What is kizomba? Origins, music and what makes the dance

Kizomba is music and a partner dance from Angola. The dance is slow and smooth and is danced close together. Below I answer the questions people ask about it most often.

What is kizomba?

An Angolan music style and the dance that goes with it. The word kizomba means party in Kimbundu, one of the larger languages of Angola. In April 2024 the Angolan Ministry of Culture declared kizomba, as a music and dance genre, national intangible cultural heritage by decree (Decreto Executivo 91/24, published on 29 April 2024).

The dance is known as slow, calm and sensual. Partners dance close together; the lead steers mainly with the upper body and the right arm.

Where does kizomba come from?

From Angola, in the late 1970s or early 1980s. The sources disagree on exactly when it started, and experts differ on it too.

A common explanation: during the civil war in Angola (1975-2002) fewer records of semba, the older Angolan dance music, came out, and Angolans listened more to Caribbean music. At backyard parties you heard semba, Cape Verdean passada, Antillean zouk and Haitian compas all mixed together. In the early 1980s musicians began to slow semba down and blend it with those other styles, using synthesisers and drum machines. That new style got the name kizomba.

One of the musicians often named as a founder of kizomba music moved to Lisbon in 1989 and brought the music into the nightlife there. At first there were no classes: people learned by dancing together. When non-African dancers also started coming to the African clubs, the demand for classes grew.

After that, kizomba spread through the Angolan diaspora and via Lisbon to France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Spain, among other places, and later around the world. A Portuguese ethnomusicologist told the Portuguese daily Diário de Notícias in 2016 that kizomba is not much more than thirty years old. So it is a young dance, with older roots in semba.

What music do you dance kizomba to?

To kizomba music: a blend of Angolan semba with Antillean zouk. Compared to semba, kizomba is slower and more romantic, with a heavier bass line. Haitian kompa is also named as an influence. Tarraxinha is an even slower, more sensual variant.

For beginners that low tempo is pleasant: you have time to listen and feel where the music is going.

What is the difference between kizomba, semba and urban kiz?

Semba is the older, faster Angolan dance and music. Kizomba is its slow successor. Urban kiz is a newer dance from Paris.

• Semba is seen as the forerunner of kizomba. A recognisable element is the move in which partners touch each other with the belly. Many semba steps carried over to the lower tempo of kizomba.
• Kizomba is the slow, smooth dance in the embrace.
• Urban kiz grew out of kizomba in Paris in the mid-2010s; sources give 2013 or 2014. The name urban kiz became common around 2015. You dance it to ghetto zouk, tarraxinha and afrobeat and to remixes with R&B and hip-hop. The legs are straighter, there is more tension in the body, figures travel in straight lines and angles, and there are stops and hits taken from hip-hop. The name is debated, because it is sometimes sold as kizomba while it is a dance of its own.

At many schools you see kizomba and urban kiz side by side. At a trial class, ask which of the two you will be learning.

What makes kizomba kizomba?

The embrace, the low tempo and the listening. Kizomba is about moving in sync with the music, with your feet, your body and your own posture. That posture is called ginga for women and banga for men. In quiet parts of a song, partners often move their hips together.

Kizomba shows clearly that dancing is not necessarily about counting. It is also about listening to yourself and to what you want to do with the music, while sticking to the basic shape of music and dance. That is the contract between dance partners. Step too far outside it, and it no longer works.

Leading and following are roles, not genders. More and more people dance both roles (see Lead, follow or switch).

Is kizomba hard to learn?

The steps themselves are not complicated; the difficult part is the connection. Because you dance so close together and make few big figures, you have to learn to feel rather than look. The first classes are also about getting used to the closeness and to rotating partners.

Which is exactly why I say this: the intimacy of kizomba is not a free pass to cross boundaries. A good embrace feels comfortable for both people. If something feels wrong, don't assume it is part of the dance.

Kizomba or bachata?

Both are danced close, but the feel is different. Kizomba is slow and calm, with few big movements; bachata has a clear basic step with an accent on the fourth and eighth count. A trial class in both is the quickest way to find out what suits you. More in Salsa, bachata or kizomba.

Where do you dance kizomba in the Netherlands?

In classes at dance schools, at socials and at festivals with workshops. There are also socials that play only kizomba and urban kiz. Go to one first to get a feel for the atmosphere.

Find a school through the kizomba schools on Discover, for example kizomba in Rotterdam, kizomba in Utrecht or kizomba in Eindhoven. If it is your first time, read Your first dance class.