Is Brazilian Zouk a Spiritual Dance? (S06 Ep12)

<p>Is Brazilian Zouk a spiritual dance? Do you have to be spiritual to dance it?</p><p>In this ZoukNerds episode, Gui Prada and I take the &quot;too hippie&quot; stereotype apart.</p><p><br></p><p>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.</p><p><br></p><p>By that definition I am in it already: weight transfer drills, feeling the floor. Yeah, we all hippies, okay?</p><p><br></p><p>Does the stereotype survive the episode?</p><p><br></p><p>→ The wardrobe: linen from Bali, organic and vegan, and less depth than someone in jeans in a big city. &quot;It&#39;s not what people wear. It&#39;s not what they eat. It&#39;s not where they live.&quot;</p><p><br></p><p>→ The competition: I asked Gui, &quot;Could I be a Jack and Jill hardcore, fanatic point chaser and still be a spiritual dancer?&quot; &quot;100%. 1,000%.&quot;</p><p><br></p><p>→ 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.</p><p><br></p><p>Then I remembered Beijing. The Chinese Olympic ice dancers saw a video of me dancing Zouk and said, &quot;We don&#39;t want to learn the dance itself. Teach us how to become one like you guys do.&quot; I could relate. When I competed, my training was for the outside, for the judges, for the show.</p><p><br></p><p>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.</p><p><br></p><p>Chapters:</p><p>00:00 Intro: is Zouk too hippie?</p><p>02:05 The definition: it&#39;s a practice</p><p>07:00 Weight transfer drills: we&#39;re all hippies</p><p>08:08 It&#39;s not what people wear</p><p>11:23 Can a point chaser be spiritual?</p><p>14:50 A tool for connection</p><p>15:45 Is the name itself appropriation?</p><p>22:25 The Chinese Olympic ice dancers</p><p>27:21 The Tuesday-night spiritual practice</p><p>30:00 Same class, two names</p><p>30:51 The things are what we are</p><p><br></p><p>Co-host: Gui Prada</p><p><br></p><p>ZoukNerds: https://www.zouknerds.com/</p><p>Alisson Sandi: https://www.alissonsandi.com</p><p>Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zouk.nerds/</p><p><br></p><p>Episode: S06 Ep12 | ZoukNerds Podcast</p>