BENGALURU: Bengaluru will be hosting a workshop on African dance Kizomba for the first time. The partner dance form that originated in 1970s at Angola was being taught only in Delhi and Chennai in India until recently.
Abhijit Debta, a Kizomba dance instructor, says the dance form originated around 1970s in Angola, Africa and slowly spread to many other countries such as France and Italy. Kizomba developed from Semba, a dance form from Angola. “Semba was usually performed in the 1950s at social events and activities later on, a slower rhythm music started gaining popularity and the dancers started adapting to the tempo and essence of this music. That’s how Kizomba originated. Both are African couple dances but Kizomba is slower and romantic,” he adds.
In kizomba, there is a close connect between the partners. You don’t move much, instead you dance calmly without any rigid moves. It consists of a lot of hip movements for the female dancers. The moves are sensuous and intimate,” says Abhijit. A Kizomba dance enthusiast adds that Kizomba gives you a sense of intimacy with your partner like no other dance form. “Where else can you discover a dance in which people intertwine themselves even if they don’t know each other well. It comes very naturally to you,” says Mano Contreiras.
The performers usually wear costumes that are similar to other latin dance forms. The most distinctive feature of kizomba is its music. “The music is derived from the Ghetto zouk music of Angola. Later, it emerged as a modern music genre with a sensual touch of African rhythm. Most of the songs are sung in Portuguese. It’s high rhythm music and the fast beats in contrast with the gentle moves make this dance different from other latin dances such as tango.”he says.
In 1990s, Kizomba became popular due to carnivals and latin dance community festivals around the world. Also, Kizomba is not a performance-oriented dance such as Salsa or Semba. “As the name suggests, traditional Kizomba was usually being performed in parties and social get-togethers only. With its extraordinary music, people started demanding for Kizomba at different occasions. They started to prefer Kizomba over Semba. The dance form gained popularity in different dance festivals, latin dance communities in Europe, France, Italy and now in India too,” he adds.
The dance led to another form of it called Urban Kizomba or Urban Kiz. “Around 2015, the dance style evolved to Urban Kiz when the ghetto zouk music was influenced by the urban and the hip hop music and the dancers started looking for new interpretations on how to dance to the urban hip hop music. Urban Kiz is different from traditional Kizomba as the distance between the two dancers is more and there is a dynamic change in pace of movements. Sara Lopez is one notable female dancer of Kizomba who has inspired many dancers both in urban and traditional Kizomba,” says Abhijit.
Kizomba is slowly becoming a phenomenon which is being diversely taught in London, Paris, New York at festivals and workshops. If you are bushed with heavy steps, beats of salsa and other Latin forms and you are in the mood to laze out with your dance partner with some smooth dancing you better try out Kizomba. Till recently, it was taught only in Delhi and Chennai. “This is a very new form in If you want to learn something new with your partner or just have fun and learn the dance form, head to a workshop by Abhijit on February 11 at Ben Body Studio, Indiranagar. For further details contact Abhijit on 99006 80221.