Last night (May 11, 2010) a new beginners Zouk course started in Dublin, Turk’s Head. (If you are interested in trying Zouk out, you can still join in. There is still space for a few more ladies. Joining in the second week or possibly even third week you can catch up without problems. Zouk courses run in Dublin city center, Turk’s Head in Parliament Str. on Tuesdays. Beginners from 7.30 pm; improvers from 8.30 and then Zouk club / practice for all 9.30-10.30. Contact Hilary to book – hilary@danzon.ie).

Throughout the run of the previous course I started putting [notes on technique in Zouk (and other dances)] up on [Zouk forum] to help in getting into this relatively new dance. It is rather different from salsa that most people taking the Zouk course know. It has a lot more ‘free-style’ in it but also parts where the body action is simply different from those used in salsa. So I try to cover topics that in my opinion can be useful for development of dance skills in the dance or cover something in reaction to what I notice at the courses.

For new beginners coming to Zouk from salsa, one of the bigger differences is a different body action in the Zouk basic step. In the Zouk style we do in Dublin the first step is a long step over 2 beats of music followed by 2 quick short steps (or steps on spot) - each on 1 beat. The difference in body action to salsa is that in salsa you take short steps, you don't take long steps. For the first long step in Zouk you need to use different technique to get it working well. You know you need to make the first step long. You don’t have legs long enough to make a really long step with your feet, while still keeping your body where it had been before you took the step. So, this means that your body has to travel some distance to make a long step. The most efficient way to get your body to move a distance is to balance your upper body over your body center and let your feet and legs drive your body center where you want to move.

(If you don’t know about your ‘body center’ or ‘center of gravity’, for this in very simple terms you can think of your abdomen and the lower back muscles as a ring contracting around your ‘body center’.) So, to make a long step (travel a distance), do not think of your upper body moving somewhere. Think of your body center - that your legs have to push off the floor and drive your body center where you want to go. Or, eventually you will be thinking of driving your _body center_ (when you have the muscles in the ‘ring’ strong enough and you don’t break the line of your lower back connected with your hips.) However, at the very beginning it may be easier to think of pushing with your legs to drive your _hips_ where you want to go. This will make the move smoother and allow you to travel longer distance.

There are already more [notes on technique in Zouk (and other dances)] on the [Zouk forum] and I’ll keep updating / adding more there regularly. … and the same as with dancing – feedback is important for any improvement, so I appreciate that. Any notes on the level, clarity, a topic you’d like to have covered or anything else, let me know there.

- Edited by mdancer on 12/05/2010 at 22:16