February 27, 2006

So You Think You Can Dance...

Fox is bringing the show back again for a second season and auditions are during the month of March in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Charleston! Click here to see videoclips from last Summer and to get info on how to audition!

January 28, 2004 --

And I also did a little surfing and found the following great sites:

1. Need to research some great new salsa or merengue tunes; or get to know all the various latin styles, then check out this site -- I even found the names to songs I knew but didn't know who sang them!

Or how about this new 24/7 salsa radio station, SABOR BORICUA. Listen to the hottest Salsa Sounds compiled by DJ Ivette "DJ LA COQUI".

2. While searching for proper spelling of Brazilian food or places, I found these...

Travelling with new US 20's
All about Sao Paulo
Caipirinha
Typical Brazilian Foods

September 21, 2003 -- Movie News

Did you guys know there is a new movie coming out? It is supposedly is remake (sequel? o prequel?) of Dirty Dancing. It is called Dirty Dancing Havana nights. Ricky Martin and Brittney Spears were rumored to be in the movie, but now it stars two relative unknowns. You can watch the trailer on line.

The reason why the movie takes place in Cuba is to exploit what many see the recent popularity of Latin music and to expand on the few scenes of Latin dancing in the original dirty dancing. Don't you remember the scene of Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey doing the "mambo" on stage? And of course, Miramax, the film's producer wants to make money and doing sequels is a good way to go nowadays. Basically, it is Dirty Dancing to a "mambo" beat. But of course, in ballroom dancing "mambo" and salsa are the virtually the same. It a love story with salsa in the background set in Havana before the Cuban revolution.

I have some problems with this film. I mean I haven't seen the movie because it hasn't come out yet. But I pretty much guess what kind of movie it is from knowing the work of the people involved and from watching the trailer.

1) This is another example of how Hollywood tries to make different people the same. East Asians are the same. For Hollywood, Chinese, Japanese and Koreans are the same. Same customs and culture. In this example, the movie is called Havana nights, but the movie was filmed in Puerto Rico.

Apparently, Puerto Rico is the same as Cuba. The main actor in the movie is supposed to Cuban. But he is actually, one of the Mexican actors from the Mexican movie Y Tu Mama Tambien (the chubby one, but he appears slim in this movie). Apparently, Mexicans are the same as Cubans. Even Mexican actors who have never previously shown any interest in salsa dancing or music. This was the same problem in Dance with me when they apparently couldn't find any Cuban or even Cuban American actors to play the Chayanne part in Dance with me.

2) Cuban music apparently is the same as New York salsa. And Cuban dancing is the same as New York style or LA style dancing if you watch the trailer. The trailer doesn't have any Cuban music or dancing. This is an interesting problem for people who think salsa comes from New York in the 1970's. The movie is set in 1959 in Cuba before the invention of salsa in New York, but the movie is full of salsa music.

You can say the movie is just fun. I am too serious in criticizing this movie. But this is the way people learn about culture and history. They learn from movies that lie or present half truths. How many learn about the JFK assination from the Oliver Stone movie rather than reading a book? Which is another movie that basically lies. The decision to exclude Cuban actors, music and dancing from the movie may be just commericial. -- Alex

Dear Alex, thanks for reminding me that this movie is on its way, although I am skeptical (but hopeful) that this movie will be as good as "Dirty Dancing", and hopefully a better version of a salsa dance movie than "Dance with Me". But at least they are putting salsa/mambo in the limelight again as it may bring more international recognition to a street dance that will hopefully never die. I actually found the following links about the upcoming movie which should be released now in February 2004.

Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights (2004) - Trailers - Official Site

4 samples (2 to 13 min ea) at Timba.com

Team Cuba . . . most important event . . . in Timba. . . .joined together in one band "lo mejor de la Timba, el Team Cuba"! ("the best of Timba, Team Cuba"). . . . a dream come true . . . gathered in the Capitolio, Havana, on May 15, 1998. But the real history began 3 months earlier, as I was told.

