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

Zouk Nation is proud to announce the first podcast in the United States dedicated solely to the multinational music/dance phenomenon known as Zouk.

It has been a long road traveled from the podcast’s original conception two years ago to today’s launch. As is often the case, when talking about an endeavor of this size it can never be attributed to just one person.  I had a lot of help and support along the way. If you allow me a moment, I’d like to thank many of the people who helped make this podcast a reality.

It was announced on Friday, October 2nd, that Rio de Janeiro beat out Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo to host the Olympic Games in 2016. It is the first time that a South American country has been selected to host the games.

Shortly after the announcement crowds gathered in the streets of Rio to celebrate their city’s historic victory.

For a more detailed account of the selection process and people’s reactions check out the article from the NY Times.

On Monday September 7th, 2009 Liza Listvinsky and David Tsairi were married. The wedding was held near Tel Aviv with around 300 guests in attendance. Many Zouk dancers from around  the world attended the wedding including Mari Hodges, Guillermo Sverdlik, Gilson and Dikla. The festivities continued throughout the night and into the early morning hours.

Zouk Nation congratulates the happy couple and wishes them all the best.

Wedding Dance Video 1

Photo by Alen MacWeeney

On Thursday, August 27th 2009, Zouk was featured in an article of the Style Section of the New York Times. This is the first article about Zouk to be printed in an English language newspaper in the United States. Our own Nicholas Bambo and Bernie Calang were both interviewed for the article.

Our own Nicholas Bambo and instructor Pedro Mesquita were recently interviewed by Sights of Brazil (S.O.B.) to talk about the growing Zouk scene in New York City. The episode aired on Sunday, July 12th at 12pm on channel 68 in the Bronx. Since then segments of the episode have been posted on YouTube. Zouk Nation would like to thank all the members of the Zouk community who made it possible, along with Eduardo Filizolla of Banda Aixa and the entire crew from Sights Of Brazil.

To view excerpts from the episode click on the following links.

On Thursday, June 4th, at Lava Gina in the East Village, Zouk Nation participated in the taping of an upcoming episode of Sights of Brazil (S.O.B.), a Brazilian television show that focuses on a different aspect of Brazilian culture. This particular episode will focus on Zouk and the growing scene in New York City. It is scheduled to air on a local cable channel sometime in mid-July.

On Saturday May 16th, members of Zouk Nation and 113 other local dance organizations participated in the third annual Dance Parade as thousands of spectators looked on.

The Parade began at 1:00 at 26th and Broadway then proceeded down Broadway to Saint Mark’s Place where it finished at Thompkins Square Park in the East Village at 3:00.  The rest of the afternoon was spent dancing in the Park, then at 6:00 our own Pedro Mesquita and Juni Shimizu of TropicalNY taught a free zouk lesson in the Park. Afterward, the entire group headed over to Lava Gina for drinks and more dancing.

On May 14th, a wake was held for Brian Crockett, a member of the New York zouk community who was killed in an automobile accident while returning home from a Thursday night zouk class at Lava Gina on March 27th.

The wake was a held in the form of a “Last Call,” an old bar tradition that is performed when a regular in a bar passes away.  A photo of Brian was hung up on the wall and a bottle of his favorite drink, Jack Daniel’s, was laid out along with an empty glass to represent him.  Throughout the evening people in the bar were invited to drink from the bottle. They poured themselves a drink, clicked their glass with Brian’s and made a silent toast to him. Each person who poured a drink left a small contribution in a tip jar, which had also been laid out to help cover the cost of the event.

The New York zouk community’s much beloved zouk instructor Stephanie B. went into labor on Monday, May 4th  at 10:00 pm.  Her husband Henri had her checked into Manhattan’s Downtown Hospital soon after. She was given an epidural at 12:00 am and slept until 4:30 am when she began experiencing contractions.  Little Anais was born shortly after at 6:00 am on Tuesday morning, May 5th, weighing 3.2 kilograms (7 lbs.)  Stephanie said it was a relatively easy birth and that both her and Henri are overjoyed.  

More photos: