to DJ live if you are inclined.
If you have someone interested in DJing, or if you are ready to start DJing live yourself, then you can step up the level of the party. It’s a different feeling to have a live DJ creating something for the dancers in the moment. But you need to ensure that the quality is good. Maintain standards. Encourage and support DJs that work on themselves and aim to create good party experiences for the local dancers. Don’t hand your party off to a DJ that will kill it with music that is too loud/too fast/not attractive to your dancers/undanceable/transitioned badly!
Ideally, you will eventually have multiple competent DJs in the scene. That takes a lot of time and effort because DJing for zouk is much harder than for salsa or bachata. It requires more technical skills and familiarity with more genres of music to play well.
In Taipei, we have several active DJs. I first learned from DJ Siix (Galileo Flores) around 2020 and later I taught DJ Jane, DJ Claire, and DJ A Zhen who became my core group of DJs that I work with for my parties, and there are a few other active DJs as well. People can burn out on DJing, especially if the community leans too heavily on them or if they have too many other responsibilities, so it’s really important to have more than one DJ and to keep encouraging promising new DJs.
5) Peace between schools/organizers
This is so important and also one of the most difficult things. We should avoid getting tunnel vision and focusing only on the current group of dancers in our scene. We should continually look outward to connect to more people that can join our community. We have to understand that social dance is not a zero sum game. A healthy sense of competition can be good in terms of raising the quality of our dance, teaching, parties, events, etc. But we should realize that our main competition is not really other organizers- it’s other leisure activities. In most scenes, at least in larger cities, there are many, many potential dancers. Fighting over a small group of people and trying to control them and ensure they only come to your studio is counterproductive and frustrating for everyone.
If people are constantly leaving my classes/studio to join others, of course I should see what is driving them to do and figure out how I can improve their experience. But them going somewhere else to dance is not the worst thing- the worst thing is them giving up on the dance and becoming inactive in the community.
If students go to more classes in multiple places, they are getting more practice and different viewpoints and will probably progress faster to the point where they enjoy social dancing. They interact with more people. They’re more likely to be engaged in the community, to join parties, and commit more to the dance. That’s good for the scene!
If you have another organizer in your scene that you respect and who is interested in the community as a whole, rejoice! Do your best to maintain a positive relationship with them. Having synergy between organizers is a powerful tool for growth.
I’m very fortunate that the other main organizer in Taipei is Magda Zieba, someone that I respect and personally like. We communicate to try to avoid conflicts, we join each other’s events, and we often travel to the same events and hang out together. Everyone in our scene can see us enjoying and respecting each other and I think that has been an important source of stability and peace for the community. When there is tension between organizers, it can permeate the whole community and people can become more closed, more guarded. When there is peace, people feel more free and can be more open and welcoming.
We don’t get to choose who else is interested in zouk in our area. Sometimes there are people we can’t stand on a personal level or who we think teach in an irresponsible way. Maybe there is a real problem with this person or maybe they just rub us the wrong way somehow. In any case, it’s toxic and usually not productive to fight with other organizers. You might not be able to work with them or support them, but at least try to avoid needless conflicts that divert your energy.
6) Inspiring events (but not too many!)
By events, I am talking about weekenders, intensives/ festivals, etc. These are like the cherry on top.
Events can be transformative experiences for individuals and the community collectively. Many people will remember the first time they saw professional artists in person. It can be hugely inspiring to see their demo live and to dance with them. Good artists bring in fresh ideas that reinvigorate the community and keep us up to date with the evolution of the dance. Sometimes their ideas have a huge impact on a scene (I believe Gui Prada had a big effect on the focus on comfort for Taiwan dancers) These experiences are important for the community.
Having said that, it’s easy to put too much focus on events to the detriment of the community!
A few tips for events
Do:
– Join events in established scenes before planning your own so you are familiar with standard practices
-Find mentors who are willing to share their experience and advice about organizing
– Choose artists that have something valuable for your community and that you think your community will respond to positively
– Select from artists you’ve experienced personally (taken their class, seen personally how they engage with people, ideally at least had a conversation with them)
– Communicate clearly with the artists about the level of the participants and discuss your expectations.
– Agree on your conditions clearly and in advance
– Plan an itinerary that is realistic and practical and that respects the artists as human beings and the terms of your agreement
– Invite other organizers/teachers to join
– Tell your students/the community about the event early and often
Don’t
– Accept everyone who asks to come and teach; some will not be the right fit and some may not be competent. Either will damage your reputation and the trust people have in you as an organizer.
– Hire artists that can’t competently teach your community something useful, just because they are popular or because you are friends with them (or want to be)
– Save money on expenses by not feeding/housing/transporting/paying your artists humanely/according to your agreement
– Plan an event without having the money to pay for it regardless of how many people turn up (No no no!)
– Schedule your event too close to another event that will draw the same participants
*Too close is very relative according to the size of the scene, and the participants’ disposable income, free time and their willingness to join events. In the beginning, one event per year may be enough. Later it might be once per quarter, every two months, even once a month. The point is, you want to avoid scheduling events that make other events smaller because people don’t have enough time/money to keep up. People are usually excited in the beginning but they will run out of money and time and energy. With too many events, you can easily burn people out. They may also stop joining regular classes if they see artist workshops as a substitute, but that can be very bad if the dancers don’t already have a very good foundation.
You can do events more frequently with a larger community and/or people that are willing and can afford to join more often (and if you yourself have the time/energy/finances). Eventually, once you’ve gotten the hang of weekenders, you can consider running a marathon or even a festival, if the community is ready.
The first weekender I ever ran was with Bruno and Raiza in 2019. They were a perfect fit for a very beginner community and amazing to work with. Since then I’ve run many weekenders as well as Taiwan Zouk Festival.
Fortunately for me, only one other organizer does zouk events (Magda from Bailalo), and we coordinate with each other to *try* not to overload the schedule.
7) Trips to events outside your scene
This could come before or after organizing events in your own scene.
Going together with students/other dancers from your community to a weekender/festival in another scene is a special experience. It’s a chance for everyone to experience dancing with new people who may have learned in a different way and have different habits, preferences, and styles. It’s the time where people make new friendships with people from other cities, states, or even countries. This unlocks a whole new level in dance which can be hugely transformational in life- international relationships.
I have traveled to many countries because of people I have met there, and I’ve visited others not knowing anyone because I know now that I can make friends in new places. Because of dance, I’m far more connected to the world than before. This is an amazing gift and has made my life so much richer.
Traveling to an event, whether in another city or to a faraway country, can be a powerful experience and one that creates amazing memories and bonds (or it can just be expensive and a big hassle and not very much fun- your mileage may vary 😅. It’s an opportunity for your people to bond as a group and to be seen and recognized by people in other scenes so you feel more connected to the larger zouk family. It’s also a way that dancers find new challenges and inspiration to stay in the dance.
Bonus
8) Cross-pollination with other dance scenes
This isn’t strictly necessary, but it can be really helpful. If you can dance other dances like salsa and bachata competently, go to those socials at least occasionally and maintain some connection to those dancers. Do this because it supports the social dance ecosystem as a whole and so more people are aware of you. If more people are aware of you, they may come to learn zouk with you someday. But don’t go to a party just to recruit people to your own dance, and don’t talk a lot about your own classes in other people’s events. And don’t go if you can’t dance the dance style there reasonably well or it will be counterproductive because you will look bad. Participate in the social respectfully- don’t try to hijack it and dance zouk when it’s not appropriate to try to draw attention to yourself. This is annoying and even if you do get some people to notice you, you will probably piss off the organizer and other dancers.
If you do this well, you’ll make it easier for people to find out about zouk and find you. Sometimes people start with one dance and then join or switch to another that they find out they like. It will also happen to you- people will give up on zouk and choose something else they think suits them more. That’s normal and OK! But it’s better if you can make that a two-way street.
Summary
Building a community for Brazilian Zouk (or any other social dance) requires a lot of time and effort, consistently applied for years. It’s not always necessary for it to always be the same person putting in the work, but someone has to always be carrying the torch or it goes out. It’s difficult and even harder if you are trying to scratch out a profit, but it can be really rewarding to plant a zouk garden and watch it blossom.
My main advice is
-Be realistic about what you are willing and capable of putting into the community as far as time and money. Set boundaries and don’t allow yourself to be pushed into situations that are not healthy for you mentally or financially.
-Don’t try to do everything yourself. Find kindred souls that you can connect with and share the load. But be choosy about who you work with because a mismatched partner is often worse than going alone.
-Try to control your ego and emotions and co-exist harmoniously or at least without conflict with other organizers and teachers.
-Fill your own cup periodically by taking trips where you can dance with people that reignite your passion, or by taking a break entirely from dance
-Remember that the dance is the thing the community is built around, but actually it’s just a way to connect with people. Value the relationships you make in the dance.
* I wanted to reference and give credit to a great article I read years ago about how the zouk scene in Warsaw started, but I couldn’t find it when I wrote this. If anyone knows the article I’m talking about, send me a message and I’ll link to it here.
Thanks for reading, and good luck!