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

Freddy and Andressa are from Rio de Janeiro-Brazil and started dancing at a very young. Due to their having worked a long time with Renata Pecanha, they have became highly respected Zouk Instructors.

The have taught and performed at many international congresses and workshops
and have won several festivals in Rio de Janeiro.

Today, they have their own school in Moscow-Russia, where they teach Brazilian Zouk and Samba de Gafieira.

Wakko Oliviér, born in Rio de Janeiro, started dancing in 1993 when he was first introduced to  urban dances, such as, Hip Hop, Funk Carioca etc.

Since 1998 he has been studying dance professionally and has managed to add the following dances to his resumé: Jazz, African(Afro),Contemporary, Hip Hop, Samba de Gafieira, Bolero, Zouk, Salsa, Bachata, Frevo, Maculêlê, Argentine Tango, Forró.

Wakko began his professional career as a dancer in 1999, when he was only 17 years old and had to perform in front of the  Carnaval Parade Commission. He has since gone on to perform with such Brazilian stars as Kelly Key, Latino, SNZ, Elza Soares, Xuxa, to name a few.

Hailing from Malaysia, Johan was exposed to dance at an early age. Since taking up salsa in 2002 he developed a passion for all things latin. Since then he has taught, performed and choreographed routines that have been debuted on the national and international stage. With a passion for Bachata, he became South Australian Bachata Champion with his partner Kari Bowling in 2009.

Kari began dancing Latin Ballroom at a young age. However, it wasn’t until she was introduced to salsa in 2004 that her passion for dance was reignited. She then spent 5 months living and travelling in Latin America and immersed in the roots of salsa with classes in son and rumba, later living in the Dominican Republic and falling in love with bachata with endless nights of dancing beach-side with the locals.

Since returning to Adelaide at the end of 2008, Kari began free-lance teaching at several dance studios as well as having private students. She further developed her love of dance by going on to complete internal training to become an instructor with Latin Dance Nation in 2008/9.

Sam Olah, co founder of Latin Dance Nation, helped introduce zouk to South Australia in early 2009 with the help of Gaspar Ribeiro and her partner Sarantos Zaloumis. She began dancing at the age of 7 and has immersed herself in the passion ever since. As co founder and senior dance instructor at Latin Dance Nation her approach and philosophy in teaching zouk is that of a holistic nature, encompassing the mind, body and spirit, in an attempt to master a dance that must, by its very nature, encompass all three.

Driven by Latin Dance Nation’s vast background in Latin dance styles, Co founder Sarantos Zaloumis helped introduce zouk to South Australia in early 2009 with his partner Sam Olah. Since then the style has gained vast popularity amongst the South Australian dance circuit.

Learning the fundamentals of Brazilian Zouk from some of its pioneers he continues to study Zouk closely with artists such as Kadu Pires and Larissa Thayane from Rio Rhythmics dancing academy in Brisbane Australia – two of the most renowned Zouk dancers in the world, as well as Gaspar Ribeiro and Edelemar Pieternelle.

Glenio de Oliveira has been teaching Brazilian ballroom dancing for 15 years. He started dancing at the age of 12 with ballet classes in Brazil and in a short time he was giving performances. Over the years he has studied with many famous Brazilian professional dancers including Jaime Aroxa, Carlos de Jesus, Carlinhos de Jesus, Juliano Andrade, Vinicios Da Costa.

Glenio now resides in Boston, where for the last 6 years he has been taught at a number of different studios including the Ryles Jazz Club in Cambridge, MAPS (Massachusetts Association of Portuguese Speakers), MIT University, and Brookline Community Adult Education Center. He specializes mainly in the Brazilian ballroom dancing such as samba de gafieira, forro, but he also been teaching samba no pe (carnival samba), bolero, salsa, zouk, merengue, bachata, cha-cha, swing, and even tango.

A teacher and a health coach, Kelly started dancing in 2004 after living in Uruguay and became fascinated with tango.  In 2007 she moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina for half a year to study and research the history of tango.  One night halfway through her trip, she happened to meet up with a friend in Maluco Beleza and immediately fell in love with zouk lambada.  She switched her dance focus and learned lambada from some of Argentina’s best teachers.  Upon moving back to her hometown of San Diego, California she decided to start a zouk lambada community and has been teaching since 2008.  She has hosted workshops by various international instructors and plans to keep spreading the love and awareness of the dance in Southern California.  It’s her long-term goal to eventually host a zouk lambada congress in sunny San Diego.

Michalina and Kamil are professional dancers with 13-years experience.  They have been dancing together for 4 years and together they specialize in preparing both performances and shows. They are pioneers of the Zouk movement in Poland and offer regular dance classes. In addition to teaching, they spend a great deal of  time traveling around the world representing Poland at Salsa, Bachata, Zouk and Merengue championships. They have won the Polish Championships in Bachata twice (Gniezno’08 Wolomin’09) and are IDO World Champions in Zouk (Nauders Austria’08) and IDO World Vice Champions in Bachata and Salsa.  Now they want to share their experience and knowledge with Bachata and Zouk lovers. They are known for their sense of humor and professionalism.

Nayan introduced Zouk Lambada to U.A.E. with Sam in early 2009. He learned the fundamentals of Brazilian Zouk from one of the pioneers Tarcisio Teatini Climaco at Rio Rhythmics dancing acadamy in Brisbane Australia.
He later studied Zouk closely with Kadu Pires and Larissa Thayane – two of the most renowned Zouk dancers in the world.

Nayan spent hours with another instructor Alisson Rodrigues Sandi who is based in Perth to shape up his Zouk.
He furthermore attended workshops by famous Zouk instructors in Europe such as Ailton Silva (Berlin) and Junior Carvalho (Hamburg) as well as with one of the masters who developed modern zouk lambada to what it is today: the great Brazilian instructor Adilio Porto (based in Amsterdam).