Highlights of Toronto's Winter Thrills

by Rose Knows, Toronto

March 19, 2001

info@TOsalsa.com

The Winter Blues!

Although it's getting colder, it seems many of the regulars are steadily hitting the clubs to get their salsa fix! Last week Tuesday, I dropped by Berlin for a quick salsa fix, but ended up staying longer than I had originally planned. For about an hour, Oscar of Strickly Salsa, Caryl (a volunteer of United Salseros), Oren Shoshan, a native Torontonian who has just moved back from North Carolina and myself, were playing around with all kinds of tricks, incl. neck dips and flips. Caryl was hilarious to watch as she kept on trying new tricks with Oscar for about 20 minutes until she was totally dizzy and had to sit down. Most of you probably don't know Oren, but I met him over a year ago while he was living out in North Carolina; and he was one of my salsa convention buddies in TO, LA and Montreal. He's just moved back to Toronto temporarily before he relocates to Australia to teach salsa full-time. At some point, he may start teaching in Toronto; his style has a lot of the LA spunk influenced by the Vasquez brothers in LA (Salsa Brava and Los Rumberos). I've danced with a few of his students in LA, and the guys have a nice light lead -- which was a pleasant surprise, and showed me how well he has taught them.

Last week Thursday, I went to Allure to check out the Cuban son band, Puentes Brothers, based out of Victoria, BC; and Dave Paris, an instructor from New York, previously with Razz-M-Tazz. It was another fun evening as many other dancers decided to do the same thing! I really enjoyed dancing and listening to The Puentes Brothers as they had a mixture of the traditional Cuban son, some rumba and the traditional fast salsa.

Later in the evening, Dave Paris showed up straight from the airport and had a dance with many of the regulars. This wasn't my first time meeting him, as he was also at the Montreal Salsa Congress back in August. He's not as "flashy" as some of the New York male dancers, but he has a very precise lead and some very interesting combinations. What I noticed about my dance with him, was that it seemed "easier" (less of a tug and war) this time around, possibly because I am a little more comfortable with the NY 2 and the various turn patterns. I heard through the "grapevine" that he is an excellent instructor and he taught some great new turn patterns which has the girls spinning endlessly in both directions in various combinations. At Left Bank on Sunday, I politely asked Angus to show me one of the combinations and it was definitely challenging, but a neat new move!

This past Monday, an unfortunate tragedy happened to a fellow salsera at Smokey Joe's Cafe, click here to find out more.

And if you love to watch and/or dance to salsa bands, don't forget the CD launch party for Luis Mario at the Bamboo Club on Thursday (you get $2.00 off the cover charge if you print this home page and bring it with you to the club) and on Friday, you have one last chance to see the Puentes Brothers at Cafe Havana before they head back to Victoria, B.C!

Could this weekend have been more busy?

Last Thursday was a blast ... I started out at Allure at about 9:30 pm and danced 90% salsa almost non-stop until about 12 midnight... then headed over to the Bamboo Club for the Luis Mario CD Launch Party! It had actually started at 10:30 pm and I was told the club was jam-packed -- many of the dancers didn't show up until about 11 pm. Luis Mario put on a fabulous show of pure 100% high-energy salsa! Not only the dancers loved his music, but non-dancers as well -- one lady was begging him to play one more song at the end. He is definitely a must-see if he ever performs again in the club circuit with the group Cimarron.

On Friday, just as I was about to take a nap before heading out... I received a call from Benjamin Rapoport from Salsaweb who wanted to find out for one of his friends, Yunee, what dance hotspots to hit in Toronto! She had just arrived from New York... so I suggested that maybe we should meet up so she could hang out with some of the regulars. So we made plans to meet at El Rancho's. Luckily for her, Steve and Jay (from United Salseros) had shown up and they had a blast dancing with her on 2. Her styling is very feminine and definitely screams New York! After about an hour of dancing, we headed over to the Grand Opening of the Karma Klub for Latin Night Fridays, where quite a few of the dance regulars from United Salseros and Los Salsamanos Dance Co. had already arrived. The club has a very unique design with two dance floor areas and high ceilings, but the floor is cement! The room we were in had a small stage and an upper level where they had go-go dancers, including Teria. Vibrason and DJ Efren provided the music that night. Does this club have a future -- well, maybe for the locals; but I doubt I would go there again as you have to drive to Dixon and 401 (the exit to the highway going home was closed that night), the floor is not made for salsa dancing, and parking could cost almost $7.00 each time. One of the dancers told me they waited half an hour to get out of the parking lot. Yunee had so much fun that she emailed me the next morning before she left for Niagara Falls to thank everyone for making her feel welcome in Toronto and for the amazing night of dancing.

On Saturday, I was planning to take it easy so I could go out dancing again on Sunday, but it was just not meant to be... had another call from a girlfriend who was in town for the weekend and wanted to meet up at a salsa club. I suggested Bamboleo as I knew alot of the regulars were planning to go there that night and I didn't have a chance to check it out before. I was told that it would be good choice as it's not overly-packed and they would play latin music all night long. But instead, we barely got any salsa music as there was a birthday party with non-salsa dancers. What even made it more irritating was to pay $10 cover to "not dance" most of the night, breathe in tons of cigarette smoke and then dance in a small section of the crowded dance floor which was missing tiles! Needless to say, Bamboleo left a "lasting" impression on me! Definitely not on my Top 10 List of Favorite Hotspots!

Winter Wonderland!

Well, it's almost the middle of December and we've had some snow and a few parties this last weekend to kick-start the holiday season with many more this following weekend as we've highlighted in our Winter Thrills section on the right! If anyone knows of any clubs that might be open on Christmas Day -- drop us a line... it looks like El Rancho's will only be open Christmas Eve!

Christmas Shopping Tips

What do you buy for your addicted friends who do nothing but dance salsa, listen to salsa, take salsa vacations, dream about salsa, and seem to own everything already... Well, here's some suggestions which was partially inspired by our Readers. They may not be original, but may help the salsa addict who is still trying to figure out which ones to buy for themselves or their friends (in no particular order):

Music CD's/Artists
Here's a shortlist of some great artists, and actually almost any album by any of these artists are fabulous for dancing...
1. Tito Puente - Mambo Birdland, 2000 (must have!)
2. Sonora Carruseles - Salsa Brava, 2000
3. Lo Mejor - La Misma Gente (Greatest Hits)
4. DLG's Greatest Hits, Sony 2000
5. Marc Anthony

Any music compilations, such as the Calle Ocho Series from Miami released every year, or Super Latin Hits - Oro Latino, 1996 -- great for beginners to the latin dance scene with cha cha, salsa and merengue songs.

Better yet, if you have a CD burner, put together your own greatest salsa hits compilation in WAV or MP3 format! Doesn't every dancer dream about having all their favourite songs all on one CD! In the next few weeks, I'll put together my Top 100? list of favourite salsa songs which are must -haves for every dancer! With this list, you can surf to your heart's content on the Internet to find out more about their albums or their music history.

Dance Videos
1. Josie Neglia -- she has a great range of videos from LA-style Salsa to Merengue and Club-Style ChaCha.
2. Eddie Torres (New York Style Salsa on 2)
3. Razz-M-Tazz (New York Style Salsa on 2)
4. Salsa Brava (LA Salsa)
5. Edie the Salsa Freak's Cool Moves 2 Salsa Video (best value with 60? cool moves on one tape!)
6. Bacardi Congress Dance Show Videotapes from LA or Puerto Rico

How about getting a gift certificate from your favourite dance instructor and treat your friend to a workshop in the New Year!

Or if you want to treat yourself, why not buy a pair of new dance shoes (leather-soled) for regular club wear, a pair of ballroom shoes for the seriously addicted and/or a pair of the jazz dance shoes to practice your fancy footwork (shines)!
And of course, the most original of all -- does anyone ever have enough dance clothes?

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Dashing thru the Cold!

Well, it's the middle of December and we've had some snow, rain, wind and quite a few parties this past weekend. Although there's no other Christmas parties in the works, you can be sure that every night in the clubs until the New Year will be a "party"! (Tip: Get to the clubs before 10 so you don't have to line up.) Last week I only had a chance to go to Babaluu's on Thursday and it was "party-central" until closing. I also heard thru the grapevine that Babaluu's last Wednesday was a lot of fun!

