Zouk Lead heaven, in Sao Paulo Brazil.
Lead Heaven 😇
My my, how the tables have turned..
Lead heaven is the social and sensational transition from being undesirable and a rough "beginner" to a good lead or amazing lead.
For context: as of this writing, I am 22 months into my zouk learning journey in Sao Paulo, Brazil, training an average 6 hours of zouk dancing/training a day ~4000 hours.
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SOCIAL HEAVEN
Follows are visibly be excited when I ask them to dance. If I'm not hiding and just watching people dance, I will get asked to dance at least once every 30 seconds to a minute (assuming I'm not looking closed). I have a hard time ending a dance (followers will hold the close embrace if I don't end with a cambre). Follows are often disappointed when I end a dance, even if it's been 45 minutes. Followers will often approach me to start conversation, saying hi, and giving me an opening to ask them to dance. I feel like the mayor of town, and it's a good feeling.
I have a mental roster of people I know I like to dance with. People I don't like to dance with, but still do because they are nice to me/ask me nicely. There are about 30 people I know I will have a good dance with, and I maybe have time to dance with up to 10 people a night in 4-5 hours, so on a given day if I don't dance with someone on that roster, there are people who are disappointed that I don't dance with them pretty much at all times.
Then there are all the people who would tolerate me and would dance with me when I was a beginner, and I feel like I want to honor that and dance with them even as I have progressed past them technically.
Then there are all the new people who know who I am from instagram etc and want to dance with me. I am pretty much always slammed to dance with someone. It is a flood.
Followers value this dance tremendously and use friendship and intimacy to be close to train / secure dances. Not to mention there is also the respect and knowledge sharing with fellow lead friends. Assuming you aren't resource guarding with your knowledge it's quite easy to make friends because as a good lead you have value to pretty much everyone. Quite opposite from being a beginner.
If part of your goal for dancing zouk is to find connections or curing loneliness, then becoming a good lead is a definitive solution. People will talk about your dance to other people. This is heaven, and ironically, if you haven't learned about setting boundaries and saying no, you will have to learn.
Herein lies the power of being a good lead. You get to choose. With this power, you can transform someone's entire night, but with all the above responsibilities and potential mental calculus I mentioned above.
Here in Sao Paulo, with over 1000+ active brazilian zoukers, this is the ocean. Like a box of chocolates, every dance is different and being a better lead let's you enjoy more chocolate.
SENSORIAL HEAVEN
This is the real reason why I love zouking.
The feeling of togetherness, flying, being wavey, sharp, all to the music with someone else in sync to the music, is an incredible feeling.
This is heaven, this is why I think when people discover Zouk, they pretty much abandon the other social dances and just stick to Zouk. For others, they might even walk away from conventional life 🙋♂️
Imagine being someone who is able to create these sensations, at will, with pretty much everyone. This is a superpower. This is scarce. This is valuable. This is honestly the reason why you should train. It's not just your follow who is able to feel your improved technique, you can also feel.
I find a lot of how you feel in zouk is pretty much exactly what your partner feels.
To be able to train and master something, get exercise, make friends, and feel amazing while doing it. I can't think of a better activity to invest in. Unlike a solitary hobby, like painting, dancing zouk hits all the buckets.
Plus, zouk flow state, it used to take me 3-4 hours to finally relax, and get out of my head and flow. Now I can literally just enter flow state. This is amazing.
I also like to think, that as of now, Aug 5, 2025: training zouk now is like investing in bitcoin when it was like $10 USD. It's still early to be learning zouk, it's relatively new, with the original master teachers very much so alive and spreading zouk. Zouk is difficult, but it is sticky (addictive). There really is nothing quite so amazing as zouk and no better place to learn than Sao Paulo, Brazil for its training culture.
BUUUUUUUT,
Zouk is not perfect, and in my opinion it is naturally a hierarchy (like many skill based communities- such as martial arts). It's really hard to be a beginner as I mentioned in my prior post about Zouk Beginner Hell. But at least it's really simple to understand. Zouk skills, technique/training, zouk knowledge/wisdom is what it really takes to climb and I love that simplicity.
Ironically, without boundaries zouk heaven can be a bit overwhelming. As a recovering people pleaser, it can be exhausting and I have had to learn to say "No" on a regular basis to protect my enjoyment (community development be damned).
The more I train, the more I understand and appreciate the dance. As a hedonist, I prefer to dance with those who've put in similar work as it's just more enjoyable for me. As I continue on my journey I hope to develop a mindset where I can enjoy dancing with beginners more.. but in close.. I now understand why 22 months ago, as a beginner, the more "advanced" dancers avoided eye contact.