Kizomba

Kizomba is a fairly new dance that is taught in Rhythm Identity as compared to the other dances we offered. So what is Kizomba?

According to Wikipedia, Kizomba is a genre of dance and a musical genre originating in Angola in late 1970s. Kizomba means “party” in Kimbundu, an Angolan language.

New generation kizomba is influenced by semba and French Antillean compas. Semba has been danced in the 1950s in Angola. In the 1990s, when the actual kizomba music got more and more popular, Angolan semba dancers started to adapt their semba steps according to the tempo and flavour of the Kizomba beats.

Kizomba is known for having a slow, insistent, somewhat harsh yet sensuous rhythm as the result of electronic percussion. It is danced accompanied by a partner, very smoothly, slowly and sensuously, and with neither tightness nor rigidity. There are frequent simultaneous hip rotations coordinated between dance partners, particularly in the quieter refrains of the music.