New Year's Eve Resolutions... or Time to Start Planning for your 2001 Dance Vacation Calendar...

It's hard to believe that this Sunday we'll already be ringing in 2001! For me, it just seemed like yesterday that we were celebrating the Year 2000!

As the New Year approaches, it's a great time to reflect or start some new resolutions or goals... For a change, I've put in some resolutions on what you should not do.

The Dancer's Pet Peeve Wishlist for the New Year

Though shall not...

1. Throw sweat all over the other dancers or expect someone to dance when you are totally soaked.
2. Spin the girl into another couple.
3. Take big, heavy steps and step on other dancers with your high heels or big chunky shoes.
4. Dip your partner into another couple.
5. Give your partner whip-lash during a dip.
5. Place your hands where they do not belong.
7. Hold your partner too close.
8. Leave your long hair loose to "whip" dancers.
9. Try to do some fancy tricks on a crowded dance floor to show off.
10. Get so immersed into trying every single move that you forget there are others around you whom you might bump into.
And how could I forget... Please leave your BO at home!

If you feel that I've missed any, please feel free to email me. I already had a suggestion to do the "male version of salsa" wishlist.

Salsa Convention Planning

If you love Salsa and get inspired by great dancers, you shouldn't miss the opportunity to attend at least one Salsa Convention in 2001. It's a great way to mix travel, dancing and a chance to make new salsa friends around the world! Probably the most widely attended Conventions this year will be:

April 26-29: The 3rd International Salsaweb Convention in Valencia, Spain. This event will be different from the other conventions as you will be meeting salseros from all over Europe.

May 25-27: 3rd Annual West Coast Salsa Congress in LA. This has become one of the largest conventions next to the Bacardi Salsa Congress in Puerto Rico. It's a little cheaper for us to get there and you get all the great dancers from LA, the US and from around the world. There were over 1,000 dancers last year.

July 27-Aug 4: 5th Bacardi Salsa Congreso in Puerto Rico. If you can afford it, air fare alone can be $600-$800 easily and their currency is also US $. This convention is a must-see as you also get to see the great dancers from Puerto Rico and around the world.

Plan to spend at least $1000 for the total event (airfare, hotel, event pass) -- it will work out cheaper if you reserve at least 3 months in advance and get 3 other friends to share a room. After all, it's only used for sleeping, and if you try to do everything, you won't be spending any time in there at all. Another way to cut the costs down is to only go to the night parties, that way you don't feel you have to go to all the classes and then you get to explore the city and/or the beaches during the day and then party all night.

If this is a little over your budget, then try one of the smaller conventions, such as the August 17-19: 1st East Coast Salsa Congress near New York City. You can be sure that many Toronto dancers will be attending this function.

And finally as promised, my Top 100? List of Great Salsa Songs. How did I compile this list, well by surfing thru the internet and asking the great Toronto DJ's for the name and artist of my favourite songs.

The most recent Top 10 Songs for me in the last year (alpha order) are:

DLG - Acuyuye
DLG - Volvere
DLG y Eddie Santiago - Que Locura Enamorame De Ti
Fruko Y Sus Tesos - Cachondea
George Lamond - Que Te Vas Remix
Grupo Niche - A Golpe de Folklore
Rey Ruiz - Desde Que No Etas
Sonora Carruseles - Changaral
Wayne Gorbea - El Yo Yo
Wayne Gorbea - Estamos Chao
(plus the songs from the Tito Puente Mambo Birdland Album)

Happy New Year, Everyone!

What a kickstart to 2001!

This last week and a half was unbelievably busy with parties and events every night, but I'll only highlight the events I attended.

On Thursday, December 28th, I attended the Grand Opening of Ivory's. It was a perfect time to open as Babaluu's was a zoo that night with a huge line-up outside, so anyone who wanted room to dance was smart and checked out Ivory's. It will be interest- ing to see if it becomes the alternative to Babaluu's on Thursday once the cover charge kicks in (should be free for all of January). DJ Jorge Davila plays about 80% salsa with a mix of some merengue, cha cha and bachata -- no house music! The club isn't as spacious for dancing as Babaluu's, since alot of the space in the back is for the bar lounge area; and the floor is a bit slippery for most types of dance shoes. It's a nicely decorated club, but a little too warm and cozy once it gets crowded. Thursday just may become another one of those nights where you might hit both clubs.

On Tuesday, January 2nd, I visited Tequila for the first time in months. When I got there, there were over 100 students just finishing their lesson from beginner to advanced. At about 10:30 pm, they served a buffet dinner of chicken, rice, pasta and longanesa (a philipino sausage which is pan-fried). The first dance after the lesson is themed "dance with someone new"; and they play 90% salsa all night long! Tequila usually finishes up early, so a few of us then moved onto Berlin until the wee hours. It was also still fairly busy, but we got there when they started to play a merengue set and then house music, so we didn't get as much salsa dancing as we would have liked.

On Wednesday, January 3rd, it was DJ Alvaro C's birthday at Babaluu. Spinning the vintage Salsa hits was a variety of DJs (Aki, Gmoney, Boris GM, Billy Bryans, Henry Cartel, Derek El Hippy) with a special live presentation by Escola de Samba de Toronto (25 piece Samba Batucada group). It was interesting to observe the variety in taste by the various DJ's and then the energy of the samba band's beat which went straight thru your body. It was a fun, jam-packed night of dancing and socializing with many of the old salsa dance regulars showing up.

On Thursday, January 4th, I unfortunately couldn't go to Ivory's in time to witness the dance show by the Los Salsamanos Dance Company. But I heard it was great! There was a dance no. with 3 couples and a show by Giovanni with Karen doing all shines as Jennifer is out-of-town.

On Friday, January 5th, it was the Grand Opening of Embryus. It was jam-packed as expected with many dancers checking out the new venue. It's a nice layout with a bar lounge seating area with fireplaces and a dance floor area. The floor itself is alright (they need to clean it up a bit -- it altered between sticky and slippery). They also had problems with the air-conditioning and coat check which is supposed to be fixed up by next week. The music was a mix of latin with two long sets of house music. Personally, I'm not crazy about this location as it's the heart of the busy dance district, but it is another alternative for Friday nights.

January 13, 2001

The January Blues? Not!!

Things were a little calmer event-wise, but it seems the clubs are as busy as ever... I guess the holidays revived everyone's thirst for dancing or maybe it's a quick fix to get off the extra pounds! I would have thought the clubs would slow down, but they are still going strong. Last September was a much slower month compared to January so far.

Through the grapevine, last Wednesday, there was an open audition for salsa dancers to try out for a Mambo commercial by Hugo Perfume. Although they already told everyone they would prefer dancers from a latin background, almost anyone who is fairly prominent in the salsa community showed up. For a hoot, I decided that since I was there, why not give it a whirl... to say I did it! For those of you who have never tried out for a commercial -- you go in, fill in a form with your vital statistics, they take your picture and you wait until they call you in. You could audition with a dance partner if you had one or dance with Teria (pro salsa dancer) or Daniel of Salsallstars if you didn't. The atmosphere was one of comradery, between the old-time pro salsa dancers, such as Guillaermo, Oscar and Pedro, and the new crop of pro and semi-pro dancers, such as the Los Salsamanos Dance Troupe and the gang from United Salseros. Even fellow webmasters, Ivy and Javier from oursalsathing and Gisel Della Chiara of Latin Vibes and host of the Sex Files on Discovery Channel showed up! When you got called in for your turn, it's a small room with a camera-man, Teria and the choreo-grapher. Although it was supposed to be a Mambo number, they used a very slow cha cha as the song. The choreographer gave you one chance to practice then directed you by telling you to dance faster than the song they were playing and look sexy or raunchy, depending on his mood. You had two chances to "show your stuff". I have to admit it was awkward to try and look sexy to a song at the wrong speed and with someone you normally don't dance with and/or feel comfortable with and to top it off, you're the one in the spotlight... but that's probably where "acting" comes in. Plus it's more difficult to look sexy in a cha cha as it is a more open dance compared to salsa where you have more opportunity to dance close to your partner. Also, if you haven't had much cha cha experience, the dance patterns don't lend them-selves as well to free interpretations. It also doesn't help that most of us rarely dance cha cha enough to be able to interpret the music. All in all it was a fun experience and another opportunity to just hang out with your friends or get to know other dancers better. Afterwards, some of us went for a bite to eat and talked about salsa non-stop, then headed over for a fun night at Babaluu's where DJ Alvaro C was spinning the classic vinyls. By the way if anyone has an old turn-table kicking around -- talk to Alvaro as he is willing to buy it!

