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'A Onça' - Tania  

Tania is known to be one of the top Brazilian/ Latin Zouk dancers in the world. Her technique (look out for those amazing breathtaking spins!), her expression and especially her musical interpretation are next to none.     . Her dance style is passionate and expressive while at the same time elegant, graceful and fluid, which has also earned her the nickname ‘Onça’ which is Portuguese and means ‘Jaguar’. Tania’s enormous musicality and sense of rhythm coupled with her fantastic dance technique - make watching her ‘dance to the music’ a truly inspiring and memorable experience. When you see her dancing in a crowd of people she can – for all the right reasons - not be overlooked.

Background 

Tania started dancing at an early age, by attending a ballroom dance school. She has performed at large balls, like the world famous Vienna Opera Ball and also trained and performed in tap dancing. Notably, Tania also studied and graduated in music and due to her enormous musical talent, was accepted to study piano at a highly renowned and selective music school, later also playing piano concerts. 

Tania was introduced to Latin dancing in the 90s when she and a group of friends went to Salsa and Merengue classes in South America. She immediately took to the flavor of the dance and decided to continue learning. Shortly after she also saw Lambada being danced to zouk music and she immediately fell in love with the dance and the music. Her extensive travels at the time also took her to Brazil and Argentina where she was able to dance with great dancers such as Didi, one of the famous Kaoma group dancers, dancing with whom she was also shown on TV and later Braz, another famous Kaoma group dancer with whom she has taught and danced shows in London in places such as the Latin Festival in Covent Garden or Scala or at the Salsa Festival in Brighton. Later she dance partnered with another fantastic and very well known dancer, Marcelinho, who is not only a world renown top Brazilian/ Latin Zouk dancer but who has also performed on stage with some of Brazil's most famous and internationally known singers such as Ivete Sangalo, Harmonia do Samba, E o Tschan, Olodum and Araketu, in addition to numerous TV appearances. Together they have performed at many events worldwide.

Creativity, Innovation and Continuous Growth

Brazilian/ Latin Zouk as such does not have  a  limited set of steps - on the contrary, the dance is ever evolving. Notably, Tania is responsible for having introduced several steps and moves to this dance (for example 'the lady spinning several times without being contact with the man's hand) that have nowadays been accepted to become incorporated in many other professional Zouk Lambada or Brazilian Zouk dancers' performances.

Also being a recognized choreographer, she also choreographed and performed some of the early ‘choreographed’ ZoukLambada and Brazilian/ Latin Zouk shows in London, where her dancing has been an important force in innovating the dance and has continuously inspired many of today’s teachers and assistants to learn and improve.

Always being eager and very open minded to learn new dances and continuously striving to become an even more accomplished dancer and performer, Tania has also learned Gafiera and Bolero with the best dance teachers in Brazil, Argentine Tango and some Latin Ballroom. Having been to Cape Verde (the place where many of the Zouk musicians come from) she also learned to dance Kizomba there - and she can also dance Bachata. Tania says: ‘the world of dance is so immense and there are always new exciting things to learn to keep growing’. She continues: ‘I love meeting or working with professionals of other dances. One of the very important influences on my dancing has, for example, been many years back meeting and dancing with two of the world’s best salsa dancers / instructors Francesco and Jonny Vazquez - not only because they are amazing dancers and because they taught me some of my salsa, but also due to their immense passion for dance. When you see them dance it really IS all about the music and dancing. They’ve been a great inspiration to me as I have always also firmly believed dancing is not about having the music playing in the background and just absolving exercises, but it should be about dancing TO or WITH the music, interpreting it and letting it inspire you’.

Instructing Tania started teaching dance over 10 years ago – not so much as her main profession, but more to comply with the many requests of people seeing her dancing and absolutely intrigued with her style, passion, technique  and musical interpretation, wanting to learn or improve their dancing with her. Due to her in-depth knowledge of the dance she has also been invited by professionals of other dances to teach workshops in many countries, besides giving individual tuition. Having also trained people in other sports since an early stage in her life, her teaching technique, enthusiasm for people to learn properly and as much as they can, coupled with her love for the dance and feeling for music make her one of the most highly rated and internationally appreciated teachers.

Tania's students always praise her clear detailed explanations and impressive understanding of both dance and music. She says: ‘it makes me very happy to teach people and see them improve. I know from my own experience when learning various dances what a difference it makes whether a teacher is just waiting for the class time to pass or can’t really explain the detail or whether they are really passionate about making their students improve. As long as people are really passionate about it, I believe anybody can learn to dance.’

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M.Estilo

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Estilo has been a Brazilian dance performer and instructor for most of his life. He has been part of the development of Lambada / Zouk in Brazil since the 90s. In Brazil he has performed and taught Lambada Zouk in many of Brazil's most renowned and well established dance places and on request of many dance schools has toured Brazil teaching and peforming a number of Brazilian dances. 

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Others

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