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Hosted
by Fiesta Productions |
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Then
at about 8 pm, Teddy and Stephanie of United Salseros were teaching
a salsa turn pattern for the next half hour. During this time, I was
at the door and dancers were coming in non-stop until about 8:45 pm
when the social dancing started. At this time, I had a chance to breathe
and quickly stole a dance with Ziv, my partner from TOsalsa.com, Teddy
of United Salseros and then to show my mom something totally different,
I grabbed Caryl Cuizon to lead me in a dance. It was the first time
my parents have had a chance to really see what the salsa scene is all
about; and thank goodness I had them there cause I don't know how I
could have gone through the night without their help!
As
I watched them practice to another song while we were waiting for his
song to down-load to my computer; Caryl was giving him a gentle "if
looks could kill" and Angus as the music coordinator kept apologizing
and saying how "another song" would be amazing for the show!
At that time, I didn't realize how important the song was to their performance
as it was kept a secret from all of us. Well, I have to say, I was totally
surprised and blown away by the calibre of their routine! It had the
look and feel of a performance at a dance convention -- with only a
week-and-a-half to put it all together!
Due to time constraints and their practices for the Berlin Competition, their routine was more a Demonstration. It started with Oren leading Stephanie, then Pawel leading Oren. And then we had one final surprise performance by Oscar Naranjo and Anna (who danced tango with Alberto Gomez earlier). Oscar has been dancing for about 10 years in Toronto, won numerous dance contests over the years, was one of the original principal dancers with Strickly Salsa, and is considered by many, including myself, to be one of the best dancers for showmanship. Any girl who's into doing tricks, loves dancing with him as he will not do the trick unless you're totally safe and he will not attempt a trick unless he feels you can handle it because you don't always know when it's coming. He's also one of the few dancers who can execute these moves on a crowded floor too!
Dancing
thru Life -- Peter Djakovic What Others had to Say About the Event March
25, 2001 A
lot of our clients attended your social and reported good things, congratulations.
I know it's a lot of hard work and your success is well deserved. Thank
you for your invitation, I guarantee that I won't miss the next social/event
that you are hosting. If
you would like to add your own comments and feedback |
Since
I was busy making sure everything was running smoothly, it was difficult
for me to tell if it was a success. As an organizer, you don't really
have time to enjoy it especially since it was jam-packed full of lessons
and shows; but many dancers have told us what a great time they had.
What even made it more amazing was being able to pull it off in 1-1/2
weeks. We had already booked the studio, but with the all the events
happening in and around Toronto, we didn't have a chance to start planning!
We knew what we needed to do but hadn't had a moment to breathe! In
a way, it was an advantage to start so late as the instructors already
knew upfront whether they were available or not. Regarding the shows,
it was quite the juggling act as we decided to showcase couples who
not only perform salsa, but include other forms of dance which could
influence salsa.
At
7:15 pm, we started off with a cha cha class with Sasha Tahiliani (right)
which was a success as we had over 100 dancers show up early to take
his class!
In
the first set of performances, we featured various dances which may
influence salsa. The first couple to perform was Andy Kamienski and
Sharon from St. Catharines who were showing us Salon Style Argentine
Tango, which is a social dance in Argentina versus the flashy Argentine
Show Tango which was performed by Alberto Gomez and Anna (left).
We then had a fun demo from Gordon Beckles and his partner Marina
on Latin Hustle. He totally surprised us by telling us he was 42! and
most of us would have thought he was in his late twenties or early thirties
-- he looked that good! And then we closed the first set with Bong
Gonzales and Trionne Moore who performed a Salsa. They just won
the the 2001 Detroit Star Ball Salsa Championship; and unfortunately
could not show their winning routine since parts of it was going to
be re-used in the Berlin competition. You can 
We
then had about half an hour of dancing before the next set of performances.
Originally, Inessa was supposed to perform a cha cha with her partner,
but unfortunately, he couldn't make it so we quickly asked Jason
Ng and his partner, Sylvia, to fill in. Considering they were asked
last-minute, they did a fabulous performance! In case you didn't know,
Jason Ng is a pre-championship amateur ballroom dancer (that's the level
after bronze, silver and gold); and since he got involved in salsa about
1-1/2 years ago, he's been a United Salsero volunteer and a member of
the Los Salsamanos Dance Company. He also won third place Amateurs in
the 2000 Berlin dance competition last year.
