Some of the most common questions about Kizomba is where it comes from? Where did the dance Kizomba originate? 

The Dance
There has always been a bit of a debate around this. When I started dancing Kizomba in 2011 some teachers (the Angolans) claimed Kizomba was from Angola and others (the Cape Verdeans) claimed it was from Cape Verde. It seemed like it was a struggle to claim Kizomba for their own country. Now it seems to me that the general consensus favours Angola. I hear most people say the dance is from Angola. And it is clear that the word “Kizomba” is a word from Kimbundu (an African bantu language common in Angola) and it means “party”. 

But with that said, it is also true that people have danced very similarly, with slight variations, in most PALOP countries as well as in Portugal. Sometimes calling it Kizomba and sometimes another name on the dance. And there is a lot of music in Kizomba parties that is not from Angola. What is...

We are living in a world where social dance is currently a bit restricted, very restricted or outright forbidden. But before we ended up where we are now, kizomba and the related dances kizomba fusion and urban kiz managed to conquer the world, in just a few years. 

Recently I realised that I actually took my very first kizomba steps in 2004, with a friend from Cape Verde. She showed me the steps in a normal club. So, in PALOP communities kizomba has been present around the world for quite a long time, but I didn't start dancing kizomba until 2011 and then there were maybe just 3-5 festivals per YEAR in Europe. In 2015 I had already been travelling to teach in several different continents. So, from 2011 to 2015 we went from having 3-5 kizomba festivals per year in Europe, to having 3-5 festivals every weekend and festivals in many other places all over the world. And in 2019, it was much more. 

There are many reasons for this. I probably...