About us

Dutch International Zouk Congress Foundation

The Dutch International Zouk Congress foundation (DIZC) is a non-profit organisation that focusses on organizing activities for the development of the talents of Zouk dancers around the world. Zouk is a sensual, fluid dance that is dominated by an intense connection between partners. It originated in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo, Brazil where it evolved from Caribbean rhythms in the 1980s.

Zouk

The Zouk beat is defined by a very clear “chick-chick-doom,” dominating most of the Zouk music which can include variations of popular Dubstep, R&B, Reggaeton, Hip Hop, Latin pop and Arabic music. When not holding closed position, partners move around each other in an asymmetrical axis. Men hold strong “matador-like” poses while women “surrender” by letting the man’s movement direct their flexible bodies into each movement, hair swinging.

The relatively young dance style has been growing in popularity all over the world since the early 2000s. It is currently one of the most popular dances in Brazil and in areas such as The Netherlands, Australia, Spain and even the United Arab Emirates.

International Congress

Once a year the foundation organizes an international congress in The Netherlands in the beautifull cities of Etten-Leur and Breda. To make this congress succesfull the foundation invites different teachers, show groups and DJs from around the world to share their knowledge.

The conference consists of 13 days Zouk classes, workshops combined with an evening with DJ’s where participants can take what they have learned into practice. During the classes participants are educated by the masters in how to share their passion and pass it on to others, during the workshops the teachers try to improve the techniques, styling, partnering and creativity of the participants and more is told about the history and development of dance.

All workshops are taught by local, regional, national and international teachers. The participants come from all around the world. In the past years we had participants from the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Israel, Oman, Abu Dahbi, Sri Lanka, Lithuainia, Cyprus, Belarus, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Brasil, Hawaii, Russia, Australia, United States of America, Ukraine, Spain, Denmark, Italy, Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, England, Belgium, Luxembourg, France and many more.

Dutch International Zouk Congress is organized by, Adam Dodoo & Claudia van de Velde (ZoukMotion)