Kristofer Mencák
Biography
About the Site
This site is run by me, Kristofer Mencák. Here you can find kizomba and kizomba fusion courses from beginner to advanced and even teachers. You can also find a lot of dance-related content on the blog.
Background
I was born and raised in Sweden, by a Swedish father and a Czech mother and grew up in a suburb just outside Stockholm.
During my early years, I loved animals and nature and spent a lot of time in the forest near my home.
In school, I was very shy and never put my hand up to answer questions, even if I knew the answer. I knew I would blush.
During my free time I liked to play football/soccer and meet friends, riding my bike everywhere I had to go.
During my teenage years I stopped playing football/soccer and started with martial arts. At first tae kwon do and later on kick-boxing.
After high school I took an M.Sc. business degree at Stockholm School of Economics and worked with marketing online for 10 years, first with viral marketing and later a bit broader with social media.
I also gave guest lectures about viral marketing for a couple of years on Berghs School of Communication, the world’s best school 2009 according to Cannes Lions. This was the first time I didn't feel the same stage fright when talking in front of people, because I felt I really knew what I was talking about.
Getting into Dance
In 1999 I took my first steps of Cuban Salsa but already in 2000, after going on student exchange in Brazil, I soon got hooked on Capoeira. I spent in total about two years practicing the art of Capoeira in Brazil.
In 2004 I tried Kizomba for the first time, with a friend from Cape Verde, but there was nowhere to dance it in Stockholm, and to be honest, it didn't seem very interesting to me at the time.
From 2006 I got back into Salsa, danced a lot in socials in Denmark and Sweden and in 2010 I got interested in Bachata.
But already in February 2011 I saw Kizomba again. Again, I wasn't that impressed and it took until June 2011 for me to try it out for the first time. It was in Rovinj in Croatia, a bit by accident. I was attending a Salsa class but didn't like it for some reason. So I decided to go to another class and try Kizomba. And, I got hooked. I liked the music, and I liked the moves, so I decided to learn.
Since there was no one teaching Kizomba in Stockholm I had to travel to festivals to learn. The first festival was outside Paris one month later, in July. The second festival in November in Prague, and then in December in Budapest. From there, I started going to festivals almost every month, and then almost every two weeks, and soon every weekend.
In January 2012 the first real Kizomba classes started in Stockholm, so I joined there too, and never missed a chance to dance.
Starting to Teach
Teaching came by accident to me. It was never something that I wanted to do. Actually, I was asked several times by dance school owners to take part in their student teams in Salsa and Bachata, but I always said I didn't want to be on stage. I actively avoided being the centre of attention and talking in front of people.
But as one of the first Kizomba dancers in Stockholm, soon I was asked to fill in for another teacher who had to be absent from class on four occasions. But, there was a misunderstanding. The school wanted me to take the whole semester of classes.
After some deliberation, I decided to take the offer, despite having suffered all my life from being shy and hating to talk in front of other people.
From here, teaching started to grow. I liked it more and more, and others liked my teaching style. So I started to travel to teach—at first in other cities in Sweden, then other countries in Europe and soon all over the world.
From 2015 I made teaching into my full-time occupation and since then I have been teaching in more than 65 countries and 160 cities in all corners of the world.
I am known for my videos recorded in amazing places around the world.
Other Projects
Dance is not my only interest. Since around 2013 I was tinkering with a book about habits and how to change your life. And from 2018 I started to write more seriously, making it into a proof of concept. In 2019 I self-published the book, proving to myself and others that the ideas in the book really work. If you are interested in changing your life, this book is for you! Check it out on Amazon.
In August 2020 I released my second book, this time dance related. "The Secrets of Musicality for Dancers". Also available on Amazon.com
And in November, "The Secrets of Social Dance" was released - a book about everything around social dance - how to become a popular dancer. Also available on Amazon.com.
At the moment I am focusing on classes in Sweden (Stockholm, Linköping & Örebro) but still travelling the world to teach from time to time. I also have my own online courses in Kizomba and Kizomba Fusion here on the page at www.kizombaclasses.com/store.
At the same time, I am working on new projects to realize some ideas I have had for a long time. You can follow my work on kristofermencak.com
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