The next BIG thing - June 2009 Saturday Workshops
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!
Wow! Great job. What a
Wow! Great job. What a committment. You guys are awesome!
ladies footwork/styling
I'd like to make a suggestion. I was one of the people who put in my 2 cents regarding what I wanted to see at these workshops (which didn't happen, not that i'm complaining).. It would be nice if either at these workshops, or even better yet, at different lessons at socials or studios, they would teach specifically ladies styling, or should I say footwork, when, while dancing, the leader opens up his arms for her to do her footwork/styling (so that she's the only one doing anything. I'm always so impressed when I see girls doing this and always feel awkward when this happens to me. I don't know how one learns this unless they take privates or watch a video. I hope you know what i'm talking about-like when the lady wraps her legs around the guy or does some suzy q's (which i know but that gets old). Anyway, just a suggestion.
Take a private class from
Take a private class from one of the local lady salsa instructors: Elaine, Marci, Laura.
Not commonly taught in group
I have seen some of the ladies get uncomfortable and even opt out of it in class, so I'm guessing it really doesn't get taught often. If you really want to learn that you should look into privates or practice with a friend like the comment above states.
That said, while it is commonly seen that you have to do the ballroom style shimmies or the leg wraps etc., that is really not true. One can apply shines and footwork, body rolls and other shines that they commonly do to that just as easily.
And one more point - just to be fair. Most of the lead instructors and especially the ones that choreograph can lead and follow and very effectively teach both :)
Geo-
Thanks for the suggestions
I didn't know that this was attempted. i've been in the scene for 2 1/2 years but not all the time so i guess I just didn't know. ya, I could see it may be uncomfortable. its just privates can get expensive although maybe it just takes a few to get it right. I do feel generally shy about that but maybe that's just because i'm not confident with it/used to it. Thanks again!