| November
12, 2001
Salsa
in Ottawa...
I broke my own promise that I wouldn't travel until the New Year,
but it was definitely worth the trip... it wasn't necessarily because
of the dancing, but all the old and new friends we met in Ottawa and
from Montreal, and when you add the mix of dancers from Toronto, it
gave us a great start to the potential of the synergies between the
"east coast cities" and for "Dance Team Canada".
Montreal and Ottawa have a much smaller salsa scene than us, but they
still share the same passion for the dance that we do. I have to give
lots of credit to Ottawa's dancers, although the groups are still very
young (most under a year old), they still need alot of work to improve
their technique, styling and choreography to make the grade on the world
salsa circuit -- they had 9 dance teams and over 50 performers. They
gave it their all and pulled it off, and will only get better as they
mature.
Special thanks goes to Patricio Palacios of La Isla Nightclub who was
the main organizer of the event, Roy Crisostomo who took great care
of us, and all the Volunteers who helped make everyone welcome from
Toronto and Montreal. This event was a success as there were no major
hiccups in the planning and they were great hosts. Although the event
was held in different parts of the City, they worked hard to make sure
that everyone knew how to get to each location without getting lost.
Another nice touch was having 3 shows with general dancing inbetween
so everyone had a chance to get in some dancing.
From Toronto, we were well represented by Strickly Salsa (who got great
response from the audience for their no.); and by On Beat (who performed
with only half their dancers, so Ottawa wasn't able to feel the full
impact of this all-woman dance team on 2). United Salseros was also
in attendance and got to teach a workshop, along with Stephanie Gurnon
and Ivy Cuervo.
Salsa
in Ottawa - Part II
What was a pleasant surprise was the couples who competed in the Ottawa
Salsa Competition from Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa. It was a surprise
to see three couples competing from Toronto -- Guillaermo & Teria,
Albert & Kathy from Strickly Salsa (placed second), and a newly
formed couple, Ana (Toronto) and Orville (Montreal) who won the competition.
Third place went to Zoltan and Vanessa? from San Tropez Dance Co. in
Montreal.
Guillaermo and Teria had a very tough time competing as they had only
a week to prepare. Their routine, if it was executed flawlessly, would
have blown me and the judges away because it's the most difficult set
of lifts and tricks I've ever seen Teria trust a partner with. There
were quite a few cabaret moves in which you must totally trust your
partner to catch you after he throws you in the air or you could seriously
injure yourself. Unfortunately for them, the floor was very slippery
and the tricks were so difficult, she fell a few times, so they obviously
did not place. In hindsight, it may have been smarter to also have a
routine with less cabaret tricks just in case.
The third place winners, Zoltan and Vanessa from Montreal, had a beautiful
and stylish routine starting with a cha cha into a salsa. In terms of
styling, they were the best of all the couples, but they didn't have
a storyline and/or tricks to make their routine more impactful on the
judges and the audience.
The second place winners, Albert and Kathy from Toronto, put on a great
show and got the audience going with their energy and tricks. They were
totally on -- it's too bad they didn't have more tricks up their sleeve
as they executed the back flip quite a few times in their routine. In
my opinion, they could have won first place if they had more of a storyline
to their choreography and had included more variety in their tricks.
If you've watched the competitions from the Mayan Club, you'll notice
that the winners have a storyline and their music is tailored to their
routine with sound effects for the accents/tricks in the routine; and
usually they use 2 or 3 songs for different moods to their choreography.
My predic-tion is that future contests isn't just great dancing anymore,
it's the whole package of being able to tell a story using music, costumes
and choreo-graphy) and being able to entertain the crowd and the judges.
And finally, the winners, Ana and Orville. They had a polished routine
which incorporated an entertaining storyline, great music which hit
on all their accents, dramatic black costumes and great tricks -- some
of which I recognized as signature LA moves from the "Prince of
Salsa" himself, Johnny Vasquez. Although their routine didn't incorporate
alot of salsa turn patterns in comparison to the other dance competitors,
it was the totally clean and profession-al show package which I think
won them the competition and the audience's hearts. They were clearly
the favourites to win! If you haven't seen them dance, they will be
performing at the Grand Opening of the new Shine Nightclub (previously
Park Avenue) on Wednesday, December 12th, along with On Beat.
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