Skip to content

It Takes Two to Kizomba

A sexy dance craze slinks into Seattle.

By Mallory Peterson April 2, 2013

0313kizombadancers

This article originally appeared in the March 2013 issue of Seattle magazine.

You’ve swung the West Coast swing, spiced up your salsa and topped off your tango—what’s next? Time to kiss up to kizomba. This Angolan dance style first caught fire in the 1980s, and has since spread across Europe and recently landed in Seattle, at venues such as Century Ballroom (centuryballroom.net), which offers drop-in classes for returning students and five-week series.

So what does it look like? At first glance, it’s similar to tango—certainly it’s as sensual—but where tango is all sharp postures and straight lines, kizomba emphasizes soft knees and circular motion. Seattle kizomba teacher Frances Tee explains, “It’s a dance that feels like being in front of a fireplace with a warm blanket in a comfortable embrace.” A tango/salsa/swing dancer who learned about kizomba in 2009, Tee has since become a prominent proponent of the Seattle kizomba scene, teaching workshops and bringing in masters from abroad (read her dance blog at kizombaseattle.blogspot.com). She also organized the Seattle Kizomba Semba Camp (3/22–3/24; seattlekizombasembacamp.weebly.com), a weekend of workshops and social dances at Century Ballroom that are guaranteed to put a spring in your step.

 

Follow Us

Photo Essay: Ferry Therapy

Photo Essay: Ferry Therapy

Words and photographs by Anna Starr.

Riding the ferry is my favorite Seattle pastime. At any given time on a Washington State Ferry you will find a group of tourists with too  many suitcases, someone in work clothes peacefully napping, a jigsaw puzzle diligently being completed, lovers having a Titanic-esque moment on a balcony (fun fact: those balconies are called pickleforks),…

AANHPI Month: Where to Celebrate, Eat, and Learn Around Seattle

AANHPI Month: Where to Celebrate, Eat, and Learn Around Seattle

From festivals and museum exhibits to food tours and historic neighborhoods, here are a few ways to mark the month across the region.

Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month—known as AANHPI Month—is observed in the U.S. each May. It began as a weeklong observance in 1978 and expanded to the full month in 1992. Asian, Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities in the United States extend back much further, including to the late 16th century, when…

Black Panther Park in Skyway Becomes First Black Panther Park in the World

Black Panther Park in Skyway Becomes First Black Panther Park in the World

The new community garden honors the Black Panther Party’s legacy of food justice and the Skyway neighbors who helped bring it to life. 

On a sunny Sunday earlier this month, at the corner of 75th Avenue and Renton Avenue South, the community gathered for the opening of Skyway’s Black Panther Park. Inspired by the Black Panther’s Free Breakfast for School Children program that compelled the federal government to provide breakfast in schools, Black Panther Park is a community…

Rearview Mirror: A Family Coming Apart, SIFF, and My First Fashion Show

Rearview Mirror: A Family Coming Apart, SIFF, and My First Fashion Show

Things I did, saw, ate, learned, or read in the past week (or so).

The Family House A house can hold a lot, and Seattle Rep’s Appropriate knows that. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Tony-winning play, directed here by Timothy McCuen Piggee, drops the Lafayette siblings into their late father’s hoarded, falling-apart Arkansas plantation home for an estate sale, and lets the whole thing crack open from there. The sibling dynamics are…