a NYC Visitor
hi Rose & Ziv -- i'm visiting Toronto this five day weekend of June 9. Your website was very helpful with its club information and the Salsa Boat ride event. Thank you for having this site available.

I was just corresponding with a Salsera in NYC who promotes for some of the Salsa 'name brands' of NYC. I thought I'd relay to you my feedback since Toronto is involved. Some NYC Salseros are planning to hit plenty of spots on the continental US and are feedbacking to one another. My thoughts are for the Salsa travelers who'll go clubbing, not the Salsa performers. Please feel free to reach me if you need anything or have questions. -- Jerry

"I visited two clubs here in Toronto -- (still here today til this evening) Babaluu and Berlin. Both places and others are bar/restaurants converted to club style after hours. plenty of people attend each night. they have their own schedule like we do in NYC: Mon/Hush, Tues/Copa, Wed/Nells or LaMaganette, Thurs/LQ etc. the Salsa craze has really made its way to Toronto. plenty of instructors and learners. they remind me of the LA style you mentioned. folks here dance On2 style with major ballroom attitude while dancing On1. it looks nice and they dance well yet i feel the ballroom attitude is out of place. but i must allow them one thing: they don't have dance socials which allows the ballroom attitude. though i haven't really seen that ballroom attitude at our NYC dance socials. we in NYC have plenty of show-n-tell dancers at our socials but they are permitted because everyone there wants to learn, view and enjoy. these show-n-tell don't exist at nightclubs -not that i've seen.

so while that is NYC, the clubs here have beginners, advanced and show-n-tells. excellent beginners who dance the Cuban and Cumbia style -mostly Cumbia. i mean they dance well. the men feel their music while the ladies are enchanted by the men's lead. very nice. the advanced folks do plenty of dipping and shy away from the beginners. three nights, i didn't see the advance folks dance with beginners. it could be that the beginners refused invites. they certainly did not refuse mine. in fact, the advancers refused mine. now the show-n-tellers did not necessarily refuse my invites but instead were hogged up by the other show-n-tellers. one show-n-teller accepted my invite after learning that i knew and danced in Eddie Torres' world. go figure. when we danced, she couldn't maintain her original style of flair while following On2. go figure. i'll tell you this: the beginners had more sensation and rhythm than those of the show-n-tellers. go figure. only one brother of the show-n-tell group (yes brother as that h
there was a band called Vibrioso (i think) at Berlin. great Mambo style of music. oh by the way-those who were dancing Cuban style were dancing On2. you could tell that they learned from the Old Schoolers. ain't that the best! i told a different brother who kept close to he stage that he danced beautifully. he had the Old School style yet he was young. <sigh> go figure. the band knew their Cha Cha Cha. the clubs DJ however played played great Salsa/Mambo, Merengue and Bachata but a little bit much House (English). i guess they should call their Salsa Nights, Latin Nights instead of Salsa Nights.

You and i will just have to keep in mind that we're in NYC. Miami and NYC have their own capitalization on the Salsa world. we must remember that things are run differently else-where -as you saw in LA. i'll tell you one thing for sure: i'd rather dance with the beginners in Toronto than their advancers and show-n-tellers. It is they, the beginners, who have style and are musically moved. Every beginner dancer asked to follow my steps while Iasked to follow theirs; danced two songs leaving the first one as trial-n-error where they (she) learned my On2 and i learned their (her) rhythm; that then leaves the second song to, simply, a couple dancing -- as it should be.

So if you want to visit Toronto, I suggest bringing a dancing partner - unlike that necessity for dance socials in NYC. -- Jerry

Hi Rose, as for my week in TO, I went out to Plaza Flamingo, Left Bank, Society, Babaluus, Babaluus and Babaluus (yep, Wed-Fri at Babaluus) -- I had an awesome time overall. Last Wed I got to dance with Frank, Oscar, Rene and several other great dancers. I think they are all awesome dancers who challenged me to put out my best on the dance floor! One unfortunate thing is that I didn't get to dance with Teddy of United Salseros. I also got to see Natalie and Nicole dance. They are awesome. I am inspired even more.

And once again I am reminded of what a great DJ is like. DJ Carlitos is by far THE best salsa DJ, as he demonstrated on Thursday. Wow!

I found the TO salseros to be very friendly and accepting of new faces, although several did recognize me from when I lived there 2 yrs ago, which was nice.

Anyways, I really regret not being able to meet you in person, I hope to make my way to TO again soon. But in the meantime, if there are any salseros from TO who plan to visit Vancouver I would love to hear from them! Please let them know they have a fellow salsera friend here in Vancouver.

One thing I have really noticed about the Toronto salsa style is that it's changed so much. It's at a much higher level than before and it seems to have incorporated the styles from LA and NYC...and it's awesome!

To be an excellent salsero I have to say that one has to be open minded, willing to learn more, and definitely willing to share what they know with others. I definitely felt like there were a lot of excellent salseros in Toronto.

I am motivated more than ever to salsa. Please thank all your fellow TO salseros! Thank you too!

Valerie
salsera1973@hotmail.com

Out-of-Town Visitors the Weekend of August 4-6, 2000

Since Ziv, Frank and I are also Toronto Salsaweb Correspondents, we also get queries from out-of-town guests who are visiting Toronto; and in this case, unfortunately, we were in Montreal so we couldn't meet up with them... Anyways, here's their feedback on what it was like dancing in downtown Toronto.

When Sebastian first wrote me, he told me that he actually had a dance with me when I visited the Conga Room in LA at the Bacardi West Coast Salsa Congress in May of this year. What a small world it can sometimes be!

Sebastian from Maryland

Hi Rose Knows,
Thanks much for the recommendations. My dance partner and I hit El Rancho's on Friday and again on Saturday, we went to Atlantis but apparently they cancelled salsa to accommodate the Caribana crowd. Sunday we visited Babaluu's and then headed to Left Bank. Given our dance style I suspect that we stood out little bit and even received a few compliments. Thanks to you we both had a great time.

A Salsera from San Francisco

Hi Rose, Thank you for remembering I visited Toronto!
We went to El Rancho and had a great time. The 'regulars' stuck to their 'regulars' but a few seemed willing to venture out to an unfamiliar face. I liked the club. I certainly wasn't used to the cigarette smoke and was taken back by a bright orange 'fire' behind my head while I was dancing. I had a great time. Didn't quite click with anyone in particular. But, I danced my buns off and was tired by the end of the evening. We left about 1:30 am.

A couple of pieces of info about El Rancho. We arrived at 9 pm and NO ONE was there. So, we asked the hostess, if it would be okay for one of us (3) to have dinner. She said yes. (the place got crowded around 11) I had eaten earlier and I munched at the bread, one person ordered dessert, and the other ordered a regular meal. When she asked for additional bread, the manager had harsh words but tried to be diplomatic -- he was bothered that the three of us didn't order a full meal and said something to the effect of normally they require a minimum of $7.95 per person. The tables were empty except for two other parties so we weren't holding them up in the least. And, the bread would go stale by the next day anyway. If they had a problem with our request, they should have said something at 9pm.

Also, on the website, it claims that ladies are free before 10:30. They told us to pay $10. So we showed her a print out of the website that stated exactly that. We were then allowed to go in. And while we were dancing, the waiter kept on asking if we wanted something to drink and was bothered that we weren't ordering more than one drink each (which I finished). In San Francisco, the 'salsa' clubs have large water containers for those of us who prefer to stay hydrated (alcohol produces the opposite). The other two were from Los Angeles. On whole, it was fun but El Rancho sorely lacked in hospitality. I know these places make their profit from food and drink; however, this seemed a bit much.