What's New!

We've now expanded our Dance Forum page to include the following areas:

1. Latin Music section. What is salsa dancing without the music itself. Sometime in November, there was a write-up on latin music festivals and TOsalsa was listed as one of the music websites to check out -- which was a total shock to me as we didn't have a music section in our site. Well, this year part of our focus is to remedy that situation. Check out our interview with the Puentes Brothers and the various song lists contributed by the DJs and various Readers.

2. Dear TOsalsa section -- it's been growing leaps and bounds, to the point that we've now included a Discussion Forum and have asked different dance instructors to respond to the more "technical" dance questions we receive. So if you have any questions you've been dying to ask someone, please click here.

2. The Silly Side of Salsa section -- featuring jokes, quizzes, poems. Sometimes we can take Salsa dancing too seriously, so here's some light reading. Please feel free to add to our collection at any time.

Thanks to you, the Readers, without your feedback, we wouldn't be expanding into these areas.

PS. Yes, we finally found time to put up our pictures. You can check out our pics in the About TOsalsa section. Special thanks to Michelle of United Salseros who was our digital photographer.

January 20 , 2001

New Year Resolutions -- Part I

Due to the volume of emails we get asking us about where is the best place to take salsa classes, it was obvious that a lot of our readers were making that part of their New Year Resolutions. So it just seemed appropriate that it would be the perfect topic to discuss so I don't have to keep repeating myself. Also, please remember that this information is based on my own experiences and/or from talking with fellow dancers and instructors over the years. I have always loved dancing since I was a kid, but never took dance classes until I got into salsa 3-1/2 years ago. Since then, I've taken lessons and workshops in salsa, international-style ballroom, and Argentine Tango; plus I've travelled to various dance conventions and seen the calibre of the instructors from various cities. From these experiences you learn for yourself, what you like to see in instructors and their pluses and minuses. I've been lucky to have picked some of the "best" for me. Hopefully, this will be a "guide" to help you find what's best for you.

But before I go into detail, let me set a few things straight:
1. There is no such thing as the "best" dance instructor. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses; we all learn and react differently to different teachers. Also, each instructor has their own teaching style which may or may not suit you, i.e. some break it down technically and others not so technically dependent on their dance background. Also, some instructors are really only able to teach advanced dancers as they do not know how to break it down and those dancers really don't need that info -- they just need to know how to get into that move.
2. "There is no best place to go and have a good price", you need to shop around. Also remember that having a cheap price does not mean you'll get your money's worth if you don't learn how to dance well or properly. For starters, you can check our list of established instructors with regular dance classes we have listed on our website.
3. There is such a thing as dancers who pass themselves off as teachers and don't have any understanding of how to teach dancing at all. How can you tell? Well, not always by the size of the class as some good teachers are just starting out, but by whether the students are picking up the moves and/ or by how the instructors teaches it. For example, if the instructor only knows the guy's part and says to the girls, just follow. Then he doesn't have a good understanding of how to teach the woman's part. Or if you don't get how to do a certain move, and they just keep demonstrating without breaking down the move in detail, then again, they don't know how to teach. As I mentioned earlier, this may be fine for advanced dancers as they usually become quite good at "copying" the moves without the breakdown. But if you are just starting out, then you should make sure that you get someone who can explain it to you in a way you can understand it as we all learn differently.

Before you start taking a regular set of classes or workshops, call and check out their classes and see which instructor is right for you.

For Beginners to salsa and are "serious" about learning to dance properly, I recommend that you take regular weekly dance classes to get your basics.

Most of the instructors listed below are continually upgrading their skills in salsa by travelling and/or learning from other interna-tional salsa teachers. Here are the instructors who are predominant in the salsa scene (in alpha order):
Dancing Thru Life
Dance to Live
Los Salsamanos
Rhythm & Motion
Simply Dancing
Soles Dance Studio
Strickly Salsa
Toronto Salsa
United Salseros

Also, don't think you'll become an expert in just 10 weeks! It's a learning process for most dancers that can take up to a year with regular dance classes from beginner to advanced to have a good grounding. Plus practice practice and more practice. You need to be consistently practicing what you learned.

If you can't afford dance classes or don't take it as seriously, then take a class at one of the clubs, i.e.

Mondays -- Smokey Joe's with Frank Bishun Tuesdays -- either Berlin w/Los Salsamanos OR Tequila w/United Salseros
Wednesdays -- Babaluu with Frank Bishun
Thursdays -- Ivory with Los Salsamanos
Fridays -- Embryus with United Salseros
Saturdays? hmm... Instructor's Night Off?!
Sundays -- Left Bank with Soles Dance Studio

The lesson is usually part of the cover charge, and you can practice after.

For more experienced dancers (minimum one year usually) and after much practice, you may want to check out the drop-in workshops by various dance instructors in the City and occasionally, from international dance instructors who are visiting Toronto. Salsa Workshops are classes which you can drop into at any time and learn a certain no. of new moves in an hour or two. What's great is that if you want to expand your repertoire into shines on "1" or "2", men or women's styling, dips and/or tricks, then these are for you. We list all the workshops on the right or in our Events section. Note: More tips on becoming a better dancer are given in my response to the "Shy Salero" emails.

Hope this helps...
Rose Knows

January 29, 2001

Cardio Salsa or The Salsa Endurance Test!

No it's the not type of cardio salsa you find at a health club -- but more like an "endurance test" to see how you can juggle work, school, website, workouts, dancing with "some sleep". This final week of January has been jam-packed full of nights to go out dancing! We are so lucky here in Toronto to be able to pick and choose which nights we want to dance and decide if we want to hit more than one club a night.