. . . first reherasal . . . February 13, in the well-known Tropical, one of the oldest dance venues in Havana. Its full name is Salón Rosado Benny Moré de la Tropical, and ever since the days of Benny Moré it's been a really important venue for Cuban popular music.

La Tropical has been like "home" for Los Van Van for years, so maybe Team Cuba was born there, not only because it was where they rehearsed, but it may have also been the place where Formell came up with the idea of forming this kind of band. As he explained to the press, he based it on the succes of the bands in Cuba and all over the world in the past 5 years, trying to commercialize this music (a kind of Fania All Stars), and to get the "all stars" of Timba. He picked out 7 bands: Adalberto y su son; Charanga Habanera; Manolín el Médico de la salsa; NG la banda; Issac Delgado y su grupo; Paulito FG y su élite; and of course, the most beloved one, Van Van.

Louise, NYC

Overview
Welcome to the December dance lesson: Spins & Turns. In this lesson, you will learn the fundamental concepts associated with all kinds of turns, including the concept of rotation, axes, maintaining balance and posture, and spotting.

Part 1: Sides of the Body, Types of Rotation
Part 2: Axes
Part 3: Using the Base to Turn
Part 4: Turns with the Right and Left Side Leading
Part 5: Spotting
Exercise 1: Turns on One Foot
Exercise 2: Basic Spotting
Exercise 3: Spotting and Side-Leading Turns

Louise Chang

Sunday, Jun 30 @ 9:00 PM
Monday, Jul 1 @ 12:00 AM
Monday, Jul 1 @ 5pm
check your local station guide: http://schedule.bravotv.com

“A two hour documentary will be aired on the Bravo Channel about The Palladium Story (1947 thru the sixties).

Directed by Keven Klein this two hour special will feature the most famous Mambo dancers and every great Mambo orchestra that graced the stage of the Palladium Ballroom, known as the home of the Mambo. See and hear from the Legends that made history and went from rages to riches. Listen to their fascinating stories that thrilled thousands of people from pawns to kings. The entire program will be part of the Smithsonian Institute Library. Don’t miss this spectacular historical documentary on Brave Sunday June 30th 2002.”

Featuring rare film footage and interviews with Carlos Santana, Ruben Blades, Harry Belafonte, Quincy Jones and Tito Puentes, this exhilarating documentary profiles the New York dance club where the Latin music craze first exploded on the cultural scene.

June 20, 2002

Wow! There's more things happening in the World Wide Web that everyone should have a peek at...

New! Mambo Magazine from NYCwhich is created by Lisa Linhardt (Creative Director, Photographer, Web Guru), Pablo Munoz (Photographer, Conceptualization Guru), and Richie Blondett (Writer) and has been a contributer in our Music Discussion Forums from NYC... To get the full effect, you need Flash and the latest version of Internet Explorer, so click here for more information. If you already have both, then you can click here to go directly to the home page -- you won't be disappointed!

Here are some of the must-reads on Mambo Magazine you may want to check out:

1. A great interview and photo shoot of Frankie and Aisha of Abakua... I love how they put the full effect of this piece together with some fabulous photos and a nicely composed bio-interview. Definitely worth a read!

2. An Interview with Willie Colon, the musician by Richie Blondett.

"Johnny Pacheco, by now a polished veteran in 1966, signed Willie to a contract under the FANIA record label founded by Pacheco himself a few years earlier. The following year EL MALO was released and Latin music was never the same again. For five years Willie Colon and his lead vocalist Hector LaVoe, would turn the Latin Music world upside down and change the course of the music." -- quoted from Mambo Magazine.

June 15, 2002

May and June so far have been absolutely nuts... I guess it should be expected now that the warm weather is coming, and this is when everyone likes to go out and party and/or travel to various cities to dance Salsa! Well, for those of you who are too tired to go out and/or aren't feeling up to par, then this is the perfect place for you to chill -- not in front of a TV, but in cyberland... checking out what's happening in the World of Salsa dance and music! And what did I find while surfing? All kinds of interesting little finds...

