Hundreds of dancers. Professionals, amateurs, and beginners from all over the world gathered in one place! Classes during the day time, performances, and social dancing throughout the night until the morning.
ZoukTime! has had a reputation for being one of the best in Europe. This being their 5th year running certainly didn’t disappoint! With world-class teachers and DJs, ZoukTime! decided to change their class schedules extending from 6 x 1-hour classes to 4 x 1.5-hour classes each day. Personally, I’ve felt it worked well. The teachers had that little extra time needed to go into details for what’s being taught and the students aren’t overloaded with as many combinations of techniques to remember. Quality over quantity for effective learning.
Traveling alone was great. Doing whatever I wanted and best of all I’ve made more friends this way. Sometimes going as a group, you would tend to stay with your group and get too comfortable within the circle of friends.
This year I’ve decided to take it easier and enjoy it more as a holiday. Last year draining myself by attending every hourly class and partied from 22:00 until the end. I found it more enjoyable this time around. Attending only the classes that interested me and even took a day off from class to spend some time exploring the city instead. This also allowed my body to catch up on beauty sleep!
I didn’t get to see many performances in the evenings as I’ve always preferred dancing myself than watch others do it but was told there were some amazing performances this year. I knew I could always go watch the performances on youtube if I wanted to!
I do love the city BRNO. It felt like home in Birmingham and also being the second city. Not overly crowded, the people are friendly and the Czech girls are stunning! There are many great places to eat and it only costs a fraction of UK prices. A meal in the UK equivalent to £20 would only cost as much as £7-8 including drinks! This time of the year would get very lively in the town center. There’s a beer festival going on with live stage bands playing, numerous street food stands, and lots of beer!
It was an amazing weekend, the perfect short break. I would certainly recommend this congress to everyone and anyone who has any interest in dancing and it would be a great start for beginners to learn social dancing.
Special thanks
I’m better with faces than remembering backs! I would like to say thank you to Pavla and Ludek for doing a smashing job at organising yet, another amazing congress. The DJ’s for a great selection of songs. All the teachers for their patience in teaching us. Last but not least, the ladies who danced with me, every one of you was amazing. I may not remember all your names, but my body remembers every dance! 🙂
Big shout out for the London Zouk Crew for making me feel like part of the group! I would also like to mention my two new favorite teachers Bruno and Eglantine! Bruno is so cool with his hip hop moves and Eglantine makes even her braces look cute when she smiles! I’m for one will be attending more of their classes in the near future.
How much did it cost
My entire budget for this trip was just under £470.00, the lowest of all my trips this year, and probably topped my list of favorites!
- Flight from London Stanstead to Brno Turany = £90.17
- Coach from Birmingham to London Stanstead = £38.00
- Insurance = £5.00
- Accommodation at the 4* Hotel Continental includes breakfast = £120.00 approx.
- Spending Money = £130.00
- ZoukTime full pass = £83.00
Being such good value, bang for bucks, however, you choose to call it, I’ll make time again for this congress next year! Wouldn’t want to miss my double vodka with Acai now do I?!
ZoukTime! official website where you can find information and schedule of their next congress. http://www.zouktime.com/
Suggestions
I would recommend they fix parts of the dance floor:
- Some of the silver beads that held the edges of the dance floor came off and was dangerously sticking up. We placed some chairs over it to prevent others from tripping.
- A massive section of the dance floor had bubbled up and it just feels weird dancing on it. They need a more permanent fix as I remember the same problem was happening last year.
- UPDATE: All of the above had been fixed since the writing of this blog!
Here is the link to other bloggers who have also written about ZoukTime 2014. It is worth reading because it will give you the ladies’ perspective.
UPDATE: OH NOES! I LOST THE OTHER 70% OF THIS BLOG 🙁 THERE WERE DAY-BY-DAY DETAILS, BUT ATLEAST I BACKED UP THE SUMMARY OF MY EXPERIENCE ABOVE.