Code of Conduct:

IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT
SAFETY IN BRAZILIAN ZOUK

Brazilian Zouk Social Dancing - Community Guidelines

Culture

Brazilian Zouk is a social dance, and we try to bring the best aspects of Brazilian culture along. Brazilian culture is characterized by warmth, general friendliness and sense of community.

If you bring a positive attitude and warmth towards others, that is good for them and for you both. This can include things like greeting people you know when coming to the party and talking with others during the party and getting to know them.

No pressure though! If you're feeling shy, take it easy and step by step. If you're missing some social skills for chit-chatting, the same! If you want to take time for yourself and chill on your own, by all means!

And if you just want to dance, dance and dance all the time, with no time to talk... we've been there, go ahead! You can still give people your positive attitude when dancing, and say hi to when passing them by or asking them to dance.

Just remember: people in Finland can be reserved and in modern times we spend a lot of time with our screens. Social dance is a chance to let your inner Brazilian out and be social, at least a bit.

Asking For & Finishing Dances

Unlike some dances, Brazilian Zouk doesn’t have very specific rules when it comes to asking people to dance and how many songs to dance at a time with one partner. Here's some general guidelines:

  • Both leaders and followers can ask each other to dance.

  • Feel free to learn and social dance as a leader or a follower regardless of your gender.

  • When asking for a dance, it's best not to invest your ego in the answer. You're genuinely asking whether your prospective partner feels like dancing with you right now, not just going through the motions. If they don't, that's fine, ask somebody else.

  • It's fine to politely refuse a dance. It's even good to do so occasionally; if you never refuse you never learn to refuse, and you risk developing resentment over dances you really don’t want to have.

  • It's good for the community for people to dance across skill levels. It's good for you, too; it's very limiting if you can only enjoy dancing with people who are equally skilled or better. Take this into account at least some of the time when deciding who to dance with. We're all there to have fun, but let’s keep long-term good in mind also.

  • Try not to stress or compare yourself to others with more experience or skills. Beginners in particular often worry that they’re not good enough to social dance. However, people are in general happy to welcome beginners, help them out and dance with them, and don't expect them to have much dance skills yet.

  • Usually people dance one or two songs in a row with the same partner. It’s fine to dance just one, it’s not considered rude, since it can have many different reasons. In the same way, it’s also fine to dance more than two. If you’re unsure, feel free to ask your partner if they’d like to continue dancing.

Comfort & Communication & Consent

It's important for both partners to be comfortable when dancing. When dancing with different partners we need to keep in mind comfort in leading and following, which moves are suitable with our current partner, and level of intimacy.

  • We should dance in a way that feels comfortable for both partners.

  • In Brazilian Zouk, there are moves that can be painful, unhealthy or dangerous unless both dancers know the technique. These include various dips and head movements. Leaders should choose their moves according to their partner's skill level, and not force-lead moves.

  • Brazilian Zouk is a sensual dance that is usually danced pretty close - but this doesn't mean we have to dance sensually, or dance sensually with all the partners all the time. One can invite the other to dance close for example, but either leading or following, you don't have to get closer than you're comfortable with.

Being comfortable requires paying attention to our partner and also some skill. Our partners often dance in a way that feels uncomfortable without meaning to. In these cases, ask them to fix whatever is making you uncomfortable. Examples:

  • "This hold hurts my hand, can you relax it a bit?"

  • “I don't know how to do head movements yet, can you please skip those?"

  • "I don't feel like dancing very close, can we keep a bit more distance"?

You're not trying to cast blame here, or to teach your partner; you're giving them information they need for both of you to have a nice dance together. If they don’t listen, feel free to stop the dance and walk off.

Consent in the level of intimacy

For people new to Zouk or social dancing, it’s easy to confuse dance and sexual or romantic interest. That’s a mistake. It’s common for people to dance with lots of physical touch or emotional intimacy, and not be at all romantically interested in each other.

When dancing or training together, the consent is given specifically for dancing. It is an agreement based on a mutual trust that both of the dancers respect the boundaries of the dance. It is not acceptable to try to kiss or touch intimate body parts of your partner during a dance - even if you would interpret the energy between you as sexual. Respecting the boundaries of the dance enables safe and enjoyable connection to happen.

It is natural to sometimes have romantic or sexual interest in someone. If you want to approach a fellow dancer with romantic or sexual intention - asking respectfully for verbal consent is the way to go, preferably off the dance floor. Consent is freely given, specific to a certain thing, time and context, and can be withdrawn at any time.

If somebody is extremely uncomfortable, or crosses the line to sexual harassment, please tell the organizer. Do this regardless of whether you tried asking them verbally to be more comfortable. You can do this even if some time has passed. If you are not sure if what you experienced is harassment or part of the dance - you are still free to talk to the organizers about it and get support. You are welcome to come talk about it with any of the teachers.

Hygiene

Smelling bad is a fast way to make sure your partner won’t enjoy the dance. Here’s a quick checklist:

  • Did you brush your teeth or have a mint or gum after your previous meal?

  • Did you apply deodorant?

  • Are your clothes clean and smell fine? Smell of sweat can stick to clothes.

  • In case you sweat a lot during dancing, did you bring spare shirts to replace the sweat-soaked ones?

  • If you’re using a scent - perfume or cologne - are you sure you didn’t put too much? It’s enough for your partner to be able to enjoy the scent - the rest of the room shouldn’t have to.

If in doubt whether you smell ok, feel free to ask somebody!

What to Do?

As in any activity where people meet and interact, it is important to respect other person’s boundaries and communicate about your own boundaries. Given the close nature of our beloved couple dance, this is even more important, in the class, socials, one-on-one trainings, festivals, hangouts, chat groups.

We want to do everything we can to make Brazilian Zouk, as well as, all other couple dances we offer, a safe environment for everyone. This requires acknowledging the fact that NO COMMUNITY is inherently immune to inappropriate behaviour, not even ours.

Some examples specific to couple dance that are NOT OK:

* Leading advanced and potentially dangerous moves to people who haven’t learnt them in a class;

* Insisting on having one-on-one trainings with someone who doesn’t want that and is afraid to speak up;

* Using the dance as a means to get close without the other person's consent;

If you experience any kind of inappropriate behaviour, we really hope you come to talk to any of us!

Best regards,
Freddy Marinho, Andressa Castelhano, Jukka Välimaa, and Kristina Tsvetkova-Välimaa.