The YA Salsa Workshops with Mark Anthony, Akila and the Mas Mambo dancers were really first rate. This is probably my third time taking a workshop with Mark Anthony and just like with his style on the dance floor, the routines are nice and clean. The partner and shine pattens were simple enough to for intermediate dancers to learn, but with some slighly different ways of performing familiar turns for the advanced dancers to really feel like they were learning something new.

In the shines class, we split up in to ladies and men with Mark Anthony and Akila each leading a different shine -- which is actually very nice for a number of reasons including having a more tailored shine routine and having a smaller class size. At the beginning of the class, I think most of us on the guys side were stumbling through trying to carry out a flare into a left turn and then recover for a couple very quick afro-cuban moves, but with repeition and some encouragement from the ladies side when it came time to perform it at the end, I think we made an OK showing. Fortunately the only video was of Mark Anthony and Akila doing the shines :) But, with practice, I can easily see incorporating those moves into my dancing.

The partner work class was terrific too and we had some nice varitions on a copa and changing the ladies direction on a left to left hand wrap which I had not done before. The key point on that for the followers was to keep one's momentum to themselves -- othewise the leaders would not be able to change directions. The pattern was fun to do and my only comment would be that it probably would have been better for the ladies to have some styling worked into the pattern so that everything wasn't so focused on the leaders.

While it was an advanced class and probably represented a bit of challenge for many people, the whole Mambo tribe group went through the class and really made sure people were getting it. Even after the workshops were over and the group photos had been taken, the Mas Mambo dancers were spread out through the room helping people understand the partner and shine routines. I'll have to say, if you go to a congress or to classes at a studio, that really does not happen very often and it shows how great these guys are.

Long and short, while you can't be hugged quite so far away, thanks Lashena for continuing to coordinate these workshops. Thanks to all the YA people for all your efforts.

Geo-