Geo-'s blog

October is just around the corner which means that YA Salsa is ready to to work it up a notch. If you remember, last year.... our idea is simple, create an exceptional salsa weekend that won't be soon forgotten. We make it our mission to help build and grow the Detroit salsa scene by any means possible and we are excited to offer another jam packed salsa weekend. More top notch workshops, more live music and of course dancing dancing and more dancing.

October 24th and 25th 2009 join us as we play host to world renowned Joby Brava with her ladies dance team, the smooth and sexy Jay Stylz, and the stunningly talented Young and Jen and top it off with live music direct from Chicago, Caribbean Swing. And lets not forget our traditional Halloween costume contest. So, with workshops on both Saturday and Sunday, a Saturday night party and Sunday Social its time to get ready to dance! October 26th, you may rest.

Maybe you've heard the buzz, but never been to Detroit and experienced our scene? Now is your chance! We have a seriously great scene with something for dancers of every level and style and it's worth the trip - just ask our friends from Pittsburgh, Columbus and Cleveland who regularly make the trip up here to be part of our family.

So what can you expect? Workshops tailored to Detroit dancers with a special emphasis on styling for leaders and followers, musicality and efficient social dancing. Live music from a top notch band on Saturday night. Performances by world class dancers on both Saturday and Sunday. The opportunity to dance with anyone and everyone in the room. Discount cover for an 2-level Carnival themed costume party with live music at Sangria on Sunday. And... the time of your life.

The full schedule, instructor bios and videos are on the way, but its never too early to MARK YOUR CALENDAR!

Classic! That's the best way to describe last night at Pi with a true to its name "All Star" band, two fantastic performances by Dal Bouey and an electric vibe from Detroit's salseros. The bar has been re-set and you really can't ask or hope for more from a night of dancing. You never know how the best ideas will take shape and if they will fly, but this really was great planning and great execution rolled into one.

I'm always telling people "we have something really special and unique" in our dance scene - its unlike any others I've encountered - maybe not the biggest or the most advanced, but probably the most open, enthusiastic and committed. In that spirit, Salsa Pete's vision to combine members of 4 bands into a super group for one night really paid off and we all benefited as they sounded fantastic and brought a new energy to so many classic songs. Its no doubt a lot of effort went into this endeavor for everyone including Pete the band and the musical director Bobby Guzman so they are really to be congratulated. It would be fantastic in my humble opinion to see this band play on a big stage like the Chicago Salsa Congress or Canada Salsa Congress - they would be a surefire hit.

Since it's inception, Pi has been one of the best opportunities to go out and experience Detroit's salsa scene and for their "Thank You" to their patrons for one year of support, I say no - Thank You!

Live and learn! Thats the spirit of our next big endeavor at YA Salsa. After our January 2009 workshops with Al Liquid Silver, much discussion among our team members and great feedback from the dancers, we have lived a bit and learned a lot. Here is a smattering of what we learned:

• Later start times are better - 12:00 PM seems to be a good time.
• We have been fortunate to have large numbers of new dancers attend the workshops, but after the first "free" class we have not provided a "next step" class for them.
• Our intermediate classes had a lot of new dancers which made it difficult for intermediate and advanced dancers to benefit from the lessons.
• More diversity in class dance styles, especially Cha Cha is important
• Focusing on followers and partner communciations, not just leaders and patterns is essential

So, for our upcoming June 13th workshops we are going to take that next leap forward. Not only are we providing more for our new dancers, we are re-affirming our commitment to advancing the experienced dancers.

A little of what we hope to accomplish includes:

• A 2 1/2 hr bootcamp for new dancers that will help them get comfortable with salsa, social dancing, having fun and dancing safely on a crowed dance floor.
• Three hours of Intermediate and Advanced workshops with the guest instructors Lee Rios and Lisa Vargas that will focus on solid fundamentals, musicality and integrating shines in partnerwork.
• A limited class size Masters workshop with the Lee and Lisa that will focus on aspiring performers.

Our specific class offering should finalized this week and the final schedule is on its way!

P.S. We will have t-shirts too! We are now offering 8 styles of ladies and mens shirts at low prices which will be available at the May 2009 social!

Part 4 of Awareness

 

Good social dancers are said to be “light on their feet”. What should also be understood there is “light on everyone else's feet too!” It's not just a matter of bad luck when someone steps on another's feet or spins into them – it is a lack of control. Everyone at some point does a spin too far or step on someone else - so the question is "how often and how hard?"

 

Secret Revealed: if you are regularly the one getting stepped on, you are also very likely to share some of the blame with the mis-stepper and of course you get all of the pain.

 

However it is not hard to change your luck and be a dancer who is light on their feet, rarely gets stepped on and who has control over themselves dancing and spinning – the key lies in mastering some fundamentals. In the case of light on the feet, mastering the basic step and in the case of the spinning, developing the correct body alignment starting with the foot.

Anthony Persaud from Addicted2Salsa put together a nice little video on getting started with shines. This is a very key concept for learning how to really "dance to the music" and express one's self on the dance floor. As he mentions, for leaders it is important to give your partner some "hands free" time where she can express herself and not just run through pattern after pattern. Advanced dancers often do shines for 50% or more of a song.



One of the great things about this example is that it is timed to be usable in almost any situation and he shows going from a connected postion to the shine and then coming back together again. Nice job!