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I have some online content
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwA6tmNK8Aw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxR6cstD6MY&t=412s
This is a dance video I made 5 years ago
A recent dance video
I enjoy the wide array of styles existing in the world so I am seeking to teach in a way that allows for variations in style and an amount of improvisation. Every lead and follow can have room for variations. It will only look really good if the lead and follow are synchronized but none of the current styles would exist if not for those who have continued to imagine and experiment with creativity.
I am also calling it Urban Tango because I find so many quickly assume I am talking about something like zumba.
I started country dancing in 2008. By 2013 I had expanded into Argentine Tango and Ballroom, Salsa in 2012, Bachata and then Kizomba in 2013. I enjoyed that kizomba in the world had modern forms of music and many creative styles.
For the first years, I went to a number of lessons and a few conferences. There were a lot of styles that I enjoyed watching online but there were a few drawbacks. With regards to styles, there were not many local options without traveling great distances. Also, it was clear that some instructors were trying to bully people into embracing a very limited and narrow style of kizomba. As I see it this reflects the culture war regarding gender as well as controlling religions. Many of us want to allow for a wide variety of expressions concerning gender while embracing personal freedom choice and diversity. Others want to force and limit people to a very narrow definition of gender by way of social control and bullying. My most common example of this involves using a variety of hip movements including side hip movements. Some would say that side should not be done or only one style should be emulated despite the fact that the earliest kizomba video on YouTube expresses a variety. Furthermore, the earliest kizomba video on YouTube has side hip movements, as does the earliest demo and performance at AfricaDancar. the African dance conference. I also messaged a kiz dance school in Angola to confirm this. Despite all of this people will try to mislead their students and attempt to be bullies as people do in the gender wars. I am very happy that there are instructors inside Angola and outside who teach their personal style while embracing and enjoying the diversity of kizomba in the world. I consider that this creates a much healthier and happier atmosphere. In some parts of the world being different is still considered a sin but thankfully not here in Canada.
Because of issues like this, I made a video on Kizomba History as well as Kizomba Fundamentals.
I also appreciated that Kizomba was simpler than tango but I was hoping that I could still enjoy some of the complexity of tango along with enjoying a more dynamic lead-and-follow connection. This exists more commonly in Urban Kiz and some styles of Kizomba. All of these dances evolved out of people's imagination, evolved out of the waltz and experimentation. It is of course easier to simply go to a class and copy the results of others' development and experimentation. I think of this as similar to the difference between cover bands who copy others and artists who are writing and creating their own material. I have enjoyed doing both with regard to music and dance. After being inspired by Jp & Stephy at a conference/lesson in Vancouver (2019) and Neo Kiz in a Kelowna conference; I set out to develop something of my own style as they and many others have. I am especially grateful to Samantha and Jaime who gave me some of my first lessons even though they went back to focusing on Salsa and Bachata. Also all of those who have helped me develop concepts at home or as far away as Colombia.