Recently it was brought to the attention of the office of Zouk Nation that the organizers of the Berlin 2nd International Zouk Congress have chosen to use a quote from the Zouk Nation website on the the poster for next year’s Congress. The quote that appears on the poster reads,  “If Tango and Salsa were the dances of the 20th Century, as it has often been referred, Zouk is the dance of the 21st Century.” I was curious what Nicholas Bambo, the Creative Director of Zouk Nation, and the person who is credited with originally having made  that statement had to say about it.

“It’s from a piece I wrote for the Zouk Nation website on the overview page for the dance section of the site. It’s something I’ve repeated over the years in interviews and on television, so I guess it’s no surprise that someone else has decided to use it.” He views it as simply being a sign of the times we live in, and not something anyone can control. “You write something one day, the next day it appears in print on the other side of the world in a completely different context.”

However, Nicholas pointed out, that technically it isn’t an exact quote. The original statement reads “If tango was the dance of the twentieth  century, as it has often been referred, zouk is the dance of the twenty-first century,…” The person who created the poster has added the word “salsa” to the quote, which  creates two problems.

The first is historical. “While salsa was tremendously popular during the twentieth century, and still is, to my knowledge it has never been referred to as ‘the dance of the 20th century.’ That honor was reserved for tango and tango alone.”

Nicholas also pointed out that by adding the word salsa there is a grammatical problem with the sentence. “…as it has often been referred…” should be switched from the singular form to the plural form so that it reads, “as they have often been referred…” “It’s a small thing,” he says smiling, “but I was an English  instructor for a number of years, so it’s kind of hard for me not to mention it.”

When asked what his feelings were about having been quoted, he said, “Although it would have been nice to have been recognized as the source of the quote, the fact they chose to use it is still somewhat flattering and I look at it as being a good sign. It tells me that all the hard work we put into Zouk Nation is starting to have some kind of an affect. And if using the quote helps them sell more tickets to their Congress, more power to them.”

In order for the Brazilian Zouk scene to grow here in the U.S. it is clear that both the dance and the music need a great deal more exposure. Unlike overseas, the music is very hard to come by in the States, while most of the general public has never heard the word “zouk” before.

That being said, every year throughout the summer in New York City SummerStage hosts live musical events in Central Park. This summer will be their 25^th Anniversary and for the first time they are allowing people to send them suggestions as to which musical artist they would like to see perform.

We in the Zouk community have been given an amazing opportunity here. If a Zouk artist were added to this summer’s line up, that would be quite an achievement, as SummerStage is a very high profile event that often receives lots of exposure in the media. Each event has a maximum seating capacity of 5,000 people, while since 1986 it is estimated that between 2.5-3 million have attended SummerStage.

What I propose is an email campaign asking that Suzanna Lubrano be added to this summer’s line up. Some of you might be asking, why Suzanna Lubrano? part of the reason has to do with the fact that she is a world renown, award winning recording artist with a string of critically well received albums, and, quite frankly, that’s the sort of thing that is going to appeal to the program directors at SummerStage. But more importantly, she has been a good friend and a huge supporter of the Brazilian Zouk community, going so far as to incorporate Zouk Lambada dancers into her live performances. This would be a good opportunity to show our appreciation and do her a favor in return.

Keep in mind, if Suzanna Lubrano were added to this year’s line up, it would no doubt pave the way for other Zouk artists down the road, such as Kaysha, Nelson Freitas, Nilton Ramalho… If you don’t know who they are, you really should and might want to look them up on the Zouk Artist Directory.

So here’s what I’d like you to do.

Step 1:  Send an email to SummerStage saying that you want Suzanna Lubrano to be added to this summer’s line up. And for those of you who have a Twitter account, send a tweet.

Step 2:  When you send your email, please BC me so I can keep track of the number of emails that have been sent.

Step 3:  After you’ve sent in your email, don’t stop there. Tell your friends and family members to do the same.

Again, this is a great opportunity, but it’s only going to work if everyone does their part. So start sending out those emails.

As always, thanks for your continuing cooperation and support.

Nicholas Bambo
Creative Director of Zouk Nation

Whether or not you have any interest in the ongoing development in new electronic technologies, sooner or later, as a dancer, you are bound to find yourself shopping for something to play your music on.  If you’re like me, you just want to find what you need, make your purchase and leave. Keep it simple. Get in, get out. You don’t have the interest or the patience to read all the various online product reviews or to stand around comparing all the different features that come with each model.

In the past, I have found shopping for electronics to be a somewhat daunting experience, so overwhelmed by the selection there is to chose from that, more often than not, I end up leaving without buying anything. I would ask the sales staff for help, but they usually know less about the merchandise than I do. And that is, if you can get their attention. More often then not they are too busy talking to their co-workers to be inconvenienced by your questions.

Take Circuit City for example, one of the largest retail electronic store stores in New York City with dozens of outlets across the tri-borough area. Recently, the company was forced to close it’s doors citing it being due to the poor state of the economy. There is no one I know who is familiar with Circuit City who believes that for a second. The common belief is it had simply to do with bad customer service. If nothing else proves that point, take into account that when Circuit City had its going out of business sale they actually raised their prices as much as 25 percent. You really have to disrespect your customers a to think you can do something like that and no one is going to notice.

All of which leads me to what this article is really about, the recent experience I had shopping at B & H. If you’ve never heard of this store, don’t worry you’re not alone. There are many long time resident New Yorkers who are unfamiliar with this little miracle of a retail outlet as well. Located on the corner of 9^th Avenue and 34^th Street, B & H originally opened in 1973 as a photography store, but over the years has expanded it’s selection to include all kinds of electronic devices with more than 250,000 items in stock.

The fact the store is owned by Orthodox Jews it lends itself to being run a little differently from most other stores. For one thing, there are the store’s hours.  In keeping with the Jewish Sabbath the store regularly closes it’s doors every Friday afternoon at 2:00pm and does not open them until the following Sunday at 10am. The website, where 70% of purchases are made shuts down as well.  Despite the inconvenience of being closed for the better part of the weekend, when the majority of people do their shopping, it would seem to have no affect on the store’s overall popularity, as it is regularly packed with customers. Again, taking more air out of Circuit City’s claim that it’s closing was due to the recession.

Upon entering the store, beyond the size of the place, the first thing you notice is the intricate conveyor belt system that criss-crosses every which way across the ceiling. It is something to behold as packages zip back and forth across the store in every direction, like something out of an old Warner Brother’s cartoon. So visually intriguing, it is the one thing people always seem to mention about the store, that and the incredible customer service.

Case in point, I recently stopped by to purchase a new boom box for Zouk in Central Park. Because we would be dancing outside we would need something portable at the same time something that could be played at high volume. A tough combination. The salesperson I ended up dealing with, Yakkov, a young Orthodox Jew, who proved to be quite the expert when it came to audio equipment. I told him what I was looking for and he quickly narrowed it down to two or three choices, going over the advantages and disadvantages of each. After I made my selection and got home, I spent some time online comparing B & H’s prices to other retailers. I  was happy to find out that the price I ended up paying was the cheapest to be found for said item. Sometimes the difference in price was by as much as 25%.  But it doesn’t end there.

As it turned out, I had to return the unit, due to no fault on B & H’s part. It’s just another member of our group had already purchased a boombox, so there was no need for a second one. I think returning an item is the thing most people dread out of the whole shopping experience. More often than not it winds up in some kind of confrontation, where you have to argue your case as to why they should take the item back.  Just standing in line thinking about it you can feel your blood pressure rising as you brace yourself for the upcoming argument. But as it turned out, at B & H there was no uncomfortable confrontation.  They asked me why I was returning it, I explained my reason. They apologized for the inconvenience, that’s right apologized, when was the last time a salesperson did that to you? And with that, I took my money and left.

Understand that mine is not an unusual story. I have known several people who have had similar experiences when shopping there. As a result, they become life long fans. Good customer service, it seems like a small thing to ask when you consider how little it costs a company and the long term benefits that come with it. This article itself is direct result of a pleasant shopping experience. Let me ask you this, having read this article, how many of you the next time you are in New York and shopping for an electronic device are more than likely to consider going to B & H?  And yet, it’s amazing how many retail businesses have yet to figure this out.  They better figure it out quickly or they could find themselves ending up like Circuit City.

Later that night, when I was lying in bed unable to sleep, it suddenly struck me that it has to do with flow. Not flow in the sense of zouk- flow, the style that was originated by Arkahn’jo in Brazil, but in relation to the work of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. I have no doubt a large number of you reading this will have no idea of whom I’m referring to. That being the case, allow me to digress a bit.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced chick-sent-me-high-ee) is a Hungarian born psychologist and educator, who emigrated to the United States at the age of 22 and who has been described as the world’s leading researcher on positive psychology. The greater part of his career he has spent studying the much neglected topics of creativity and happiness. I say neglected because when you compare how much time in the entire history of psychology has been devoted to what ails the human mind, it’s surprising how little of that time has been spent on what causes the human mind to flourish. One would think what makes us happy would be regarded as having equal importance to what makes us depressed, but unfortunately, that is not the case. It was through the course of years of research that Csikszentmihalyi’s originated the concept known as flow, a rare state of consciousness which he describes as “a sensation of optimal experience.” He theorizes, it is when human beings experience flow that they are most happy and their lives are filled with meaning and purpose.

Surprisingly, flow is something most often experienced at work. This is not to say that we prefer work, but that there are a set of conditions inherent in a job that can contribute to creating a state of flow. As it turns out, flow is rarely ever found in passive, leisure activities, such as lying on the couch and watching TV. Television’s greatest virtue would seem to be that it occupies the mind while demanding very little of us. Which is not to say that flow can’t occur in a leisurely activity, but in order for it to do so the activity must be something which challenges us both mentally and physically. Tasks that are too easy, we get bored by. Tasks that are too difficult, we become frustrated by and eventually give up. But tasks that push us just enough, they test the limits of our skills and cause us to grow. Whatever the given activity, flow requires both a purpose and a goal enabling us to measure our progress and provide us with a sense of achievement when completed. During the duration of the activity, the level of concentration should be to such a degree that it results in a narrowing of focus, to where we lose track of time and forget ourselves as we become lost in the activity at hand.

In the dozen of books and articles Csikszentmihalyi has written on the topic, he emphasizes the fact that were it possible to find a way to increase the number of times one experiences flow on a daily basis the human race, as a whole, would be much happier. It is probably for this reason that his work would seem to be demonstrating a widening appeal. Both President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Tony Blair have counted themselves among his admirers. In recent years, the business community, forever looking for new ways to increase employee productivity, have begun to embrace his ideas, while government officials have ordered studies of how to translate flow into public policy.

By now, you’re probably saying to yourself, well that’s all fine and good, but what does any of this have to do with zouk? In which case, let me ask you something. When you dance zouk, do you set goals for yourself? Of course you do. Would you say that zouk demands a high degree of concentration and focus? Of course it does. Does it challenge you both mentally and physically? Absolutely. When you’re out on the dance floor, have you ever been so caught up in the dance that the rest of the world falls away, to where all that exist is just you and the dance, while time loses all meaning? Definitely. In which case, it would appear that zouk is happiness. Now how cool is that?

For further reading:  Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi