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

After moving from the beautiful city of Montreal, Junyan began teaching, dancing and choreographing in Toronto in August 2010. Since then, he has partnered with Toronto dancer Danielle Nash and co-founded Toronto’s first Zouk school, choreographed numerous routines presented locally and abroad, and has already made major contributions to the Toronto dance community..

Having taught dance from the age of 19, his passion for dance and his understanding of social dancing are broad, as is his knowledge of Latin music and history. Junyan tirelessly advocates a focus on partner connection and how music and dance interrelate. He has been a guest judge for various competitions around the world.

Danielle’s dance journey took her through the ballroom and salsa worlds before she fell in love with the deep partner connection and freedom of musical expression found in blues dancing. She soon began teaching in Toronto, while traveling around Canada and the United States to train and compete in blues.

In Zouk she discovered the same qualities that she loved about blues dance, layered with the smooth, flowing movements that Zouk music inspires. With her partner Junyan, Danielle co-founded Mazouka Dance Company, the first and largest Zouk school in Toronto. Since then they have been teaching, choreographing and performing zouk locally and abroad. Together they run “Zouk Me” Tuesdays, a weekly zouk venue, and have been a driving force in the development of Toronto’s fast-growing zouk scene.

René first began as a dancer by studying ballroom dancing and now has more than 10 years of experience as a ballroom dancer. He later studied various styles of Salsa dancing including dancing Salsa on 1 and on 2. In addition, he has also managed to master Rock and Roll, Dirty Dancing, Lambada, HipHop, Streetdance, Socadance, among many other dances. When René saw Zouk for the first time in 2004 he immediately fell in love with it and started to learn this beautiful dance. He currently teaches Zouk at Zouk Lovers school in Holland.

Emily Ma is one of the most popular female Rio Zouk Lambada instructors in Asia. From the first moment that Emily experience Latino and Brazilian dance she immediately fell in love with it.  Among the many places she has taught include Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam.

Emily originally started Jazz and Contemporary training at the age of 13. Since then her whole energy and efforts have been thrown into the world of music and dance. She has managed to learn many different dance styles has managed to expand her skills to include, instruction, management, producing and organizing events and presentations and creating a line of dance clothes and shoes.

Daniel started teaching at Centro de Danca Jaime Arôxa, Rio de Janeiro in 1999. The school arguably has the best teaching methodology and is the biggest dance school in Brazil.

Daniel was born in Bahia, and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He graduated from Universidade do Estado do Rio De Janeiro (UERJ) in 2002 in Physical Education and Sports.

Nataliya has trained in classical ballet, contemporary and character dance from a young age before first discovering the partner dancing through salsa. Later on, when she moved from France to the UK, she came across the amazingly beautiful and emotional Brazilian Zouk in London and like many others got hooked.

Nataliya also spent a few months in Brazil where she trained in other Brazilian partner dances like samba de gefieira and forro at some of the biggest and most recognised dance schools in Brazil.

She has attended numerous Brazilian Zouk congresses and learnt from the best instructors of that dance style around the world.

Mohammed is a dedicated and extremely patient teacher, who first started teaching as an assistant to some of the main promoters of Brazilian Zouk in London. He has attended numerous Zouk congresses around the world and has in addition spent a few months in Brazil and Argentina developing his style. His friendly and structured approach in teaching, attention to detail and calm persona bring a positive vibe and a special touch to the class.

Mohammed and Nataliya became partners in 2009 and are now teaching and promoting Brazilian Zouk together. Their style developed through learning from many of the leading zouk teachers around the world.

The motto of the Lamzouk dance school is “I do not dance for others but for myself in a way which makes me happy.”

Luizinho Astral was born in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and started dancing when he was only 10 years old at Rita a famous ballet school in Rio.

He was first introduced to Lamabada when he was 15 years old and began to dance with his sister as his dance partner.

Kim Rottier was first introduced to Brazilian Dance in 2004 at Rio Rhythmics, a Brazilian dance school in Australia, where she studied Zouk, Salsa, Samba, Forro, Gafieira, Merengue, Bolero and Bossa Nova. Kim began teaching Zouk and Salsa in New York in 2005 at Sandra Cameron Dance Center. In 2006 she founded her own dance organization, Zouk NY, with the goal of bringing the Brazilian styles she loves to New York and watching them flourish.

Alisson hails from Brazil, São Paulo. His arrival into Perth, Australia has blown the top off the Latin dance world in Perth. He has made himself an integral part of the Juan Rando Dance Academy as the main Brazilian dance instructor where he teaches Brazilian zouk, samba de gafieira, Argentine tango, salsa, forró and axé. Alisson is also qualified in Salsa on1 and on2, bolero, tango, soltinho, West Coast swing, cha cha and more. Having taught a variety of these styles in Brazil and performed them around the world he is a great asset to the dance studio in Perth.