The History of Kizomba

Kizomba Music & Dance

It's one of the most popular dance and music styles originating from Angola with dances like Semba, Rebita, Kabetula, Maringa and Pasada from Cape Verde, and it became popular in the early 1980's and 90's.

As the strongest derivative of Semba, the Kizomba dance is known for its slow smooth flow with sensual movements which require a keen sense of the tempo and the lyrical style of the music.

In the Angolan Kimbundu language, the word Kizomba means “party” and the word “Kizombadas” refers to a “big party” so it has strong roots in Carnival Music.

What is Kizomba?

The colonization of Angola by the of the Portuguese brought in dances from Europe such as the Tango.

The presence of Cubans during the Civil War brought other forms of dances like Cuban Son, Milonga, Samba from Brazil, and Plena from Puerto Rico that influenced the dance style.

Kizomba has been called the "African Tango" with its Semba origin mixed with Kilapanda and Angolan Merengue which put the music in its own category.

The Kizomba Dance Style

The Kizomba style of dance has "bunda" actions which are flexible up and down movements with the knees, rolling of the lower body and circular hip movements.

Kizomba is danced in a circle with forwarding and backward movements.

Partners are connected with the one leading the other to sensuous rhythms comprised of drum beats and electronic percussion. Dancers move on tempo and also play with movements off-beat sometimes using syncopation steps.

Kizomba Culture

Kizomba initially had a strong influence in most Portuguese-speaking African countries and immigrant communities in Lisbon, Portugal and surrounding suburbs like Amadora / Almada with Kizomba clubs focused on the style.

However, Kizomba has become wildly popular around the world with numerous events, classes and competitions.

Europe, Northern Africa, South America and the United States has the experienced rapid growth in popularity.

Cultural Roots of Kizomba

Dance enthusiasts that have developed a "Kizomba Obsession" and love dancing to the traditional Angola style and progressive styles of Kizomba.

The most famous Angolan Kizomba music is Bonga, along with other well-known Angolan artists like Don Kikas, Neide Van-Dúnem, Irmãos Verdades and Calo Pascoal.

Most of the clubs in Luanda, Angola featured these artists during the during the 1970s and 1980s.

Kizomba music has been most popular in other countries like Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, Portugal, Mozambique, Equatorial Guinea, São Tomé and Príncipe, East Timor, Martinique, Brazil and the territory of Macau.

A new wave of Kizomba artist which range from Angola, Cape Verde, other countries in North Africa have sung the traditional style with Sãoto and brought in new urban style styles like "Zouk" and "Tarraxinha."

History of Zouk & Kizomba

Zouk derives from the leading band, Kassav, formed by Pierre-Edouard Decimus and Jacob F. Desvarieux in Guadeloupe in 1979. The Zouk sound from Guadeloupe and Martinique is the French Antillean Compas music referred as mazurka a Polish Folk dance.

Zouk got its name from the music style of “Mazouk,” sung in Antillean Creole of French, means “party” or “festival” and the creole words “souke,” “soukwe,” or “zouke” is from the French verb “secouer."

The music style developed in the French Caribbean with Haitian Meringue Compasa which is a fast tempo dance. Brazil also has there own styles of Zouk known as zouk-lambada, which is a descendant of lambada.

Similar to Kizomba there is close connection embrace, hip movements, body isolations and upper-body torsions.

The Rise of Urban Kiz

The urban styles of Zouk & Tarraxinha use a more urban style of music influenced by Hip-Hop, R&B, House, Afrobeat and Dancehall.

Tarraxinha has been called the sexy cousin of Kizomba, with a name that means “little screw in a bolt,” which can refer to the context of how the dance looks.

This partner style is danced close .. real close so one must feel comfortable with standing in a stationary, close hold for a prolonged time their partner.

Unlike Kizomba, there is little to no floor movements with Tarraxinha and no exiting of the partner’s area of dance so followers can show off their "ginga" and isolations.

Kizomba Obsession

The Kizomba craze has no signs of slowing down with this strong presence throughout Europe, Africa, South America and the US. Over the past decades, there have been more Afro-Portuguese themed parties organized around the Kizomba, Zouk and Tarraxinha genres.

Kizomba Obsession was created for Kizomba lovers and our website provides the best information to take your dance to the next level.