Everyone attends festivals for different reasons. Some dancers go for workshops, some for the shows, some partake in the Jack & Jills, and others attend to only social dance. After having filmed and attended many Brazilian Zouk festivals, congresses, weekenders, and events, we feel the Warsaw Zouk Festival is one of the best festivals in the Brazilian Zouk dance scene because of the following reasons:
Affordability: Warsaw is located in Eastern Europe and is relatively cheap. Transportation, hotel, and food are all affordable. The only real cost is your flight depending on where you’re flying in from. Everything is also conveniently located in one location very close to the airport.
Social Dancing: This is what separates this festival from the rest. There is plenty of time to social dance during the day and at night. They have two spacious rooms with very good sound systems. Feel like taking a nap or just people watching? The smaller “chill” room has tons of bean bags and couches for you to take a break and sprawl out on. Water is always abundant as they have a water refill station along with a full bar that is available throughout the weekend. The floor is great and they have AC throughout the ballrooms. Convenience is key, and being able to social dance and take breaks at the same time is golden.
At many festivals, the party doesn’t start until 11 PM, then you have shows around 1 which kind of kills the social dancing vibe. Things don’t resume until 2 or 3 and you’re left with 2-3 hours of quality social dancing. In Warsaw the shows are kept to a minimum.
At Warsaw, you have about 7 hours for the day social, and for the evening, about 5 hours of uninterrupted dancing. The freedom of having the option to dance whenever you please is really amazing and left a lasting impression (which is one of the reasons we’re writing this blog post). Also, the cloakroom is free! No need to carry around loose change to check in your coat every time you want to dance.
It’s about you: The festival isn’t marketed so much around hyping up the artists. Rather, it’s about providing a good atmosphere where dancers can interact and enjoy social dancing. The overall vibe of the weekend felt like a big group of friends rather than a typical festival where everyone is trying to dance and take photos with artists. Some teachers come to the festival just to dance and have fun. They don’t have the underlying stress of having to teach workshops or perform. This is one example of how high the level of dancing is at this festival.
Level of dancing: The level of dancing is high. Many dancers are experienced and open-minded. Even beginners had a good foundation of lateral and were open to learning and following in a way that didn’t feel strained.
Of course, no festival is perfect. There are some downsides or things that could use improvement. One obvious downside is the weather. Coming from California, Warsaw is brutally cold. I did not want to leave the hotel. The music was great and I heard some amazing sets from a few DJs. However, the majority of DJs sounded the same and played similar tracks with the same style. I’d be nice to see more international DJs that can bring some flavor and really set the tone.
To summarize, this festival has the capacity to be the biggest in the world. The setting is perfect and think it’s just a matter of time before dancers realize the full potential of what this festival has to offer. Dancers are getting burnt out of expensive festivals that only offer a limited amount of social dancing. Jack and Jills are great but also take up a lot of time which limits social dancing.
Brazilian Zouk has come a long way over the past 5 years. It’s good to see that this festival is focusing on the most important aspect of any partner dance - social dancing.
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