Kizomba

Kizomba is a genre of dance and a musical genre originating in Angola in 1984.

Kizomba means "party" in Kimbundu, a Bantu language spoken by Ambundu in Angola. The word kizomba is also used as an umbrella-expression to include several other dance styles that derived from the original dance (s.a. Urban Kiz, Kizomba Fusion).

Semba has been danced in the 1950s in Angola. In the 1990s, when the actual kizomba music got more and more popular, Angolan semba dancers started to adapt their semba steps according to the tempo and flavour of the Kizomba beats. The Kizomba dance is a couple dance, in which the torso and right arm of the leader will guide the follower across the dance floor. It is the goal to synchronize perfectly as a couple with the music and express it through elegant footwork, smooth body movement and attitude, called Ginga (for women) and Banga (for men). Across the world Kizomba dance got mixed with other dancestyles such as Tango, HipHop, Latin Dances, Lambazouk, Acrobatics and more and created several major subcategories such as Kizomba Fusion and Urban Kiz.