Semba

Semba is a traditional dance native from Angola and can be traced back into the 50’s.
It is the root dance for many other genres such as Kizomba, Tarraxinha or Urban Kiz.
Based on the Semba music which is mostly more joyful and invokes a celebrating feeling, it is commonly danced with movements more fun, joy- and playfulness including with more showful tricks, compared to Kizomba.

Kizomba

The evolution of Kizomba started in the late 70’s – 80’s and has their roots in Semba and is strongly influenced by Zouk music.
The dance is been performed with a partner in couples and characteristics by a transferring of the weight similar to Semba together with a grounded walk.
It is mostly distinguished by Semba in terms of the music with a more sensual touch and movements which are slower and more romantic in terms of the dance.
The basic movements are mostly initiated by the transition of the weight from one leg to another.
Leading is been done with several parts of the body that have contact between couples, such as upper body frame with torso and hands or lower body parts such as legs, knees or feeds, depending on the style that is being danced.
Typically, in Kizomba there are no bending movements of the upper body as performed in other sensual dances as Bachata Sensual or Zouk.

Tarraxinha

Tarraxinha is a derivation and mostly set as a sup genre of Kizomba mixed with a lot of influence from the Ghetto Zouk music and characteristic by his more emphasis on isolated hip movements typically initiated by the legs.
The core movement of the hips are leaded by stretching and relaxation of the legs between the transition of the weight with a small influence of belly movements similar used also in Ginga.
Characteristic by circular movements with less walking, movements are done with a slower amplitude and danced more stationary and closer at the place with less tricks as in Kizomba, Urban Kiz or Semba. It is mostly danced to music with a slower beat or in melodic slow section of Kizomba or Semba music.
The hands are used mostly to keep the frame in the upper body to have contact to the partner by a way of hug. Depending on the style there can also be used to support and intensify the leading of the hip and upper body movements of the partner from the lower back such as „bumps“ and waves.

Urban Kiz

Derived from Kizomba, Urban Kiz is a sub genre of Kizomba and characteristic by leading with less contact of the couples torsos during still keeping the frame and its sharp and robotic like movements with emphatic acceleration and breaks during dancing.
Distinguished to the traditional Kizomba movements, moves in Urban Kiz are not as grounded as in Kizomba and often include more pirouettes, lifts, drops as well as typical feed leading mixed with more tricks.

Semba

Characteristic by its playful music, Semba music is mostly created by using acoustic instruments such as drums, reco-reco, piano and guitars with a joyful vocal.

Fundamentals

For Beginners

• transfer of weight
• frame (upper body)
• leg contact (lower body)
• shared weight

For Advanced

• body isolation movements
• dance introduction – how to get your partner into the right mood
• change of tempo (quick vs. slow movements)
• synchopation and contratempo movements

For All Levels

• funny and playful movements
  Example:
  • sharp or robot moves
  • lead body with fingers only
• be creative – you can also use moves from other dances and integrate them into Kizomba in a way it fits.
  (Important: always come back into the basic kizomba style (just to make the lady recognize the traditional kizomba again and not to be too freaky with random movements – it’s still Kizomba)
  Example:
  • Hip-Hop moves (interrupt and sharp „robot“ movements etc.)
  • Tango Argentino (Ocho etc.)
  • Bachata Sensual (back body-wave etc.)
• play with the music – use your own style and interpretation of the movements and the song
  (fits for figures as well as instruments)
  Example:
  • change of tempo, listen to the instruments and the lyrics etc.
• have fun and enjoy

Basic Figures

• basic ONE
• marca & touch
• basic TWO
• basic THREE
• balance
• corridinho
• saida mulher
• saida homem
• shuffle and cha-cha steps
• retrocesso
• virgula
• saida mulher rotativa

Leading and Following

• impulse / signal
• leading with torso
• leading with arms / hands
• leading with legs
• leading with belly (- bunda)
• leading with torso but without hands
• leading with closed eyes
• switch roles for leader and follower
• different tension strength (starting with weak impuls and then increase strength and tension until leadind and following match)
• leading without any body contact
• in combination with introducktion: adjust to the movements and tempo of the follower, get syncroniced with the follower and take over the leading (connecting in a harmoniced way with the partner, for example during dance introduction)

Musicality

To be able to dance to the music and not just work off one figure after the other, you need to feel the music and then interpret it.
Important: be aware that everybody has its own way of interpreting music.
In order to interpret the music, you have to get a understanding for its instrumental and vocal structure and how they develop during the song, to recognize what is coming next.

At the beginning you might have difficulties to understand songs and dance with the music, especially when listening to songs you don’t know. But luckily most songs have recurring patterns which will help us to anticipate and recognize a well as catch the right timing for the beat, the instruments or the lyrics.

In general there are many aspects that are important in the structure of a song to interpret the music. In Kizomba we will focus on the Beat, the Instruments and the Lyrics aspects of the music.

1. Dance to the Beat

Kizomba music is mostly played in the 4/4 and can be counted for example in 4 or 8 beats.
Most songs follow a certain pattern, the most common one is: 8-8-bridge-8-8 within a 32 beat phrase (here counted with 8 beat steps).
In many songs, speed and deepness of the beat may change which gives us the opportunity to play with the music and vary your way of dancing.

2. Dance to the Instruments

Kizomba music is also very rich in different instruments that can be used to vary dancing to it. Similar to the Beats, also the instruments have  a pattern inside the the song and the rhythm.

Tipp:
Choose one instrument at first, try to understand the pattern of this instrument and interpret it. Then try to catch the instruments to adjust your dancing on it.
Be aware that your moves should fit to the feeling of the instruments, for example you should not use very sharp movement when following the sound of a flute playing softly.

3. Dance to the Lyrics

As well as the beat and the instruments, the lyrics and the vocal of a song have also patterns.
When dancing on lyrics, we distinguish between:

a) Dance to the rhythm of the voice (its about the how they are singing)

b) Dance to lyrics content (its about the what they are singing)
Example: softer when it is a love or sad song or include more energy if it is a passionate or vivid song.