Brazilian Zouk
Classes
Brazilian Zouk
Teachers
Yoko
Maeda
In her 20s, YOKO was active in New York as a contemporary, contemporary African, and underground dancer. Alongside her performance career, she encountered Contact Improvisation (CI) and studied release techniques and somatic exercises, including the Simonson Dance Technique and obtaining the RYT200 certification from the Yoga Alliance. From 2007 to 2010, she was also active in Japan as a member of C.I.co./CIFJ.
In 2013, she appeared as a dancer in the stage production “On Earth Together” by Ronald K. Brown / EVIDENCE, A Dance Company in New York. From 2017 to 2021, she trained at Chunky Move in Melbourne. During this time, she was also active with CIJamsta (a community of experienced CI dancers in Melbourne) and worked as a dance instructor at Wendon Dance School.
Her involvement with Zouk and Lambada began when she was invited as a guest instructor as a CI dancer, which gradually led her to study these dance forms herself.
After returning to Japan in 2022, she has been teaching regular classes at Session House and within the Tokyo CI community, while also working as a guest instructor. She is also active as a therapist.
In July–August 2025, she trained in Brazil. In 2025, she was invited as an instructor at ZoukSea, where she led workshops focusing on connection.
Assistants
Joanna
Lam
Joanna first discovered the dancing scene when she moved to Tokyo in 2022. Starting with Hustle, she gradually discovered different dance communities such as Zouk, Lambada and West Coast Swing, and was warmly welcomed into their fold and fell in love with how the dance movements made her feel.
She then started dreaming of a place that could bring all the different dance styles under one roof, and thus, Hajime was born. Her passion and strong beliefs of the sense of community is evident in the way she teaches, providing patience and gentle guidance for newcomers. Despite her relatively young experience in dancing, her passion shines through in her teaching.