The Sunday before, I hit Left Bank as it was my first time for this year; and it was comfortably busy. It seemed many dancers either chose to go to Babaluu's or didn't realize that Left Bank was officially open again. This club has been a great alternative to Babaluu since it is known to get super-busy with non-dancers. (Note: Soles is no longer teaching at Left Bank on Sundays.) Last Monday, I just had to drop by Smokey Joe's to get rid of the huge family Chinese New Year dinner I had that night. Instead of staying for an hour of dancing, I ended up closing the place as it was a perfect night to mingle and dance. It's definitely a night for die-hards who like having a more relaxed place to dance where you don't have to dress up. Warning, you'll find it very smokey inside. On Tuesday, I had every intention to go to Berlin's to see the all-girl band, D'Talle, but ended up hav-ing a long beauty sleep through their set. On Wednesday, I hit Babaluu filled with salsa die-hards who love the hardcore salsa vinyls, dancers who just love the location and others who go there mostly to mingle with their die-hard friends. Thanks to DJ Alvaro C, I'm starting to appreciate the older, vintage Salsa -- the music fools you as it seems more mellow than today's salsa. This is probably due to the type of instruments they used before they got the latin jazz influence. Thank you Alvaro, for taking the time to put together a vintage Great Salsa Song List for our readers. For me personally, the majority of this music does not make me want to get up and dance right away. It also doesn't appeal to me as the type of salsa that I can sit and listen to in a club; but once you start dancing, it has a more "earthy-funky" feel to it that you don't find in the modern salsa. For vintage salsa, you just have to "shut up and dance" and that's why everyone is there. Then Thursday I decided to "drop in" to Ivory's to see who was there. I had no intentions of dancing that night as I knew I'd be out dancing for the next two nights. After I got there, it turned out that it was Giovanni's birthday, so many of the Los Salsamanos dancers showed up there; and it turned into a surprisingly fun night of dancing. I decided to leave at a half-decent hour, but early enough to go for a quick-peek at Babaluu's which is always "happening" on Thursdays. All the die-hards who didn't go to Ivory, were partying at Babaluu's and I was very tempted to stay, but decided to get smart and get some beauty sleep so I could last the weekend. On Friday, it was the Grand Opening of Courthouse. It was another amazing night of dancing with many new faces. DJ Victor Explosivo played 95% salsa with some cha cha. There was absolutely no house music. It's a beautiful club with high ceilings and an upper lounge area which over-looks the downstairs with nice sunken soft leather couches. The floor is a mixture of some wood and possibly a type of stone, so the dance floor was bearable; but all the girls had sore feet by the end of the night since there were no house, merengue or bachata breaks. The one big complaint everyone had was about the 20-30 minute wait to get inside the Courthouse (which was mostly due to the delays from the coat check). So if you go there next week, don't forget to get there early; and for the month of February, United Salseros will be teaching from 9:15 to 10 pm (Beg/Int and Int/Adv classes). On Saturday, Vibrason was playing at the Bamboo Club. This is a regular dance event hosted by DJ Billy Bryans. It's another night where you can dress casually and just dance. There's not a lot of dance floor space, so basically you see dancers dancing in every part of the club that was open. The crowd here is a little different as you have a mixture of people who just want to listen to the music and of course, the dance fans of Vibrason. After so many hours of jam-packed dancing, there was no energy left to hit the Sunday clubs, esp. if I was going to Smokey Joe's on Monday to celebrate DJ Eddy's birthday, so I took it easy. Apparently, I had picked a good night to do this as it was Superbowl night and not as many dancers were out as usual. Again on Monday, I hit Smokey Joe's and it was another night of fun-casual dancing and mingling. It's definitely a great night to hang with friends, chat and get a little dancing in or for a change of pace, you can even shoot some pool. Each week you can never predict who will show up for your dancing pleasure. Also, you can have a snack or dinner there. The food is great -- my personal favourite is the Monterey Chicken Salad or their fries with gravy.

And the non-stop "cardio salsathon" will continue all this week as it will be tough to choose which nights to "salsa".

Rose Knows

New Year Resolutions - Part II

In Part I, I talked about taking dance classes to learn or improve your salsa dancing pleasure. Part II talks about health and wellness tips which will complement your hectic dance schedule.

To become a well-rounded dancer, you have to consider other factors, such as your eating habits, workout schedule, etc. I am not an expert in these fields, but I've learned that if you are determined to achieve certain goals, take time to consult the experts in various fields, and listen to your body's signals (which is explained more fully in this article), then you will come up with a plan that works for you.

We all obsess about our weight, looks, body type, and women especially, are never satisfied. To maintain optimum mental and physical performance, try to remember these golden rules:

A. Have at least 6-8 hours sleep/night on a consistent basis. If that's not possible, then train your body to a schedule that works for you with catnaps or a day to sleep in on the weekend.

B. Work out at a gym, in sports or at home at least 3 times a week on strength training, cardio and be sure to include stretch/yoga.

C. Try to maintain a balanced diet for optimum performance.

Regarding sleep, Caryl Cuizon sent me an email stating, "Even an hour less sleep each night over a week's time can leave you feeling fatigued and less able to cope effectively with minor inconveniences. With even less sleep, you may feel more depressed, overwhelmed, irritable and indecisive. Other effects of sleep deprivation include loss of pleasure, loss of motivation, problems with concentration, a significant drop in infection-fighting cells and an increase in blood-pressure-raising stress hormones"; and when I analyzed how I was reacting to certain situa-tions, I realized how true that was. To a certain degree, you can "train" your mind and body to operate on less sleep, but at some point, it will always catch up with you. It's just a matter of how long it takes for you!

Regarding workouts, you need to set aside a time schedule that works for you. Dancing as a workout is not enough as it is anaerobic (you stop and start over a long period of time), plus it only exercises certain muscle groups.

For myself, I find it easier to concentrate while working out in a gym, plus I have no excuse as it is across the street and I can go either at lunchtime or after work. Ideally, the gym I chose has some great classes for those days when I'm too lazy to motiv-ate myself for weights. If you're excuse is that it's too expensive, well if you take the average weekly cost of gym fees and divide it over 3-5 days of use, I think you'll find it will cost you less than $5 per visit and I'm sure you can find a way to cut back on some other expenses to put your health first.

In the gym I belong to, I'm lucky that they have a stretch and relax class which I highly recommend for men and women. If you want to have the flexibility for splits -- this is the class for you. But that's not the only benefit, these are the best exercises for flexibility and to ensure your muscles are not tight. It's also a great class for those of you who work many hours in front of a computer. There are many neck and chest stretches to loosen up that area and can be used at any time, not just in the gym. She also plays a variety of soothing music which helps ward off a stressful day. They also offer a Figure Formula class which is geared towards the abs and general toning of arms and legs -- perfect for dancers who don't want to add bulk from weights. These two classes are offered by "Martha" who was a former dancer with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.

Another bonus is the steam room which is great for the skin and another great way to elongate your muscles.

Regarding eating habits, it's one of the most difficult habits to change since you need to unlearn possibly bad habits you've had all your life. Over the last few years, I've tried to revamp my eating habits to the ideal principles of:

1. Drinking at least 8-10 cups of water a day.
2. Eat 6 small meals a day, every 2-3 hours.
3. Eating lean protein, such as grilled boneless, skinless chicken breast. If you're single, the George Forman grill is a great way to cook meat as you don't have to add any oil as it uses the natural fat from the meat.
4. Have more vegetables instead of carbohydrates. For lunch, I would cut up some veggies (such as cucumber, mushrooms, and a tomato, and have a can of tuna with it. It sounds plain, but it's a great energy booster and you won't have cravings after.
5. Cut back on fat, i.e. not eating the fat off of steak or chicken skin.
6. Having at least 2 cups of milk a day.
7. If you have to drink coffee or tea, cut down or eliminate sugar and cream.
8. Try to have some fruit and fibre every day.
9. If you have a busy, erratic lifestyle and don't always have time to eat properly, take a multi-vitamin every day to ensure you're getting enough vitamins.

Tip: Need an energy boost, then blend together orange juice, a banana and some frozen fresh fruit into a smoothie for a quick pick-me-up. It's also a great way to use up fruit that might be too ripe or buy some PC 5-Fruit Berry Blend which is cheaper than buying fresh strawberries or blueberries in the winter.


Finally, to actually achieve all these goals is not easy as you can always find an excuse not to. But the sooner you start to adapt these principles, the less chance you'll have to worry about gaining weight, heart attacks or osteoporosis. Also, you will be amazed at how much extra energy you will have and that your body will crave a workout if you haven't had one for a few days, or crave fresh vegetables if you had too many fattening meals.

February 10, 2001

In the blink of an eye!

It's hard to believe January just flew past with non-stop events to pick and choose from; and the coming months will not get any slower. And it's getting tougher to hit just one club on certain nights.

On Thursday, February 1, I dropped by Ivory's, then left early to check out the Big Bop. I had a last-minute call to check out a Video Release Party of a new cha cha song for Abolengo's "Nuyorican Fresh". Appar-ently, Nicole de Silva was hired to choreograph the dance scenes and some of the dancers from Soles Dance Studio were in the video, along with a few glimpses of Stephanie Gurnon. Unfortunately, by the time I got there, many dancers had already left, but I quickly had a chance to meet the lead singer, Al Wells, and musicians from the group, incl. Nick Ali.

Last Tuesday, February 6th, I hit Berlin to check out a new 9-piece salsa band, Marrón Matizado. They play "hard hitting modern salsa with elements of funk, hip-hop & jazz", which was put together by Nick Ali, a jazz trumpet player whose has played with 11 different latin bands, incl. Dominicanada. They are definitely a group to watch out for as they seemed to have the right mix of music to get the dancers moving. If you want to miss the crowds at Berlin, you should definitely get there for the early band set at 9:30 pm. Berlin didn't start to fill up until about 11 pm; and then I headed out to Tequila to help celebrate a salsera's surprise birthday wish.

