About Us
Brazilian Zouk Amsterdam (ⒷⓏⒶ)
In 2013, Gert Faber founded the ⒷⓏⒶ Dance School together with his former dance partner Charlotte Mathiessen. Since 2017, Gert is teaching weekly classes with his new dance partner Eva Stolk. Besides the basics of Zouk they teach principles, like Continuous flow, Counterbalance, Traveling and Elasticity to enrich the Zouk dancing of their students. These principles are built upon a solid knowledge from various physical backgrounds (see BIOs below). Furthermore, almost every Sunday there is a Zouk Social at the ⒷⓏⒶ Studio and in the summer months there is outdoor Zouk dancing in the Vondelpark.
Gert Faber
Gert was born in Amsterdam and has always been interested in expression through movement. He has been practicing Gymnastics for over 20 years and Wushu (Kungfu) for over 10 years. Besides this extensive physical background, he also explores the theoretical aspects of human motion as a biomechanics researcher.
In 2009 he started Salsa dancing and became a real Salsa-addict. More recently he fell in love with Brazilian Zouk dancing and took classes from world famous teachers: Adillio Porto, Pasty and Willem Engel. Gert’s Zouk style is a mix of the styles of these teachers. Furthermore, he is adding his personal flavor to the Zouk dance by incorporating the flowing elements from Wushu and Gymnastics.
From 2010 to 2012 Gert has worked as a biomechanist at the Harvard School of Public health in Boston. During this time he started teaching Zouk and helped building a solid Zouk scene in Boston (www.zoukboston.com). In Boston Gert also started dancing West Coast Swing. This is a very smooth dance style that focuses on soft connection trough elasticity, a principle which he now uses a lot in his Zouk dancing/teaching.
In 2012, Gert moved back to Amsterdam to work as a researcher at the VU University (Human Movement Sciences). In 2013, he founded the ⒷⓏⒶdance school together with Charlotte Mathiessen. Currently Gert is teaching with his new dance partner Eva Stolk. They are very happy that they can share their passion for Zouk dancing through ⒷⓏⒶ.
Eva Stolk
Eva loves to dance. She started ballet lessons at three years old. She learned to create beautiful movements and lines while telling the story of the music through her body. For three years she attended a dance academy, where she learned the technical background of ballet, modern/jazz and musical dance. As a physiotherapist and personal trainer, Eva likes to combine her work experience and dance influences into her Zouk lessons. Zouk to her is: the enjoyment of creating something beautiful together.
Charlotte Mathiessen
(ⒷⓏⒶ co-founder and former teacher)
Charlotte grew up in Switzerland where she started dancing at an early age. She was fascinated by movement and trained herself in various different dance styles. Charlotte followed a dance education in Zürich for three years where she learned Ballet, Modern, Jazz, Hip-Hop, Flamenco and other styles. After graduating, she decided to study further and specialize in contemporary dance.In 2012 she moved to Amsterdam, where she started the bachelor program for contemporary dance. Charlotte discovered Brazilian Zouk in Amsterdam and fell in love with the dance. From 2013 - 2016 Charlotte taught zouk together with Gert. After she graduated from the contemporary dance bachelor in 2016 she decided to stop teaching weekly classes and focus on her career as a contemporary dancer. To see what she is up to now you can visit her website charlottemathiessen.com