Warsaw Zouk Festival 2025 Carlos & Fernanda Counterbalance recap

15 Feb 2025 · 3 min

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2:51

In this workshop segment from the Warsaw Zouk Festival 2025, instructors Carlos and Fernanda (represented by speakers A, B, and C) demonstrate and explain the counterbalance technique for Zouk partner dancing. The instruction covers how leaders and followers should manage weight, hip positioning, and foot placement to maintain balance and fluidity. Specific guidance includes: keeping the leader’s weight back, the follower’s weight forward, squatting the belt to stay within the partner’s line of footwork, and adjusting hip orientation (leader hip forward, follower hip back). The speakers detail step sequencing for clockwise and counter‑clockwise rotations, emphasizing the “main” foot (left for clockwise, right for counter‑clockwise) and how to transition between lateral, side, and back‑center positions. They outline a basic combo—preparation, grab, plié, rotation, open lunge, and return to center—while noting that dancers can simplify or modify the sequence, vary footwork height, and use the technique for transitions or to create new counterbalance patterns. The tone is instructional and conversational, with occasional corrective remarks to ensure proper technique.

When you want to be comfortable, just remember that you need to prevent your weight. If you have the normal one, working the normal one, I need to send my feet back. I cannot send my back. Leaders, you need to send your back like this, and followers, you need to step higher up.
Leaders, be careful. Please don't do this way. That's not cool. You know, leaders, hip forward. Followers, hip back. All right? Leaders, if you stay too far, followers will come to your left. If you stay too forward, followers You're not gonna get me, you're not gonna get her. So you have to really squat your belt and follow the stone. It doesn't matter if you're facing face or here, it's the same rule. I cannot stay too far, she cannot get there. Try to get there. No, I have to get it close, but close enough so I don't pass her line of footwork. So I have to be behind because I'm squatting. Foot like this. Main step is the left. Because I'm going clockwise, the right is just fixed. If I'll do this position as well, it's the same thing. Main is the left, then is the right. If it's opposite direction, counterclockwise, main is the right and the left feet, yeah? And then of course there is so many positions. We can do the contrabass from the back, side, different arms, different footwork. That's the way. You go here. We
start first in lateral.
2 and 3, 4, prepare him, 5, 6, 7, 8. Grab with this here, he going. Grab. Grab. And take a plié to start the rotation. I can just finish with this one, bring her back center, open lunge, and go. I don't need to do the whole combo. The same if I just want to do this, the classic one. I can do easily from the basic step. When the follower comes to me, I start step side. The follower goes to the dog position here, and we get it there. Again, I don't need to combo. I can just finish. Back center, or finish, or for making transition. Now the combo. So one side lateral, we open, get in the position, preparation, hit, go one, hand in the back, bring center, we go two. Of course you can play with the footwork, you can play with the height, but maintain your hip. Bring back center, or you finish, or you make another counterbalance, or you You can pass to the other side, or you can rotate your forward and come here. Yes?
Yes!