Last Wednesday, I went to Babaluu's to continue my "education" of vintage vinyl salsa music and this club continues to get more popular each week or was it the chance to win tickets or a CD for Celia Cruz?! In the past, I used to also drop by Park Avenue when the weather was warmer.

Last Friday, I wanted to check out Courthouse to see if it was just as much fun as it was on Opening Night. I was tempted to check out El Rancho's on my way down, but decided not to "drive" myself crazy as it was raining. Court-house was definitely a good night and the atmosphere is still "fresh" as it is one of the few venues that has a double-storey ceiling with beautiful fireplaces and lots of cozy places to sit and watch the dancers. Los Salsamanos dance troupe, along with regulars from Soles and United Salseros were also in attendance. The music was all Latin. What will be interesting is if the dancers will be willing to pay $10 cover once their free passes runs out (even though a free lesson is included by United Salseros from 9:15 to 10 pm). As usual, the regulars closed the place at 3 am!

February 16, 2001

Where are you Dancing?
Where are YOU Dancing?
Where! where? WHERE...

Well, beside working late hours in the office, each night I dropped by the clubs on my way home.

On Tuesday, I dropped by Berlin's for a quick fix and it was more packed than last week. I got the feeling that "dance contest fever was in the air" as there were dancers who looked like they might be practicing to enter the upcoming Berlin competition which starts on Tuesday, February 20th! Until this week, no one has wanted to admit they are entering, but it's been fun hearing all the "regulars" in the clubs (amateur, semi-pro and pro), ask each other the dreaded question "Are you competing?" or "Who do you think is going to compete?" Well, I can't divulge everyone's little secrets, but don't miss out on any of the preliminaries as all the dancers come out of the closet starting next week. This year is going to be challenging for the competitors and an event you won't want to miss as the level of dancing in Toronto has climbed to new heights! This year, I'm happy to say I won't be competing and can just go back to being a spectator (unless one of my dance friends wants to enter the preliminaries as a one-time dance experience and needs a "partner"). It can be fun just entering for the sheer adrenalin rush of dancing in front of a crowd without a care in the world! A very different feeling from seriously competing to see if you can be "judged" as one of the top dancers in Toronto! Not to mention the hours you need to spend to find a great song, decide on what moves and combinations to use, choreograph a "winning" routine, decide if you want to train with a dance instructor to fine-tune your routine or style, and then practice, practice and more practice until you're sick of the song you picked! Not to mention the possibility that the pressure of competing might bring out the worst from your "seemingly calm and fun" dance partner. On the other hand, it also forces you to work really hard on your dancing technique, styling and footwork if you decide you want to make it to the top! Not to mention that you may find some great, new dance partners in the clubs along the way thanks to the exposure of dancing in a competition. A great article to read about competing was written by Edie the "Salsa Freak" called: Competitors Edge - Tips for Developing Your "Winning Edge". I guess you now know where I'll be on Tuesdays! Click here for last year's highlights. P.S. Don't be surprised if you catch "dance contest fever" just from watching!

On Wednesday, I went to Babaluu's at about 10:30 pm to get a quick fix, and was stuck in a line-up to get in since their coat check line is always slow! It was jam-packed inside full of dancers and couples who decided to have a romantic dinner there. Many of the usual regulars were missing, possibly cele-brating Valentine's Day?

Then last night, I checked out It Bar's Grand Opening after another late night at work. It was fairly quiet when I got there as I don't think they spent very much time in promoting it and it also didn't help that most people only found out in the last week via email or word-of-mouth. Thankfully, I mentioned to Caryl Cuizon to come check it out as it was her "duty" as a writer, to pay a visit, so she also showed up with a couple of her usual dance buddies, Trish (US volunteer) and Angus (Los Salsamano), so we were able to get in our salsa fix for the night. It also doesn't help that it's in the west end, known by salsa veterans to have a small dance floor, and is competing against Ivory, Fregata, Babaluu's and possibly El Rancho's. It will take time to pick up, but with it's smooth dance floor it might be a great place to get out and practice away from the usual salsa crowd. I then quickly drove down to Ivory's to see if the usual crowd would be there dancing and I was able to get in a good hour of dancing with the regulars before everyone left (some went home and some die-hards went over to Babaluus'. It was the slowest night since the opening, but that could be because of dancers choosing to go to Babaluu's and/or possibly dancers who were fine-tuning their moves for the upcoming competition.

What Coming Up!

If you thought the first six weeks of 2001 was busy, you haven't seen anything yet! Thanks to you, even our website has almost doubled it's readership in January alone (compared to last year), and has shown no signs of slowing down! So if you don't see me in the clubs as much, you now know why?! (sigh...)

Congratulations to Susan, Stephanie and Ferdi -- winners of our draw to win Celia Cruz tickets or a CD! You can look forward to new and exciting events/promotions in the near future. Behind the scenes, we've been working on other ideas which will make your "feet" dance and our heads spin!

Then as February comes to a close, March just might be the lull before the storm of events coming in April... and that's when TOsalsa will be one year old! and we're hoping to have a party which will should kick off the Spring/Summer salsa season of partying! If this past year is anything to go by, it can only get bigger and better!

Over the past few months we added/expanded into the following sections:

Club Listing by Name
Club Listing by Type
Clubs by the Day
Clubs by Location
Club Reviews

Dear TOsalsa Section!

Events List by Date:
- Complete Events List
- Toronto Only List
- World Events List
Events Calendar List by:
- Full Events Calendar
- Toronto Calendar Only
- Calender of World Events

Guest Instructor/Writers

Latin Music Section!
Top 10 Music List!
Top 100 Salsa Song List!

The Silly Side of Salsa!

So if you get a chance, please email me and let me know how you feel about getting more info on the following topics...

Articles on Dancing
Articles from Instructors
Chat Area (via Email)
Club Reviews
Interviews on Bands
Interviews on Dancers
Music: CD Reviews
Music: Top 10 Lists
Partner Search (coming soon)
Photo Gallery
Reader Polls
More Info on New York?
More Background Info on Instructors in Toronto?
More social events to get to know other dancers...
More links to satisfy your thirst for salsa around the world? Other Ideas?

(TIP: Highlight this list and copy it to the email and edit )

February 20, 2001

Where are you going?
Where are YOU going?
Well dancing of course!

Yikes! It was another jam-packed weekend of dancing. Apparently last Friday, while I was getting some much needed beauty sleep, the dancers once again had a great time dancing at the Courthouse! I heard it was almost as busy as opening night! Possibly a great new alternative to El Rancho's, which still has the best dance floor for Friday nights, and in my opinion, the best overall as it's never been too slippery to dance on.

On Saturday, I decided last-minute to get tickets to see Celia Cruz and Jose Alberto "El Canario". Luckily I purchased them on Friday as it turned into a sold-out concert. Massey Hall holds about 2700 people, many of which were either fellow dancers or latinos who were out to enjoy great music. Jose Alberto "El Canario" is nick-named the Canary because of his exquisite voice and his ability to use his whistling skills as a solo instrument, which was fabulous to watch live. He was born in the Dominion Republic, but spent his childhood in Puerto Rico where he studied music, and later moved to New York. His recording history spans 20 years and 15 solo albums. He opened with "A la Hora Que Me Llamen Voy". He also sang "Me Dejo Picao" and "Bailamos Otra Vez", but unfortunately he didn't sing one of my all-time faves, "Disculpeme Senora". They had a 10 piece salsa band and it was great to watch them from above and see the versatility of the various band members as they changed the type of instruments they played to suit the music. They had 4 on horns and 3 on drums.

We then had a 45 minute break and as I made my way into the lounge, I ran into many of the dancers wandering around, such as Stephanie, Giovanni, Paula and Jose, Bong and Jason (who had won tickets) and somewhere in the theatre was Mark and Nicole from Soles; plus many other salseros I didn't get a chance to bump into, including the winners from our draw (who told me afterwards that they had a great time.) Then it was time for the Queen of Salsa, Celia Cruz. She got a standing ovation as she came on stage; and it was obvious how well-loved she was by her fans. The crowd gave back as much as she gave out and even sang out back in chorus on one of the songs. She played her classic hits, "La Vida Es Un Carnaval" and "Que Le Den Candela". She also played a remake of "Oye Como Va" made famous by the late Tito Puente and Santana, and "Guantanamera". She came originally from Cuba, with over 70 albums to her name, a Grammy Award winner w/ten nominations; and a chance to possibly win Best Salsa Album again this year on the Grammys.