Free Dance Move Videoclips by various dancers in Europe!

YASS -- Yet Another Salsa Site: I already talked about this one and will definitely be listing it in our links page, but in case you missed it... very candid, refreshing and humourous commentaries by an "unnamed" salsa dancer who just decided to have some fun putting up his own site. If only I could get away with some of his humour (sigh...). PS I finally got to know the name of the writer, but for some reason, he chooses not to include his name anywhere on the site.

how2salsa.com by Gallito, a dancer from Holland. You will even find a videoclip of him dancing with Jennifer Aucoin (not "Torres") from Toronto! I watched a few of his clips, and it's interesting to see that they also have alot of the same moves we dance here in Toronto; and that's in another part of the World! I think these were some of the same dancers (in the clips) that first came to the Toronto Salsaweb Convention in 2000 and then I met up with some of them again in LA this past May. It was cool to see how much we have all improved and what we've done with our salsa lives in two years, and the fact they can also dance on 1 or 2.

Music-related Websites!

salsastream.com: For your ultimate 24/7 listening pleasure from NYC!

The Four Great Clave Debates by Kevin Moore, timba.com
For those of you who want to understand more about the clave beat, then this article should be helpful with his explanations with sample clave audioclips to help you hear the difference as this writer is also a Musician for a group in California.

Clave Changes in the Music of Charanga Habanera by Kevin Moore
If the last article was not enough, then here's an even more extensive version by the same writer.

Vocal Sampling -- a Cuban acapella group that can sing salsa without instruments!

April 26 , 2002

It's been a long time since I had time to surf... but I finally had a little time...

For those of you who want to find out a little more about some of the New York Dancers, Instructors and Performers, you can check out the winners of the Salsa Dance Awards which was put together by Luis Zegarra and Thomas Guerrero in New York City. Some of the winners were not surprising once you start checking out the New York scene, how they dance and how they teach. Take a peak for yourself...

Or if you haven't had enough of watching dance competitions, there's only two more spots left in the Mayan Club Competition Preliminaries for amateur and professional; and so far it looks like Johnny Vasquez will not be competing this year, which leaves the door open wide in the Professional category this year.

Also, on SalsaNewYork, Manny Siverio has taken the time to put together his version of "Taking without permission: When Dance Routines are Stolen
More on Videotaping & CopyCats" which compiles many of the different articles from differents sites and provides an interesting debate from both sides of the fence. And for myself personally, I think I would agree more with Shaka's version, many of us tape not to steal the moves, but to have the memories of an amazing night of dancing to inspire us to get better; or to forever remember someone's amazing dance that lit the floor with another amazing partner. What would you rather do, watch a mindless soap opera, or spend a night mesmerized in front of the TV watching all the dancers either social dancing or putting on an amazing performance at one of the Congresses -- I know what I'd pick EVERY TIME!

February 12, 2002

As always, I can't resist, to help alleviate some stress or one of my ways of taking breaks is to find out what's happening in the World of Salsa... and today was no exception... check out these great videoclips I found on dancers and artists, plus the website on the documentary of Josie Neglia.

East Coast Salsa Congress Videoclips on Latin Heat, NYC website
with Descarga Latina Dance Company (Nelson Flores, Director)
Heartbreak Boys and Jr. Heartbreak Boys (David Melendes, Director)
Jai & Candy
LA Salsa Kids
Latin Symbolics
Mambo Showdown Dancers (Luis Zegarra, Director)
Rico and Julianna

Latin Heat, a public access show, with Videoclips to...
Domingo Quinones Interview
Latin Heat's Tribute to Hector Lavoe
El Gran Combo Interview
Ruben Blades Interview

A website dedicated to the Princess of Salsa documentary
Josie has mentioned that they will be showing it at the West Coast salsa Congress in May and the Bacardi Congress in Puerto Rico.

February 5, 2002

Surf's Up for Salsa...

Don't ask me how, or why, or where I can find this all these little tidbits, but I've been surfing the Internet and find all sorts of neat sites -- it's like opening up a candy store where you can find almost anything you want and probably things you don't want or need, but you just can't resist.

And what did I find? Well for starters, Fernando Lamadrid of justsalsa.com has finally posted the pics from his January 27th visit with Yesenia, Danny and DJ Elvira; and maybe this would be the appropriate time to finish what happen-ed that night. If you recall it was a gorgeous Spring day, totally unlike the freezing cold weather we are experiencing now; and I spent the afternoon hang-ing out with Fernando and talking about anything and everything to do with the web and salsa around the World -- we even drove by the CN Tower so he could take some pics. By the time I arrived at the Cherry Room, they were just finishing the first workshop; but I got there early to hang out and chat with DJ Elvira and Fernando before the dancing started, and also to hear the music. I was definitely not disappointed -- she had some great music to listen and dance to that I never heard before and I stayed until the bitter end... I enjoyed it so much, I started to daydream of going to NYC for awhile just for the music and the great bands they get each week -- we need more of this great music played here. Many say that alot of what's played there is old classics, but DJ Elvira even has gems she has found even in the present from all kinds of sources. Later that night, Yesenia and Danny did a show and then an encore. The show was nice, but possibly they were tired from their non-stop schedule as soon as they left NYC, as some of the moves didn't look very comfortable on Yesenia. The only reason I say this is because I've seen her dance at many functions over the last two years starting with the Convention in Toronto and she has always been one of my favourite dancers to watch as I love the energy she puts in her dancing. In the show routine, she was very subdued and not her usual, funky and feminine self. For the second dance, you got to see the real street-style Yesenia in her shines, and that's what makes her so memorable and fun to watch.

If you love checking out congress pics, here's another site that has pics of their 1st Annual Euro Salsa Congress on October 5-7, 2001 in Germany. It's on the right of the home page in the section, "News vom 22.10.2001". And finally the site is up and running for Puerto Rico Salsa Congress in July!

And as I was surfing to find out about other great CD's to collect (wait till you see the changes I have for that page), I accidentally found the website for the record label for one of my new favourite songs to dance to, "Lady" by Orquesta de Palabra with MP3 samples from Morrowland Records. While surfing their website, I also found a new release of the Johnny Polanco CD which sounds like a good item to add to your salsa collection of music.

And speaking of LA, here's another news article from their LA Times paper about salsa dancing as an aerobic workout...

Whew, that's enough surfing for one night... or was it weekend...

January 30, 2002

It's that time of year when usually I plan to watch and/or tape the Ohio Star Ball Championships, so I surfed the internet to try and find out when it was to be aired, only to find out that it's been cancelled due to lack of funding by PBS! But I did manage to find this new site, DanceSport Network, that has all the information on all the ballroom competitions with clips, and if you click on "Preview our coverage of the Ohio Star Ball", you can see some of the highlights of the competition, and in about the 3rd clip, you'll see a couple doing some hip hop and then the "Vasquez" neck drop with leg lift incorporated into ballroom. I believe it's James and Jaana Kunitz who happened to win the showdance routine, and if you click on their site, you can also see some fabulous dance shots. There's also some clips about Argentine Tango, including an video interview with Pablo Veron who was one of the stars in the movie, "The Tango Lesson".

Also, I found Dancescape TV has a breakdancing clip from McMaster University who's having a hip hop and break dance competition on Sat. February 2nd. Whew, that was enough surfing for one night... Rose Knows

Hot Internet Finds...

Salsa
It's always fun to surf and find entertaining little gems that gets your feet ready to move once again...

Salsa - Timba - Mambo

Cuban Music Links
Listen while you surf
AfroCubaWeb - Ahi-Nama
More links

While surfing...
Edie the Salsa Freak Interview
Super Mario's Interview
Salsa in Hawaii Article
Johnny Vasquez on PBS TV!