At Canada Zouk Congress, we want you to have the best learning experience possible. That’s why we level our workshops.

Complete a Level Assessment Online

Checking your level

Before arriving, we encourage you to check which level sounds most like you:

• Newcomer: For dancers with limited or no Zouk experience, or who want to review fundamentals (classes are included with the Newcomer Full Pass).
• Everyone: Literally for everyone – experienced and new. Open to Newcomer and Full pass holders.
• Open: Benefits all levels of Zouk social dancers. Expects you to know Zouk fundamentals like basic, lateral, etc.
• Intermediate: Improves common Zouk social dance skills. You should be comfortable with social dancing foundational Zouk movements, including bonus/boomerang, elastico, etc.
• Advanced **: Tackles high-level Zouk concepts. Should understand and be able to execute all common Zouk social dance movements, including proper footwork, connection, head movement, and isolations.
• Challenge **: For high-level Zouk dancers who can execute advanced social dance movements, including multiple spins/turns and complex upper body transitions.

** Advanced and Challenge workshops at CZC require either a level assessment, or points with the Brazilian Zouk Dance Council (BZDC) for admission. You do not need to be assessed for Intermediate or Open classes.

Even if you choose not to be assessed, you will have access to all of the teachers for at least one workshop between Friday and Sunday.

Qualifying for Advanced and Challenge Classes

•  If you dance in the Intermediate BZDC division or higher, you can take Advanced classes without an assessment.
•  If you have at least 10 Intermediate BZDC points, you can take Challenge classes without an assessment.
• If you were qualified for Challenge at CZC24, you do not need to be assessed again for any level.
• If you were qualified for Advanced at CZC24, you can take Advanced classes without an assessment, but would need one to move to Challenge.

In all other cases, participants are expected to attend the level assessment if they want to take Advanced and Challenge classes.

You can check your BZDC points online.

Assessments are permitted by video before the event, and in person on Thursday night, Friday afternoon, and Saturday morning. In 2025, a pre-event level assessment can be completed online through this Google Form.

How level assessments work

Pre-Event Assessments:

You can complete an assessment before the event using our Google Form. The videos will be assessed by instructors in the Advanced and Challenge track, based on the execution of the criteria outlined in the form. This is not a feedback tool; it is an assessment tool only.

The form contains instructions for submitting your videos and what the videos should include. Each person can only submit an assessment one time online.

If you are not satisfied with the result, you can use the in-person assessment process at CZC.

Group Assessments:

Group assessments will happen on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. You can attend more than one assessment, but you can only access a solo reassessment if you participate in the Saturday morning assessment.

The purpose of group assessments is to be able to identify dancers that clearly have the ability to perform the movements required in higher level classes. We recognize that nerves and other variables can impact a dancer’s performance – that is why we offer a reassessment one on one to dancers who feel that the group assessments did not reflect their typical dancing.

You will get a bib (number) during the assessment registration. Pin it to the back of your shirt.

You don’t need a partner for the assessment. 10 couples at a time will social dance. Partners will rotate 2-3 times for each group. If there are more follows or leads, some dancers may be asked to dance a 2nd time. They will not be assessed on the 2nd round, but will be given a second bib.

Remember your first bib number. You will need to know it to find out your level.

You will also fill out and hand in your bib to coordinators at the end of your dances. This will be used to help assess your partners, as we ask for feedback about their connection to help us place them appropriately.

Reassessments:

In order to respect the time of instructors performing the reassessments, you are only entitled to a reassessment if you participate in the Saturday morning group assessment.

In a reassessment, you will dance individually with an instructor. This gives the instructor the ability to more thoroughly test your connection, technique, and ability and place you in the right level. The instructor will notify our assessment manager what level you should be placed in.

How you are evaluated during the assessment

By Teachers

Assessments are performed by the teachers offering the Advanced and Challenge workshops against a set criteria.

To be admitted to Advanced classes, you must show:

• Consistent Zouk timing
• Proper footwork in foundational Zouk movements
• Common Zouk patterns, including Bonus, Yo Yo, Elastic, Soltinho, Lateral, and Cambre
• An understanding of leading or following isolations
• A clear grasp of simple upper body movement
• Good Zouk connection

To be admitted to Challenge classes, you must show all of the Advanced criteria, plus:

• The ability to execute complex Zouk movements on time and with good technique
• A clear grasp of complex upper body movement and transitions
• The ability to lead or follow multiple spins or turns (not necessarily on one foot)

There is no limit to how many people will be admitted to Advanced or Challenge workshops. The assessment is not comparing you to others; it is an individual evaluation of what the judges believe your skill is.

By Partners

Your partners will rate you on your connection and feel. On the back of each bib are a series of questions that you will be asked to fill out at the end of the level assessment. This will be factored in alongside the teacher’s assessment to place you.

Things not evaluated in the level assessment

Since assessments are designed to measure technical proficiency, it means presentation, creativity, and musicality are not evaluated as separate categories, though they may help your dance shine. The teachers are more interested in seeing that you possess the skills and capacity to be able to grasp the material in certain kinds of workshops through what your dancing demonstrates.

If you were assessed, but think you need a reassessment

We understand that not everyone dances well under pressure, or gets a partner who connects well with them. After the assessment results are listed, you will have a chance to reassess on Saturday morning if you did not get placed in the level you think is the best fit for you if you participated in the Saturday morning group assessment only.

This means you can ask the petition teacher to dance with you for a short time. That teacher will be looking for the same things required in the assessment. At the end of the petition, they will tell you which level they think is the best fit for your skills.

If the teacher places you in the same level you were placed in during the assessment, we ask that you respect their evaluation of your skills. This is not a mini-private, and is not designed to provide you with specific, nuanced feedback of your dancing. Instead, it is supposed to be an evaluation of your skills relative to the levelling at CZC.

If you miss the level assessments

If you miss the assessments, you can still take Open and Intermediate classes. We don’t permit people who didn’t attend the assessments to petition, unless there’s an exceptional circumstance (sleeping in/being late doesn’t count!) Teachers are made aware that they should not be doing assessments outside of the official time.

If you attend workshops above your assessed level

In order for leveling to work, we need all our participants to play by the rules. We ask that all participants respect workshop levels. Each workshop room will have a volunteer checking for appropriate wristbands. You will be asked to leave the class if you do not have the appropriate wristband. If you attempt to take workshops multiple times without the appropriate wristband, you may be asked to leave the event.

Can I get feedback on my assessment?

No. It is not possible to provide individual feedback to participants as part of an assessment because of the number of people and need for a fast process that properly sorts levels. However, many instructors are available for private lessons and you can certainly bring your pre-assessment videos or social dance for them for feedback on what you can work on.

Why are some dancers who are newer than me in a higher level?

Dance progress is not linear. Sometimes, a person with very good body awareness and significant skill in other dance styles may more easily pass to a higher level of class simply because, in a classroom setting, their ability to learn and reproduce movements is higher than Zouk-only dancers who are still gaining that body awareness.

It is normal for dancers who have some experience but are still gaining some of those skills to be sorted into Intermediate, especially if coming from a smaller community with limited instructional options. While it can be tempting to compare, the ultimate goal of classes is to ensure that the topics being covered will be something useful to not only you – but also your partners. For example, if you struggle with keeping balance or footwork on a bonus, it would be impossible for you or your partner to begin adding upper body movement to it in a higher level class.

Regardless of your level, we strive to provide interesting options for people at all points of their Zouk journey – whether learning a concept for the first time, or adding a variation onto it.