Then after the show, I got the chance to meet them backstage! DJ Alvaro was already there with some of her classic vinyl covers waiting to get them auto-graphed -- what a priceless moment watching her as she perused through the albums which probably brought back so many memories for her; and you could tell that for Alvaro, it was a dream come true to have them signed by her personally. Finally I had a chance to get her auto-graph and a photo; and I didn't realize until then that she only spoke Spanish. She had a translator there, but if anything would motivate me to find time to learn, was that moment of not being able to express what I would have liked to say to her. One word that stuck in my mind that she did say to the translator was "Chino". I guess she was quite intrigued to find that one of her fans was chinese. I also had a chance to meet and take a quick picture with "El Canario" who seemed to know English and looked exactly like his photo -- I would have recognized him anywhere. Afterwards, all the dancers were planning to go to El Rancho's and I decided to miss a great night of dancing yet again -- nothing gets dancers more pumped than a concert or a contest. Some other salseros went to Babaluu's and had a bad night as they played very little salsa.

On Sunday, I headed over to Momento's in Yorkville to check out DJ Billy Bryans new digs! It was 9:30 when I got there and way too early, but he was playing some fabulous music. Also, Heimy?, the cashier from Wed. nights at Babaluu's happens to be a painter; so he was painting inside the club using slides as a color-by-number backdrop and as inspiration. If you're looking for a night to listen to more grass roots world latin music, this is definitely the place to be. Then I went by Left Bank which seems to have lost some of its following since they had basically closed down for the holidays. At the same time, many dancers still like to go to Babaluu's, so it's become one of those nights where you wish you could be in two places at once. I was surprised to see Dave Paris from New York, who is apparently staying in Toronto until Friday, and he was dancing up a storm!

On Monday, I dropped by Smokey Joe's for a short time and had a chance to have a few dances with Dave Paris who had me spinning up to 4-5 revolu-tions at the speed of light, which feels amazing when you're dancing on 2. It's the first inkling to me of why a dancer may start to prefer dancing on 2, than on 1; and I wasn't even dizzy which was also a mind-boggling thought. We also had a chance to chat, and asked him why he came to Toronto -- in summary, he was looking to go to a warm latin country and somehow ended up here! Apparently we're a cool bunch to hang out with and a great place to "chill" away from New York!

On Tuesday, I got to Berlin's by 9:30 and it was already filled with dancers. The energy at Berlin's was the best I've felt in a long time -- everyone was in high gear for dancing. I've forgotten how energized dancers get from the "competition" adrenalin rush that fills the air. You could almost see who might be entering that night prior to the contest. Apparently, Jennifer had about 10 couples lined up, but finally only 3 in amateurs and 3 in the pro division competed. As the amateurs competed, I felt their intense nervous-ness as most of them were dancing in front of a crowd for the very first time. They all made mistakes, some more obvious than others; but they all gave it their best shot. Some used shines to their advantage and others used dips. The best advice I can give them for the semi-finals is practice, practice and more practice until you've mastered all your steps and technique, master your routine, and definitely don't forget to smile and dance as if you don't have a care in the world. I didn't get the chance to get the couple's names who made it, but will post their names in the next few weeks. In the pro division, there was Ivy and Dora, Oren and Stephanie, and Frank Bishun with his partner. Ivy and Dora of On Beat Dance Co. was mostly a shines routine inspired by all their training in NY last summer. Oren and Stephanie had a mix of LA and NY turn patterns with some shines; and Frank danced the traditional Toronto-style. For the semi-finals, Ivy & Dora, and Oren & Stephanie made it. Click here for last year's highlights. A great article to read about competing by Edie the "Salsa Freak": Competitors Edge - Tips for Developing Your "Winning Edge". P.S. Don't be surprised if you catch "dance contest fever" just from watching!

Rose Knows...

March 1, 2001

What are you doing?
What are YOU doing?
Everything to do with salsa of course!

Last Wednesday, I hit Babaluu's yet again to get my "latin roots" fix from DJ Alvaro. One of the songs he occasionally likes to play at the end of the night and has become one of my new faves is "Descarga" by Charanson. It's a 13 minute "latin roots" salsa that inspires you to dance from the heart and sets your feet on fire!

Last Thursday, I went to Ivory's, then Babaluu's with many of the usual Thursday regulars and Dave Paris from Razz-M-Tazz, NY. It was the last night before he was leaving and I had some fun 'on 2' dances with him. What sets him apart from many dancers lately is that he looks and smiles flirtatiously at you the whole time, as if you're the only dancer in the world for him -- even when you make a mistake. I find many dancers in general who are seriously addicted to new salsa moves, technique and/or style have forgotten what makes partner dancing interesting and fun on a social level. They aren't paying any attention to their partner to share the passion of the dance and/or music, but are instead thinking about the next move, frown if you make a mistake, looking around to see who's watching and/or checking out the other dancers who are walking in. Ivory's was comfortably crowded for dancing, whereas Babaluu's was packed and has retained its usual Thursday night clientele mix of dancers and non-dancers.

Last Friday, Bong 'dragged' me to the ballroom show at Hollywood Princess, where Professional World Ballroom Champions South American Showdance 1998, 1999 & 2000, plus Professional World Segue Champions, Ralf and Olga Muller from Germany were performing. Bong had a small group of diehard salseros watching a ballroom show for the first time and were mesmerized by the attitude, beauty, grace and technique of this couple. They danced all the 5 Latin dances -- cha cha, rumba, tango, paso doble and a jive, plus 2 show dances consisting of their interpretation of Argentine Tango cleverly intermixed with ballroom steps and the final basic rumba dance which then unfolded into a passionate "conversation" between a husband and wife team who have been competing together for at least 10 years. For each dance, she had a different dress to change into -- each one more stunning and perfectly suited to her coloring and style. I found out later that a Toronto Argentine Tango dancer has committed herself to buying some of Olga's dresses after their dance tour season is completed. Ballroom dancers must constantly change their wardrobe and hair styles each season to create a fresh new look for the audience. To recoup some of their wardrobe costs, they usually sell off last season's dresses to help recoup some of the dress cost. Ballroom dresses can cost as little as $1000+. Afterwards, Bong was kind enough to take a picture of us, and I invited them out to the salsa clubs since they were in town until Wednesday. They promised to try and make it out one night, possibly Sunday. After the show, I decided since I was already at Hwy. 7, I would go and quickly check out Palazzo's and/or Latin Fever. At midnight, there's no more free park-ing and you had to pay $5 to park your car. Since I only wanted a peek inside, I decided to head over to Latin Fever. That night they had La Banda Bella and Dominicanada for $12 cover. The cashier had the nerve to ask for $14 cover and since I really was only there to check it out, I decided that it was time for me to go home. Also that night, I met the infamous, Abby Mina, who was previously Josie Neglia's partner (native Toronton-ian) before moving to LA. We had a nice chat that night about dancing in general and it was interest-ing to note that he wasn't happy about the evolution of salsa dancing in Toronto. Unfortunately, we didn't have much time to discuss it further but stay tuned...

On Saturday, I hit Bamboo Club to see Vibrason. The dancers came fairly late in the evening, but enough to satisfy our salsa fix. I had fun putting together a quiz for dancers to answer and win a free "Africando" CD.

On Sunday, I hit Left Bank as we were hoping that Ralf and Olga would show up. Unfortunately, they were very tired as they had taught for over 12 hours that day. Left Bank was comfortably crowded with regulars and some of the Berlin contestants who were practicing.

On Tuesday, I went early to Berlin's since Ralf and Olga wanted to check out our salsa scene and the dance contest. It was their last night in Toronto and they had a fabulous time hanging out at Berlin's. I asked DJ Efren to play a couple of cha cha's and to welcome them to Berlin's after the first band set. Then I quickly ran over to them and begged them to dance for us as they really weren't in the mood to dance that night after a whole weekend of work-shops and privates. Finally, Ralf was able to convince his wife to dance and they basically took over a whole section of the floor. It was a treat for the regulars who have never experienced a professional level ballroom cha cha. Apparently, Olga has been dancing for 20 years and it definitely showed from her super-sexy hip swivels. After that initial dance, they also danced the merengue set as that is also popular in the ballroom scene. Mostly, they spent the night watching all the regulars dance and Olga told me specifically that she liked Marc-Anthony's style. Later, she specifically asked him to dance salsa with her (and it happened to be her first dance ever). Then Bong also had a dance with her before the Berlin competition started. This week there were 8 couples competing in amateur, 4 couples in semi-pro and 3 couples in pro. Very few couples had a clean routine. Probably the most entertaining was Frank Bishun in the pro category who decided to enter again for the second week and came back with a vengeance by putting in all the tricks and moves he's famous for, such as a dip where he falls back into Oscar's arms and when he slides his knees across the floor past his partner.

Rose Knows...

March 7, 2001

Another whirlwind weekend of dancing? some, but how about an awesome night of music!

On Friday, after a tiring week of work, I went to Courthouse early to chill and check out the action! Ivy Cuervo of On Beat Dance Company was teaching beginners to dance on "2". I mingled and talked to some dancers who aren't interested in learning on "2" as they feel it's too confusing and/or probably feel that this style won't become popular in Toronto. Well, unless you're really hard-core and have the goal of wanting to dance with anyone in the world -- probably not, at least for now. Since I discovered salsa about 4 years ago, it took at least 2 years before LA style salsa became popular, then another year for NY turn patterns on "1" or "2"; so probably when our scene matures in another 2 years and as more NY dancers visit Toronto, everyone will be eager to dance on "2". I left early enough to head out to Brampton of all places where Eric Angel, a Streetsville/Mississauga dance instructor who has been teaching for about 8 years, was having a salsa party of his own. I was totally amazed at how many dancers were out in the boonies at 1 am, and apparently it was only half the original crowd. I was also surprised to see some of the regulars who prefer the north end of the town to dance.

On Saturday, I was catapulted into the latin and world music scene. In the early afternoon, I had been invited to the private party at the Bamboo Club for all the Juno Best Global Album nominees. It was great to see the Puentes Brothers again (as if we were old friends) and then the usual schmoozing with media. They were playing the Puentes Brothers album in the background and Alexis asked me for a dance. It was obvious he didn't have any dance training, but definitely danced from the heart to his own music. I also got to meet/see the other global music nominees, such as Jessie Cook.

At about 6 pm, I headed out to du Maurier Theatre at the Harbourfront where Diego Marulanda was having his CD Release Concert, "El Otro Lado" which means "the other side". Apparently, he play-ed previously in another band called "Picande" with Colombian cumbia; but this music was an "intimate glimpse into the sould and emotion of Diego's native land" which is Colombian folklore. I hung around backstage and got to meet many of the band members and Diego. At that time, they were just faces to me as I didn't know who they were. I was with DJ Billy Bryans who was the publicist for Diego and we were waiting for the Puentes Brothers who were also going to listen to the concert. I got to sit beside them and Alexis mentioned to me that they really enjoy listening to other artists to get inspiration. Little did I know that I would be in for a wonderful treat that still has me mesmerized even today. To anyone who wants to watch a latin "genius" in action, you must see Diego live. You can't enjoy the CD to its fullest potential without seeing his live show. It was done so cleverly and is made to tickle the "other side" of your brain. Believe it or not, I enjoyed this concert 500 times more than the Celia Cruz concert and any concert I've seen in my lifetime. What set this concert apart, was a number of things -- the intimate setting, the way Diego (who composes the music and lyrics) interprets the music, how he changed the mood of the music from the traditional Colombian folklore, to his interpreta-tion of latin jazz tune to a lovely latin ballad and then to jamming sessions with various artists on different latin instruments, such as the tiple, fluete and clave. With every song they played, he utilized different instruments and used them to their full potential. The audience fell in love with his songs as each one told a different story and reacted to his every mood. One of the most priceless moments was when a cell phone went off during a pause in the music, and Diego quickly said "Hello" which had the audience cracking up, and then at the end of the song, he asked if he had any messages. In the intermis-sion and at the end of the concert, his CD's were flying off the table -- that just reinforced how much an impact this artist had on the audience. You can definitely look forward to a future interview with Diego. There were moments in the show where I was dying to find out what inspired him to write/engineer new interpretations of the music or the instruments. He finished the evening with some great cumbias which had many people dancing in the aisles. When I later talked to the promoters of Harbourfront, they also mentioned that Diego is considered one of the top latin talents in the country and they hope to hook up all the artists in Canada for a brainstorming session.

Afterwards, we then went to Cafe Havana to watch the Puentes Brothers live. This was the first time I ever stepped into the club, and it is so narrow and long that I can see why dancers don't really like to dance there. Plus the crowd is mostly a dance club crowd, not serious salseros. They did have great salsa music though and I even got a "cameo" dance with Adonis during their set. When I left at about 3 pm, the club was still open. What was a real eye-opener for me after hearing many of our bands in this City, is that we can be proud of the great talent we have right here in Canada.

On Tuesday, I hit Berlin yet again for their dance contest. It was a strange evening as very few people were out compared to the previous two preliminary contests. In Amateur, there was one couple competing and in pro, there were three, including Oscar, Paula and Jose. It was a fun night of dancing as all the instructors and/or performers were dancing up a storm at Berlin's. Possibly everyone taking a break until the semi-finals?

Rose Knows...

March 15, 2001

yIKES! iT'S ALMOST sPRING?! And in 2 weeks, we'll all be getting an extra hour of sleep or dancing!

I can't wait for this nasty cold weather to go away and the nasty flu I had over the last few days! It was so bad, I actually didn't care that I was missing another great night at Berlin, and I actually didn't want to even think about anything to do with salsa, cause I started to get nightmares about what I still needed to do!

Well, I'm almost back to my cheerful self and have lots to write about! Such as one of the things which should be a "warning" or indicator to slow down when you're trying to race at the speed of light, is how exhausted you are and/or how overwhelming you feel over little things which turn into big problems. If you get enough rest, you usually shrug these off! I forgot to listen to my body and hence, the flu! Your body's signal to STOP and get some rest. Feeling a little addicted to salsa too? Check out Edie's Salsaholic Addict's Graph!

On Wed. March 7th, if you missed the televised show of the 20th Anniversary of Ohio Star Ball Champion-ship Ballroom Dancing, you have one more chance at 11:30 pm for two hours on Thursday, March 15th. I watched the whole show and was disappointed to find certain segments cut out, such as the Brian Torner and Brigitt Mayer "Metamorphosis" dance, which I happened to see live at a ballroom show a few year ago. Some of the most amazing dances were by Jean Marc & France from Montreal who did a fabulous interpretation of the Rumba before they broke into their signature "speed and precision" of a jive; the signature tricks and moves by Tony & Melanie as they did mambo, swing and cha cha (you can see this couple at the Detroit Bacardi Salsa Congress coming up at the end of May or at the Puerto Rico Bacardi Salsa Congress in July). Check out their great photos and a great clip of their dance performance on justsalsa at last year's convention in Puerto Rico. Also, there's one cabaret couple at the end of the show, who is so flexible, it just "hurt" watching her unbelieavable splits. About two latin couples used "Ran Kan Kan" in their show and there's lots of neat tricks which could be incorporated into salsa. Even some of the costume changes were amazing -- how one dress could magically "switch" into another design and colour in the same dance!

On Thur. March 8th, I checked out the IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) Canada hosts a HOT HOT CUBA! Benefit for IBBY Cuba with Vibrason and DJ Billy Bryans at the Silver Dollar on Spadina. It was well organized featuring an exhibit of Vigia, Cuban publishers of handmade books (which were works of art on their own) and an open auction with various donations. United Salseros had taught a lesson there and Rene had a dance with the actress, Cynthia Dale. It was also a good night to just "chill" with the band members of Vibrason; and get their insight about the music scene in general. Later in the evening, a couple came in who knew the blind percussionist, Luisito. I overheard them talking about the Diego concert and how many of the ladies were almost in tears over his music. I also joined in their conversation and we talked in great detail about the concert, including Luisito's jamming session with Diego. I've also heard that Diego will be repeating this awesome concert within the next 6 months and you can be sure I'll be going back to watch it again! so stay tuned...

