The snow and gloom may not provide any positive indicators that Spring Break is here, but that’s where evoZouk steps in.

The relatively new dance class will host the Mirage, Knoxville’s first all-zouk party, at the Absolute Ballroom on Kingston Pike on Saturday at 8 p.m.

The event gives UT students — as well as any other curious visitors — an opportunity to take part in discovering the passionate connection that zouk builds between dance partners.

For two hours, visitors will be treated to a beginning workshop, led by instructors and UT students Ian Orr and Kendra Haynes, to help them become familiar with the basic steps of zouk.

Special guest instructors Adrian Atoro and Auntie Ox of Washington, D.C., will lead the second class on Zouk Energy immediately after to help focus on the more difficult areas of the dance and to train students to get more in tune.

From then on, attendees will get the chance to take the floor and dance or just meet new people and have a good time.

All night passes for the event are $20, but UT students who show their IDs can pay $17 for admission.

EvoZouk’s main mission is to try to fulfill two primary objectives with their students in order to truly capture the atmosphere that Brazilian zouk creates.

The first objective is to “evolve zouk” by combining both the styles and philosophies of zouk itself with different sources of dancing from outside of zouk, such as salsa and hip-hop. The second objective is to help the individual evolve and grow through the physical and mental connection of body, mind and music.

“Zouk is an easy dance to fall in love with,” Haynes said. What Haynes enjoys about the dance is that it “makes people (build) more connection” with their partners.

Like its rhythm of soothing yet spontaneously loose upper body flips and spins, the Brazilian dance has made a flowing yet unprecedented impact on the southeast corner of the U.S. since the zouk instructors introduced it at Modern Latin Dance Weekend back in November 2009.

Modern Latin Dance Weekend was the first dance festival in the United States to feature the new dance style and special guest appearances by world-class instructors Willem Engel and Kim Rottier.

“I think zouk is serving its purpose,” Orr said. “It’s really started to take off. We’re starting to get more recognized.”

Orr has played a central role in the expansion of zouk in the southeast, traveling to different parts of the country and studying films from such instructors as Engel, Rottier and Luciana Guinle for the last five months.

Since then, Knoxville has become one of the most common zouk communities in the United States, with solid bases of students growing in Murfreesboro, Asheville and Washington D.C.

Atoro, one of the guest instructors from Washington, D.C., said the impact hasn’t been as large as one might think or hope but that he “thinks there is a great potential. I’m seeing it begin to flower in D.C., and it’s evidently making itself manifest in Tennessee.”

Atoro has studied zouk for over three years now after an “accidental” encounter, caused the dance to “possess” him.

Saturday’s special guest hasn’t been the only one impacted by a chance encounter with the Brazilian dance style.

Leigh Redmond was caught off guard by the elements that zouk provided when she first came across the dance, but after attending several of Orr’s and Hayne’s hourly classes at the Flynn Dance Center, the UT student said she “loved it.”

“Anybody like me may be shy (at first), but once you go, you’re hooked,” Redmond said. The Oak Ridge, Tenn., native said zouk is completely different from the other dance styles she’s encountered but that the “attraction isn’t how it looks (but rather) how it feels.”

Redmond isn’t the only student who’s developed a strong impression from the zouk workshops.

Marcos de Lucca, another student who has taken part in several workshops led by Orr and Haynes, is familiar with zouk lambada from growing up in Brazil and studying the dance.

De Lucca said he is “impressed” with the strong interest people have taken in Knoxville’s newest dance genre and that zouk “has everything to do with our dance style.”