Urban Kiz

Urban Kiz is a couple-dance that originated in France somewhere between 2000 and 2014 (Famous Dancer Moun Red claims to be dancing since 2008, (not known if he referred to Urban Kiz)). Urban Kiz is short for Urban Kizomba, but in speech one hardly ever refers to Urban Kizomba. Around 2015 the dance still went under various different names, such as: French Style, New Style, Neo-Kizomba, because no consensus was reached on a final name. The dance style evolved from Kizomba, when Kizomba music was influenced by urban music styles such as R&B, Rap, Dance and Hip Hop. As the music changed, the dancers made new interpretations on how to move on this music. The main difference with Kizomba is that the dancers generally have a larger distance between them and often don't have the chest-to-chest connection as is common with Kizomba. The figures made often also require movement along straight lines or changing direction only at perpendicular angles or reversing direction. Pivots and pirouettes of the lady are also more common in Urban Kiz than in Kizomba, although they did appear in Kizomba and especially in Semba (Kizomba was derived mainly from Semba influences), but not as much, since the chest-to-chest frame did not allow for it as much. The Urban Music is also characterized with a more dynamic change of pace, so in Kizomba one sees more slow transitions, accelerations and breaks (standing still in one pose). Contratempos are also often performed and preferably in sync with the Kizomba-beat. Characteristic for Urban Kiz are also the feint movements of the legs of the men and the hip movements or popping of the lady especially on tarraxinha-like music.

With the term 'Urban Kiz', one can refer both to the dance and the music. Urban Kiz music can also be called Ghetto-Zouk. This is a term that was first Introduced by Nelson Freitas for his music label. However Nelson Freitas' music still had a lot of overlap with Kizomba, but also featured many songs with R&B influences. Remixer of R&B songs Jay-Bee labels his music as 'Urban Zouk'. Urban Kiz covers a wide range of fusions of kizomba beats with Urban Music. Since this range is so great, Urban Kiz music also comes in many styles, for example Dubstep, for which Singer/Rapper/Producer Elji Beatzkilla is a notable example.

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