The rest of the weekend was supposed to be spent focusing on catch-up work as I had been busy almost everynight since January!

On Saturday March 10th after a long day behind the computer, I dropped by Cafe Havana to see Klave Y Kongo. They were in fabulous form that night and played more upbeat songs than their usual cuban son repertoire. I even recognized one of the band members from Diego's concert. His name was Christian from Chile. We talked for a bit and he mentioned to me that there was only three bands in the City he liked to play for. He is very Canadianized as he has been in TO for about 25 years. He told me how different the bands are today compared to 10 years ago when the musicians were usually together in one group and formed a stronger music entity, instead of working for different groups as they do now. If you watch closely, you'll notice that certain musicians move from band to band; and they can be more interest-ing to talk to about the history and/or evolution of the music scene. And just like we recently had a debate over Cuban salsa versus Toronto-style salsa; and that it originally came from Cuba; well you can imagine where "salsa" really came from and who am I to argue with a Cuban. I even had a chance to see one of the recording studios where a lot of the musicians do their own recording for CD's and music samplers. That was a treat as many of the instruments were there in full display. I learned how to hold and hit the klave block properly, but wasn't comfortable trying to keep the beat thru a whole song. I kept the beat for about a minute, but when I tried again on my own, it was difficult to try and forget about all the other instruments in the music.

As I spend more time talking to musicians, it's amazing how musically inclined they are, how they can take a song and inter-pret how to incorporate various instruments, and how many instruments they know how to play -- probably because they start very young in school and it's totally ingrained into their lifestyle. But for us, arts become a "small part" of our education versus math and science.

And after dancing with cubans recently, I also realize that the "hip action" is a very important part of dancing traditional cuban salsa; and they can't even remember when they started dancing. Whereas most of us probably only discovered salsa in the last few years and probably rarely use our hip action. I still remember the first time I tried to dance to a fast merengue; and how I had problems keeping up the pace throughout a whole song with a latino and felt as if I had "broken" hips!

And finally, my new collaboration with Rene Delgado of United Salseros, called "Fiesta Productions". We hope to promote anything and everything to do with the Toronto latin community, including organizing some of our own events, such as the "Fiesta Fever" Social on Sunday, March 25th which will showcase various dancers and instructors in the City of Toronto. Hope to see you there!

March 19, 2001

Wow! Where do I start?

Well, it's been insanely crazy this past week as I started with a viral flu and ended up with a mild case of laryngitis; so if you see me and I don't want to talk, you now know why!

And it was so crazy trying to recover and at the same time planning the Social that I didn't go dancing until Fri, March 16, when I went to see Pucho and his Latin Soul Brothers at the Comfort Zone. It was great to see them live with a 9 piece band including bass guitar, sax, drums, congas, bongos, electric piano, and trumpet with Pucho on the timbales. The first song they played was a salsa with a beat similar to some of Wayne Gorbea's music, the cha cha, "I Like It Like That", then some great latin jazz tunes and a few more salsas. They were your typical sassy, friendly New Yorkers. I got to meet them briefly backstage in my raspy voice and they reminded me of my grandfather as they gave advice on how to cure a sore throat. The crowd was an eclectic mix of some salsa dancers and those who came specifically to listen to the latin jazz. He made such an impression at the end of his first set that he even sold out his CD's.

On Sat. March 17, myself, Oscar Naranjo, Steve Russell (US), Paul and Josephine (Berlin amateur dance competitors) drove with Bong & Trionne who were competing in the finals of the Detroit Star Ball Salsa Contest. Apparently, Jennifer and Giovanni had left earlier to teach workshops and warned us that there were snow flurries from London to Windsor. The roads were quite slippery and we were lucky that there was only one accident during our drive there. During our service station stopover, I became the dance guinea pig as the guys played around with some combina-tions; and I even did the splits. One big lady was quite upset when we blocked her way and said to Bong, "You know this isn't a ballroom", and he replied, "Yes, but it is great exercise."

In Detroit, Bong took us to one of his friend's homes who apparently knew the Marcos family in the Philip-pines. We had a late lunch with her and showed her how we danced salsa including some casino. Then we quickly drove to the contest organizer's home, Elaine Marrero of Troy Dance Studio, who was last year's Berlin Contest Pro Champion and host for the Detroit Bacardi Salsa Congreso on May 25-27. We rested for a bit and got ready to get on the Troy Dance Studio bus to head over to the nightclub which was situated in a mall. I grabbed Oscar and we did a little dance demo in front of the sign display-ing the contest for Bong's video. When we got inside, we met up with Caryl and Angus, Ivy and Javier of oursalsathing.com, and a few more die-hards who had a very slow drive down; then later Pawel, Dora, Stephanie, Rene and Michelle showed up at midnight just in time to watch the competition. The club was fairly busy, but there was quite a mixture of dancing. The music kept rotating one song each of salsa, merengue, hustle and swing, which was quite frustrating for us since we really only wanted to dance salsa. It was surprising to see how few really good salsa dancers were there and it made me realize that most of the cities close to Toronto still have a long way to go before they catch up to Toronto's standards. But for swing and hustle, there were a few good couples and it seemed to be as popular a dance as salsa in this club. While we were waiting for the contest to start, I ran into some 'old' Detroit friends that I had made in Toronto at the Salsaweb Convention. It was great to see them again and catch up on what was happening. In fact, over the next few months, quite a few of them will drive to Toronto on the weekends to dance. Finally, the contest started at midnight and there were 12 couples competing. They each had a 2 minute routine and then had to do a round with all the couples on the floor (similar to ballroom) so the judges could have a last look for the final scores. There were only a handful of couples which really had presence; and they seem to enjoy adding great lifts and splits to their routines. Most couples didn't have solid basic salsa technique, very few turn patterns, but great tricks. I know Bong was quite concerned at how the judges would mark as the style from Toronto was so different from Detroit. When competing, every dancer struggles with what will win over or make you memorable in the judge's eyes. When it finally came time for Bong and Trionne to perform, we were all rooting for them to show Detroit what we were all about -- and they delivered an amazing performance with no mistakes. Unfortunately, I can't go into detail as they may be using parts of that performance for the Berlin competition. After watching all the couples, I figured they would make it in the Top 3 (reserving judgement in case they didn't want a 'foreigner' to win. As they called out the winners, from 6th place to 1st -- it was pretty tense; as one of the couples that I thought might make the Top 6 wasn't called out along with Bong & Trionne. We were totally ecstatic for them when their names were called out since they won, and also because they get a free trip to the Puerto Rico Bacardi Salsa Congress and may have to perform there also. So you can be sure that alot more Torontonians will be plan-ning to go this year! A few of us wished we had also competed as the remaining 5 prizes were Bacardi Salsa Congress trips to Paris, Detroit, Miami, and NY(?) After the club closed down at 2 am, we headed over to the Troy Dance Studio for an after-party which finished at 5 am! Then about 16 of us headed back to Elaine's home for a "sleepover". As in all salsa trips, we only got about 4 hours of sleep before we had to get up again to go and have a farewell breakfast at the studio before we headed back. What is amazing about Detroit is how friendly all the salsa dancers are and we even have open invitations to come back and stay over anytime. We especially have to thank Elaine Marrero of Troy Dance Studio for being such a fun and gracious hostess (even though she also had laryngitis), along with her hubby, Jessie, and her kids who had to put up with all of us!

What's Coming Up?

Well, besides becoming a ticket lady at all the clubs this week for the "Fiesta Fever" Social on Sunday, March 25th, trying to squeeze in all the TOsalsa web updates and cross promotions that will be coming soon -- I'm excited as the Social will be the first event in Toronto to showcase over 80% of our salsa dance instructors. Here's your chance to meet, mingle and dance with about 50 salsa dance instructors and performers to the tunes of DJ Billy Bryans and Alvaro C. There will also be dance lessons, prize giveaways and at least five dance shows.