San Diego Zouk

Lambada debuts on Dancing with the Stars!

October 13th, 2009. Published under Zouk Lambada in the News. 3 Comments.

San Diego Zouk Lambada is so excited that the Brazilian Lambada now has a US audience. On October 12 Dancing with the Stars had couples perform lambada for the first time on national television and so far the response is overwhelmingly positive. It’s important to point out, however, that this US ballroom-version interpretation of lambada is not the kind one would find on the dance floors in Brazil. Sadly, the basic step is nowhere to be seen and the outdated lambada movements, reminiscent of 1980s Kaoma videos, are mixed with swing and salsa spins to fill the space between flashy lifts. Nevertheless, the energetic performance succeeds in capturing the energy of the audience and epitomizing the reason people still continue to dance lambada today–it’s so much fun!

In San Diego you can take a lambada class on Tuesdays at 7:30pm at Dance Place Liberty Station. Classes are $10 and you can try out your first time for $5! The style of lambada we dance originated in Porto Seguro, Brazil (the birthplace of lambada). In the last two decades lambada has been influenced by zouk music from the french Caribbean and now the moves have evolved to be able to be danced to slower zouk music or the traditional faster Brazilian lambada songs. Here is a video of some amazing professional lambada dancers: