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Toronto Salsa Regulars and/or Instructors -- Who are they? by Rose Lau, Toronto Updated September 1, 2000 |
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July 16, 2000 Who are the Toronto salsa regulars and/or instructors... What makes them so unique or memorable? My inspiration for this piece is based on "dance chat". As a salsaholic regular, you hang out with different dancers in a restaurant or club and once in awhile talk about the various "regulars" and what makes them so interesting. For all you salsaholics out there, you may or may not be surprised at what is disclosed here, and you may agree to disagree... it's based on all the feedback or discussions over the past few years since dancers come and go. I will not be talking about the "once-in-a-blue moon" club dancer, but the diehards like myself who are "addicted". This is also not in any particular order of favouritism (and again, some of you may think so), but based on who hangs out in the clubs the most and/or dancer favourites. Part 1 - Male Dancers In the professional category (the regulars who teach or perform), the following dancers who quickly come to my mind are Oscar, Teddy, Rene, Giovanni, Albert, Frank, and Little Daniel... in the coming months, I'll be highlighting the various salsa-addicted dancers in Toronto. This week's highlight is on Teddy of United Salseros - the ultimate addict! If you ever go out to the popular clubs, you've seen him almost everywhere -- I don't know where he finds the energy or motivation to teach and to dance almost every night of the week, all year long. When I was in LA, I had a chance to talk to Edie the Salsa Freak. The one person she remembered the most from Toronto was Teddy. She didn't remember his name, but described him to me and I knew it was him right away! What was hilarious was that she thought he would be her sacrifice dance for the night. She mentioned that he started with a basic step, and thought "Oh no, he's a beginner!" and then he proceeded to take her through all his variations of Toronto, LA, New York and Miami-style all mixed in together. She found Toronto dancers in general a "challenge" since we didn't favour one particular style and we made her "think" while she was dancing. Way to go guys! She also mentioned how amazing she found his lead... and alot of the female dancers tend to agree. He is not showy, but his lead is amazingly clear! You may not know the move, but 90% of the time you'll execute it anyways. And if you know his sense of mischievousness, he'll use that to throw in a new curveball in his "usual" combinations to see if you're paying attention. Another twist to him is the sudden spurt of creative energy on one particular song he may like where you really have to pay attention to his "every command", but you will also enjoy that particular dance the most! September 1 , 2000 Part 2- Female Dancers In the professional category (the regulars who teach or perform), the following dancers who quickly come to my mind are Natalie, Teria, Michelle, Stephanie, Jennifer, Kathi and Nicole. This week's highlight will be on Michelle and Stephanie -- both of United Salseros. Michelle as she is out in the clubs as much if not more than myself, not including the times she also teaches and/or trains. Because of her height and build, she is apparently light as a feather as a "follower". "Feather" would be a neat nickname for her which I got from Robert Vidal as that was how he described his dance with Michelle -- especially with her multiple spins. And when she practices her "lead", well guys, what can I say, she can lead better than most guys who've been dancing at least a year, and since she's only been dancing as the lead for the last 6? months, she's got quite a few moves down pat. I've seen her progression since the days I first started, but since her exposure to the New York style, it has influenced her styling to a new level. Stephanie Gurnon doesn't go out to the clubs as regularly, but she is probably one of the most popular dancers we have that can dance or teach on 2 or 1. Any salsa congress I've been to, she is out dancing with the New York and LA on 2 dance instructors; and she can hold her own. She has also performed with Seaon Bristol's dance troupe (who moved from NY to LA). From what I've seen and heard, she has a playfulness to her dancing style which adapts/ changes to her partner. She is not a showy in-your-face type of dancer; she has more of a soft, but funky feel, which doesn't attract you to her style until months later when you've had a chance to "savour" what you've seen. One of my best memories of her dancing was with Ismael Otero (from New Jersey) in April at Atlantis Nightclub at the Toronto Salsaweb Convention. That dance was totally inspirational to me as they totally played up to the music and put their own interpretation to it. They were able to hit every accent of the song, not necessarily with dips, but with various "poses" or "freezes". It's very difficult to describe this type of dancing -- unless you see it. I guess the closest description I can give is that most dancers can dance moves/combinations, but to play to the music, you need to listen or know the song very well, and you put more styling to the accents with pauses, body waves, kicks, etc. Of course, the leader has to give you some "space" to do this and this is usually easier to do on 2. (To be continued...)
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