Is Brazilian Zouk a spiritual dance? Do you have to be spiritual to dance it?
In this ZoukNerds episode, Gui Prada and I take the "too hippie" stereotype apart.
The complaint: too spiritual, too much eye contact, whale music. So I asked the Buddha himself, Gui Prada, to define it. His definition: anything you do that connects you to meaning, to purpose, to something larger than yourself. Not a belief, a practice. Yoga counts. Journaling counts. In an old German monastery, brewing beer counted, and the monks drank from three-liter mugs.
By that definition I am in it already: weight transfer drills, feeling the floor. Yeah, we all hippies, okay?
Does the stereotype survive the episode?
→ The wardrobe: linen from Bali, organic and vegan, and less depth than someone in jeans in a big city. "It's not what people wear. It's not what they eat. It's not where they live."
→ The competition: I asked Gui, "Could I be a Jack and Jill hardcore, fanatic point chaser and still be a spiritual dancer?" "100%. 1,000%."
→ The retreats: journaling connects you to yourself, yoga to your body, meditation to your thoughts, and the dance to each other. That is why retreats use Brazilian Zouk as a connection tool.
Then I remembered Beijing. The Chinese Olympic ice dancers saw a video of me dancing Zouk and said, "We don't want to learn the dance itself. Teach us how to become one like you guys do." I could relate. When I competed, my training was for the outside, for the judges, for the show.
The big takeaway: spirituality in dance is depth of practice, not wardrobe. The Tuesday-night dancer doing footwork drills may hold a deeper spiritual practice than the professional in yoga pants who lost the why.
Chapters:
00:00 Intro: is Zouk too hippie?
02:05 The definition: it's a practice
07:00 Weight transfer drills: we're all hippies
08:08 It's not what people wear
11:23 Can a point chaser be spiritual?
14:50 A tool for connection
15:45 Is the name itself appropriation?
22:25 The Chinese Olympic ice dancers
27:21 The Tuesday-night spiritual practice
30:00 Same class, two names
30:51 The things are what we are
Co-host: Gui Prada
ZoukNerds: https://www.zouknerds.com/
Alisson Sandi: https://www.alissonsandi.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zouk.nerds/
Episode: S06 Ep12 | ZoukNerds Podcast
