Zouk Nation - "Zouk is the dance of the 21st Century"

I think there are few who could argue that 2009 was not an amazing year for Zouk in New York City. Throughout the year we saw many new faces join the community and a substantial increase in Zouk related events. As 2010 is but just a few hours away, I thought it might be nice to take a moment to look back at some of this year’s highlights.

February

• Zouk was declared Dance Genre of the Month in “Steps,” Dance Parade’s monthly online newsletter with 10,000 subscribers.

March

• The new and much improved Zouk Nation website was launched.
• Zouk was featured on the front page of the Brazilian Sun, a local Brazilian newspaper in New York.
• The group organized and produced the Brazilian Carnaval event at the 92^nd Street Y, the largest Zouk event in New York City history with more than 200 people in attendance. The beginning of the evening started out with a dance lesson taught by Willem Engel, while music was provided throughout the evening by DJ  Celio Cordeiro and DJ Zoukerro, who flew in all the way from Amsterdam specifically for the event. By the end of the evening, the group managed to break the 92^nd Street Y’s box office record for a first time staged event.

May

• The group participated in the 3^rd annual Dance Parade. This was later followed by dancing in Tompkins Square Park, where Pedro Mesquita and Juni Shimizu of Tropical NY taught a free zouk lesson.
• Sunday, May 24^th, Memorial Day Weekend, saw the return of Zouk in Central Park held every Sunday throughout the summer until September, 6^th, Labor Day Weekend.

July

• Zouk Nation was featured on “Sites of Brazil” on Channel 58, a local cable network in New York City

August

• Zouk was featured in an article in the New York Times. This was the first time an article had been written about Zouk in an English periodical in the U.S.

September

• Zouk Nation working with the Salsberg Group managed to organize the first Zouk Dance Cruise, a three and a half hour boat ride around lower Manhattan on the Hudson River. A dance lesson was taught at the beginning of the evening by Nyx and his wife Lais, who flew up from Florida for the event, while Nyx also lended his deejaying skills to the event, guaranteeing the crowd of 100 people would keep on dancing throughout the evening.

October

• The Zouk Nation Podcast was launched, the first podcast in the United States dedicated solely to Zouk music. I want to take a moment here to thank all the various recording artists who threw their support behind the podcast and generously contributed their music. I’d also like to thank the many listeners who took the time to email us and enter their comments into the Zouk Blog. Your words of encouragement and enthusiasm has meant a lot to us over the months, especially in the early morning hours.

December

• The Zouk Artist Directory was launched, an online resource that currently profiles 30 different Zouk and “honorary Zouk” artists. Making it easier for people to learn about the artists, some of the incredible music they are producing, and, most importantly for the artists, where people can purchase their music.

A big heart felt thanks to all who participated in these events. In all honesty, we couldn’t have done it without you.

I would especially like to take a moment to thank Aria Atai and Stephanie B. who contributed their teaching talents to the regular Thursday Zouk Nights at Lava Gina in the East Village, and Hisako Izutsu and Natasha Klushina, who filled in and took over deejaying duties when the need called for it.

While 2010 hasn’t even begun, Zouk Nation already has several events scheduled on the calendar.  In May, the group is registered to participate in the 4^th Annual Dance Parade, Zouk in Central Park will return in June, and because of the success of last summer’s Zouk Cruise, we will be hosting two cruises next summer, one in June and another in September.

There are a few other surprises the group is currently working on, but at this time they are just in the planning stages. You can expect to hear more about them once things have been finalized and the dates draw nearer.  So keep your eye on the Zouk Nation website for more information in the months to come.

Thanks everyone for a very memorable year.

Chick-chick-doom,

Nicholas Bambo
Creative Director of Zouk Nation

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 31st, 2009 at 2:36 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.