Music and dance are a very important part of Angolan culture, and that’s why we have a big section of this site dedicated to them. If you don’t know much about Angolan dances, you’ll want to read about the different ways people are dancing nowadays in parties, and this is your place to start: just click on a picture to read a description of that dance and to see a short video showing you how it’s done.

Bear in mind that the differences between semba, kizomba and tarraxinha can – at times – be very subtle. All three dances are extremely inter-connected (a lot of semba and kizomba steps are exactly the same!) and it can be difficult, even for an Angolan dance professor, to distinguish precisely. Often, people dance a combination of at least 2 of these styles.

However, we tried our best to give you a description that will allow you to differentiate them, and we hope you enjoy it!

TARRAXINA

Tarraxina

Tarraxinha is a dance that requires very few steps, because it is actually more about the “paradas” (=“stops”) and it is even more sensual than Kizomba.

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KUDURO

Kuduro

Kuduro is a musical dance genre originally from Angola.

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