OmniZouk: Practica + Weekly Social

This is a beginner-friendly Brazilian Zouk community class and open-floor practica in Oakland, hosted by Omni Movement.

Why We Picked This Event

I first met Imaan Taghavi at a monthly Alchemy of Fusion - Fusion Dance at Alembic event back in September 2025 while he taught the class of the night with his wife Sharon on “Dips! Dips!”A shared-weight, partner-assisted movement where one partner, usually the follower, leans backward or sideways while supported by the other, often resulting in a deep, dramatic arch.

He officially quit his job as an engineer in May 2023 to pursue his love for dance and create a partner dance academy with his co-founders aka Omni Movement and to provide high-performance partner dance coaching.

Imaan is the co-founder and the CEO of Omni Movement, an organization to make improvised partner dancing more accessible. He is also an instructor at this dance school due to his breadth and depth of knowledge in multiple partner dance forms including Zouk, Bachata, and West Coast Swing (and probably more). He is also World Vice Champion in Brazilian Zouk, “vice” meaning 2nd place.

Omni Movement provides structured progressive classes in 3 different dance types: West Coast Swing, Bachata, and Zouk. I chose the Brazilian Zouk to start for free. They offer a free 1-hour crash course at 08:15 pm every 4th Thursday once a month, which they call “community class.”

What is “Brazilian Zouk”? (Zouk)

While often shortened to “Zouk,” Brazilian Zouk evolved from Caribbean Zouk and Lambada. When Lambada started to fade in the 90s, the dancers started to combine the moves into the slower Caribbean Zouk, which eventually developed into Brazilian Zouk.

Head movements and body isolations give the dance its distinctive expression. The dance moves softly through the music, creating a sense of continuity. It can be danced into a variety of music including modern pop, R&B, and electronic music in addition to the Brazilian and Caribbean Zouk rhythms.

Event Details

About the Location

The Oak Grove has 4 different rooms with different capacities, starting from 30+ people to 200+ people, with 4 bathrooms and 2 kitchenettes. While this is a non-profit organization that provides a community space for different purposes, from celebrating birthday parties to meeting organizations, recently multiple dance event hosts started to choose the place for their dance classes and dance events. You might end up coming to the same place for different dance events and genres.

A Quick Guide to Feeling Ready for the Night

Omni Movement prepares you for your experience with every email that you are going to get from the day that you booked the event, until the day that you attend.

Shoes

Comfortable shoes you can move in. I used light boots that support the ankles, but I saw people with comfortable sneakers as well.

Dress Code

Comfortable clothes you can move in.

Partner

No partner or experience is required. Imaan asks in the beginning to identify the leaders and followers, then asks every follower to match with a leader, and organizes them in a circle so that when he asks the partners to rotate, the leader rotates to their right. It might be different in your class, just pay attention to Imaan’s voice or to your instructor’s if someone else welcomes you at the crash course. If you already came with your partner, rotating is optional; you can keep your partner throughout the class.

Asking for a Dance

Since the practice comes just after a crash course, you can also practice how to ask for a dance. I did it by asking the first person I met at the crash course. He was hesitant—fair—but it was also my first ever Zouk class, so expectations were mutually low.

Skill Levels

Beginners with no experience with Zouk or any other social partner dancing at all can attend. There were also Omni seniors, like dancers who have experience in different classes such as Bachata and West Coast Swing, and they wanted to try the class to see how Zouk would feel for them. The class is beginner-friendly and moves at a manageable pace. Moves are introduced gradually with attention to comfort and control, so you are not expected to do dramatic head movements from the first class.

Vibe

Participants are generally in their 20s–30s. But, of course, there is no age limit if you are passionate enough to learn a new dance.

You can dance in any role regardless of gender. You are also encouraged to dance the other role. In the community class, there were not an equal number of leaders and followers. I waited a turn until someone matched me in the spot, and depending on whether I filled the position as a leader or follower, the next person became my opposite role—and that’s how I got the chance.

Crowd Size

Even though pre-registration is required, Imaan mentioned that there were more people than expected during the crash course: 28 people. The practice had almost 50 people coming from different tiers of Zouk classes.

Stories from the Dance Floor

Since the dance is super new to me, I picked the wall close to the window. A classic beginner’s strategy: observe first, dance later, pretend you’re studying “technique.” I danced with C, who is a scientist going through a transition, and told me his story after the dance. Sometimes even with a short dance or moment, you feel connected to the person and brave enough to share what was bothering you during the week or even just that day—and I was chosen :)

You rotate partners each dance unless you want to stay with the same partner for longer.

Then I got lucky enough to dance with Imaan and to be able to chat with him while dancing (maybe not ideal for a beginner—but curiosity won over coordination).

He teaches level 2–3 in all dances. Initially, they started with Zouk in the Omni Movement portfolio and added other dances, but only West Coast Swing remained alongside Zouk, and Bachata was added only a year ago in 2025. I must say that he is a very attentive teacher. As an icebreaker, he asked everyone to tell their name, if they have prior dance experience, if they have any Zouk experience, and if they wanted to be described with one word that night, what it would be. Once everyone told their names, Imaan repeated all of them one by one.

We kept the open embrace, but apparently it can be both open and closed depending on the move and your comfort level. Then I noticed that the music was not in Portuguese. Imaan explained that it was harder for the community to connect with the music or a language they are not familiar with; therefore, you would be dancing Zouk moves into a song that you already know.

By the time I came back to my wall corner, C was gone. I could not say goodbye.

(A very dance-floor kind of ending.)

During the practice, Imaan showed a demo with a visiting dancer/teacher, and I was able to record it.

As I was preparing to leave around 10:30 pm, I was stopped by another dancer, E. She asked me if I also danced tango and I said yes, then she introduced herself and I remembered. She was one of the new faces at Free Flat Shoe Tango Practica at Hillside Club. While she had experience with ballroom dances, she was new to Argentine tango, and she has been trying a different class at Omni Movement for a while now. We said goodbyes hoping to see each other in any of the dance events. Different dances but a small community? Maybe...

Summary

If you are into fusion dancing, you already know that the leader might choose to lead you in an improvised way based on his/her dance background, which can be Zouk, West Coast Swing, Blues, or Tango. Therefore, if you want to improve your fusion dance skills, it might be a good idea that you also try Zouk, which is characterized by fluid body movements and includes dramatic head-led hair movements.

Support the Rhythm

Some dance nights are not defined by the music or the intensity of the dances, but by the small, unexpected connections that happen in between. Brazilian Zouk in Oakland, especially in beginner-friendly and mixed-level spaces like this one, creates room for those moments — where people arrive on their own and leave having shared something simple, human, and real.

My Events Bridge exists to make it easier to discover social dance events like this across the Bay Area — not just where to dance, but what it might feel like to be there. From Zouk to tango to other social dance communities, the goal is to make stepping into a new space feel more approachable.

If you'd like to support the work behind this platform, you can do so through Buy Me a Coffee. Your support helps sustain the time spent attending events, writing reviews, and maintaining a space where dancers can explore Oakland dance events and connect through movement.

Your support — through Buy Me a Coffee, sharing this platform, or returning when planning your next dance — helps keep this rhythm moving forward.

Thank you for being here.

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