"1st Annual East Coast Salsa Congress"
or
Rose Knows Goes to ... Catskills!
August 17-19, 2001

Article and Pics by Rose Knows (August, 2001)

August 21, 2001

How do you know when you're a salsa freak?!

When you go to a salsa convention, come back and go to a club BEFORE you go home with your luggage! OR when you know who's a "regular" at a salsa convention and they know you! OR when an out-of-town instructor has only met you a few times over the past year, but feels like he's known your for two! OR you've hung out with out-of-town dancers more than your parents in Toronto in the last few months!

Well, I still haven't recovered or unpacked from my long weekend at the East Coast Salsa Congress, but it doesn't help when I decided to drop by Left Bank on Sunday to stretch out my butt from a 7-hour drive back from the Catskills in rainy weather, and then dropped by Smokey Joe's on Monday on my way home from dinner with non-salsa friends. Then tonight, hmm... workout? unpack? work on the website? and/ or hit Berlin or Tequila's?... "the horror!" (as Ziv would say). And then start planning where I'll go for the balance of the week... ahh! I guess I kinda missed the days of going out every night without a worry in the world about emails, web design, planning and coordinating events, and/or new ideas that totally inspire me to create more havoc in my 24/7 lifestyle. Gee, I used to never even think about whether I would want to dance on "1" or "2" -- which just shows me how much salsa has grown and evolved in Toronto and around the world in the past year.

So how was the East Coast Salsa Congress? Well, it was definitely another eventful, inspiring, tiring and relaxing weekend. Because it was set in the Catskills, you subcon-sciously knew that you had the "option" to go and relax in its countryside settings; but because it had a major New York on 2 dance influence, I was drawn to take advantage of every opportunity to absorb dancing "on 2". What was great about this event, is that you had alot of great "on 2" leaders and followers to dance with or watch; everyone was willing to dance with anyone who asked and most performers/ instructors were quite friendly and supportive, even if you messed up.

What were some of the memorable moments for me?

1. After being to so many of these events and visiting New York for a week, it was great to hang out with the many dancers, performers and instructors I've gotten to know over the past year. It's like an extended salsa family of friends or regulars you see everywhere but on a North American scale. Also, instead of being totally fascinated and blown away by the New York dancers for the first time, I got to just chill and appreciate their dancing or go and have fun dancing with anyone who caught my fancy.

2. Although the shows were long, there were some awesome performances and I was one of the lucky ones to be able to sit upfront and center-stage to see the dancers up close. One of the organizers, David Melendez, was a true host and let me sit upfront so I could take pictures and I am presently developing 9 rolls of film! Some of the performances which totally blew me away that I can still remember only from Saturday were: Young Ambition (once again) -- although I had already seen their latest Afro-Cuban no. in Puerto Rico; this time they only had five dancers and they were totally psyched and danced the best I've seen yet, especially Joel(?) who's only 14. At one point in their no., he reminded vividly of how Frankie Martinez moves in his Libertad routine; and many other dancers I talked to have also agreed. The LA Salsa Kids -- they danced twice on Saturday night, but the most memorable no. for me was the Arabian Nights theme in full costume and props -- they had about 20-30 dancers in the routine and they did a fabulous job of dancing and acting, thanks to the choreography of Olivia Dasso (who was Johnny Vasquez' ex-partner and just had a baby recently). The Heartbreak Boys (from David Melendez Starlite Dance Studio) -- not only have they matured as performers, but they totally blew me away by being in about 5 different dance nos. in one night! Some even learned a routine on Friday to help out a Japanese dance troupe! Caribbean Soul Dancers had a great new no.which had some complicated new variations and some humour in their dancing. Mambo Mamas and a Papa also had a great new routine which included some hip-hop. Descarga Latina (with Nelson Flores) closed the Saturday night show with the Latin Madness no., "Cuban Fantasy". Oh my goodness, how could I forget Jai and Candy's kids performance which was another fabulous crowd-pleaser using the "Grease" theme with great energy, dancing and humour. There were also great perform-ances on Friday too, but after seeing 6 hours of performances in two days, I can now only recall Saturday's groups.

3. The great music I heard all weekend in the shows and during the social dancing.

Todate, Puerto Rico and New York were my favourite congresos due to the following reasons:

1. There were far less not-so-great dance shows and I really enjoyed watching the junior teams. It was so inspiring to see children as young as 8 years old who love salsa as much as the adults, many with great talent than the average adult dancer, and who weren't shy to give it their all in front of a large crowd. It's funny how it's inspired some of us in Toronto to realize that that's the next wave of talent we need to cultivate -- our next generation of great salsa dancers -- either by holding children's classes or starting a junior dance group.

2. It was fascinating to see the changes in choreography over the past year -- as routines are starting to get more complex, have started to incorporate other styles of dance, such as hip-hop, breakdancing or modern dance, and having more lavish costumes.

3. They were in fabulous locations where you could do the workshops or take the opportunity to relax and bake in the sun.

4. The shows had lots of seating in a separate ballroom from the social dancing.

5. I ate proper meals in both those locations and got to mingle with dancers from all over the World. Puerto Rico had cheap but good delis near the hotel; and for the East Coast, the meals were included in the package. Therefore, you had enough fuel to keep you going all the time.

6. In my opinion, the salsa music they play is far superior to what you hear in Toronto and possibly other parts of the world. Why is that? As I'm still learning more about the music and its history, I can't really give you the right answer except that possibly it's part of their own grass roots culture as it has been part of their scene much longer than Toronto and has matured. I wish Toronto DJ's would take the time to go to New York or Puerto Rico and listen/absorb/bring back this fabulous music (many of which are songs from the 70's). One of my original salsa friends who also teaches and dances Argentine Tango, Andy Kamienski, finally understood what I was talking about this weekend. He said it was so blatantly obvious that the music was different that he felt like he was hit by a sledge hammer this weekend. He totally agreed that the music was more "vibrant with a strong underlying beat that was perfectly suited for dancing on 2", but you could also dance on 1 if you preferred. In Toronto, there are some nights, I could swear that it's the same music I've been listening to for the last five years; and for some of the DJ's who are trying to play "different" salsa, they're playing songs which just aren't danceable enough. Every song I heard in New York and Puerto Rico, are 100% certified amazing to dance to and have underlying rhythms that make you want to "play" to the music.

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