A collective project teaching urban kiz, tarraxo and fusion and producing events, with a gender perspective.
We are human beings. With that cleared up, NuKiz is made up of people with experience in teaching, pedagogy, group facilitation and other education-related practices, plus a background in different music and dance disciplines.
Our aim isn't for students to reproduce memorised figures or steps, “throw them up” on the dance floor after class and never use them again. Instead, we want to work mind and body through music, build sensitivity, and learn to develop tools so you have resources and can create your own steps and style.
For us, this learning happens through play, touch, active participation, listening, and group and partner dynamics, explaining what happens with basic physics concepts to build real understanding, giving everyone a voice and prioritising safety in the shared space to empower everyone involved.
Between you and me, and this is a secret, so don't go spreading it around… we're not the best dancers, and we don't claim to be. We want each person to develop their own personal, unique style. We want to give you the tools and technique you need to find your way and enjoy dancing kizomba, blending all its modern variants. We think intensive courses, combined with regularly going to social dance events, are a good way to progress in this dance. At least, that's what worked for us.
For us, dancing well means having fun, making the person we dance with enjoy it as much as we do and, above all, being able to interpret the music and adapt our dance style to anyone else's. Making figures look good with the same dance partner you've had forever is no great achievement. Dancing with someone you've never danced with before and ending up with a lovely feeling is, and we want to help you get there.
We celebrate diversity in all its forms and colours. We believe your sex doesn't define your identity, and we make that clear from the start. We believe society must be aware of, consistent with and engaged with all options and identities, leaving behind the dynamics where girls sat waiting in the village square for a man to ask them to dance, as part of a courtship ritual. Fascinating stories, but more from our grandmothers' and grandfathers' generation.
We're building a scene suited to the year we live in, where coming to class as a woman, a man, gender neutral, blue, brown or purple makes you feel safe, where you can show yourself vulnerable and unsure, make decisions, and not have to spend the class listening to them teach the leader while the follower is left waiting. We'd love to build a lovely dance scene in Madrid (and wherever it comes up), embracing diversity of gender, but also of age, sociocultural background, origin and dance level. If we can't dance with anyone, we aren't good dancers.
We're tired of so many dance schools still reproducing age-old roles such as machismo, inequality, condescension or teacher superiority. That means that in our workshops and events, at the slightest doubt we ask whether the other person is comfortable dancing, we change partners often, we ask people to dance regardless of our role, we respect the other person's personal space by adapting our connection (embrace, semi-open, open…) and we watch our body posture. And finally: only yes means yes, and no or silence always means no.
Kizomba is a dance that requires you to feel safe because of the connection it needs, since it's usually danced quite close or in an embrace (with prior consent). That's why leaving the prejudices and roles of life and work outside the school lets you grow as a person, learn new skills and enjoy a dance with many benefits, as it makes our brain produce endorphins, dopamine and oxytocin.
If you’re into the clandestine, parties, workshops and intensives, we have two WhatsApp groups: broadcast only, you won’t get more than two messages a month.
