Alisson Sandi August Residency
My beloved Zouk community,
It is my honor and privilege to welcome back 3x Brazilian Zouk World Champion, personal mentor, inspiration, and dear friend Alisson Sandi to Oakland, CA for a 1 month residency at Omni full of classes, social dancing, and training. Many of you may remember Alisson from the very first Omni-versary event in 2022 and the special Jack & Jill training in August 2023. Alisson has been a diligent supporter of Omni’s growth since its inception, and he can’t wait to share this special time with you! A big special thank you to the Omni Board and Strategy Committee for working with me to make this residency possible.
If you don’t know Alisson, allow me to provide you a glimpse of his storied career:
Alisson has been instructing Brazilian Zouk for over 15 years. He built the Brazilian Zouk dance community in Perth from scratch, then moved to Melbourne and founded his own school there as well. In 2019, he moved to the U.S. to join the District Zouk team in Washington D.C., and was instrumental in making it one of the most reputable Zouk schools in the world.
Alisson is considered a leader and influencer in the global Zouk community. He is an official head judge of the Brazilian Zouk Dance Council, won several championship titles alongside Christina Montoya and Audrey Isautier, and serves as a lecturer for the MAC Project in Paris - a gold standard in Brazilian Zouk instruction. He also moderates the ZoukNerds Facebook Group which has achieved worldwide visibility and membership.
As Alisson’s student for the past 3 years, I believe he is one of the most community-centered and empathetic social dance coaches in the Zouk community. I have taken a lot of classes with a lot of different instructors; to this day, I have yet to find a coach that puts their students first, empowers dancers of all levels, and puts the human before the dancer more than Alisson does. Many of the best social dancers in the U.S. cite Alisson as a long-term role model and mentor, and continue to study with him for years beyond their first class.
This residency program has been thoughtfully curated in partnership with Alisson to refocus on building a quality community experience at Omni. Let’s be real for a second: Omni is going through many challenges this year. While the leadership changes we’ve experienced recently are a unique circumstance to this school, local communities, festival organizers, and international artists everywhere are experiencing a great deal of strain right now due to the macroeconomic environment and cultural shifts in the wider Brazilian Zouk community. This is a critical inflection moment - not just for one, but many.
In my time away, I have thought long and hard about the reasons why I labored so intensely for two years to build this dance school. I hope by joining us in August, whether you’ve been an Omni student for 2 months or 2 years, you’ll be reminded why you love this dance and this place - built out of love and care by and for social dancers. I can think of no better champion of our cause than Alisson.
Alisson will be teaching the following classes and events in August 2024, assisted by yours truly and Helen Chao.
NEW! Social Dance Mastery Training Team - Wednesdays (Aug 7th - 28th) 7-9pm, open call audition / trial on Saturday Aug 3rd 6-8pm.
NEW! Instructor Training Team - Wednesdays (Aug 7th - 28th) 9pm-10:30pm for OmniZouk Instructors only
OmniZouk Progressive Levels 2, 5, and Drills - Thursdays (Aug 8th - 29th) 6:30-9:30pm
Omni Intensives - Saturday, Aug 24th, 2:30p-4:30p [Turns and Spins Challenge] and 5p-7p [Pretzeling Challenge]
Zoukland Pre-Party Workshop - Saturday, Aug 24th 8pm-9pm
I really hope you’ll join us for as many of these programs as possible, especially if you are looking to be re-inspired and newly challenged by the magic of Brazilian Zouk. I’ll be right there alongside you, sharing and receiving the energy, and it would mean the world to me to see each and every one of you doing the same so that we may be the thriving, inclusive, and unified community we are meant to be.
Sincerely,
Julie Meng
Co-Founder and Former Director of The Omni Movement
