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July
28, 2002
Congress Fever...
Well, here I go again getting ready to hit the Puerto Rico Salsa
Congress -- more travelling. It's happening so frequently now that I
don't even need to do a checklist of the normal things I should take
-- just have to decide if I need to buy something I've ran out of. This
week has been fairly quiet on the dance front as I've been busy catching
up from my back-log from the past month of salsa events in Toronto and
with Salsa Team Canada. And inbetween all the salsa chaos, I've been
contempl-ating where else in the Congress World should I hit this year.
UK has been very tempting, but I'm almost out of vacation time so I
figure the North American circuit is good enough with Montreal and Ottawa
coming up (buzz is already out amongst the hardcore dancers), and possibly
the East Coast Salsa Congress. You can be sure alot of hardcore dancers
will definitely hit one of those congresses before the end of the year
and Toronto may have a few more dance teams performing in Ottawa and
Montreal.
July
29, 2002
Leaving on a Jet Plane...
Well, thank goodness I checked my flight cause they almost had me
flying almost 12 hours straight with 2 stopovers, but they were nice
enough to switch so I could get there pretty much when I was originally
scheduled. That wasn't the only surprise I had, cause I called Puerto
Rico and found out it wasn't quite "paradise" there either--
no internet cafe and no videotaping of shows allowed... anyways off
to the airport...
July
31, 2002
(from Puerto Rico)
Sun, tropics and hard work!
Well, I still can't believe I'm here in sunny Puerto Rico. It almost
feels like I never left as the hotel and the venue is set up almost
exactly the same, so there's very little of trying to figure out where
you should go and when. Because I got to take an earlier flight, I made
it just in the nick of time to sneak up on my dance partner during our
rehearsal during the Toronto intro -- I kinda snuck into his arms during
one of our moves. Then after practice, I had to zoom over, register
and then go to the afternoon shows. As always, the shows in Puerto Rico
are almost totally different in calibre to shows you see anywhere else.
With their elaborate stage lighting, it adds that extra special effect.
But the costumes seem to be more elaborate this year and the dancing
and choreography is also becoming stronger. What’s great is that we
have almost 100 Canadians here and this year, more Canadian performances,
partially thanks to the efforts of Salsa Team Canada bringing together
3 cities of professional and amateur dancers, along with Los Salsomanos,
Sonia and Moris, Ana and Orville (Salsation), Oscar and Vanesa, Strickly
Salsa, and more.
We are of course practicing every day to "get it right" and now I'll
be in the spotlight centre-stage (ahhh...) on Friday, in the bright
lights. So even though they put me in the back row, because we're short
one couple, I am smack-dab in the middle so no one can miss me, especially
all the performers who know me from various cities -- the pressure!
Hopefully, the lighting will be merciful, and maybe I'll smile in utter
terror. It now feels like the shoe is on the other foot -- like Nelson
Flores of Descarga Latina. It's his turn to tease me and pretend that,
"Hey Rose, what time's your show, I'll be there. Rose, I'll be sitting
smack-dab in the front row in the middle, so look at the camera, come
on smile, and so on."
And as always, the weather is amazing, many of the dancers whom I met
last year are here again, but there’s also a lot of new dancers whom
I haven’t had a chance to meet until recently. As always, no more time
to write, but lots to still see and do.
August
2, 2002
(from Puerto Rico)
Showtime!
It’s 10:30 am in the morning (with less than 15 minutes to practice
time), and I made myself get up and take a workshop with Jhesus Aponte,
a Puerto Rican New York Broadway dancer, who has some great Latin Jazz
choreography. It was a great warm-up to the start of a hectic day. The
last few days of dance practice has been grueling with some tension
as we had to reconfigure ourselves (entrances and exits) onto the stage
as we now are always backstage and cannot see what fellow team members
are doing. Last night, we had a dinner with all the Salsa Team Canada
members and it was a great time to bond back together for today.
Yesterday, I took Nelson Flores workshop and actually still remember
75% of the first pattern! That’s a milestone for me cause usually once
I get through the pattern, I usually forget it about half an hour later.
This congress has been hectic and so many dancers are here from all
over. I haven’t had much time to dance but I try to have at least one
dance with someone I’ve never danced with before; and last night, it
was Leon Rose from the UK. Interested in checking out some funky moves
on 1 or 2, he’s definitely one to watch! Anyways, gotta run and practice
and get ready for our performance!
August 6, 2002
Canada makes it's mark in Puerto Rico...
Well, I'm finally back to home sweet home... (although I wished I could
have stayed a few more days and had a real vacation) and there's soooo
much to review, update and think about... Although we did get a standing
ovation, it's hard to know what was going through people's minds about
our performance. From the first moment I witnessed the first rehearsal
in Montreal, I had a gut feeling that this routine would be a winner and
told the team that if we pulled it off cleanly -- we would make an impact
due to the diversity of our routine. But then as I started seeing how
amazing other team performances were, the elaborate costumes, and how
the level of dancing was raised once again, I started to doubt the impact
of our choreography until we received the standing ovation Friday night.
After the show and over the course of the next few days, there were some
professional dance instructors whom I would never expect to come up and
congratulate us, but did. I've even heard that we've already started the
ball rolling for other teams who may try to pull off what we did in Canada!
We also made an impact on non-dancers who were totally blown away by the
whole production as we had anywhere from 4 up to 43 dancers on stage at
one time with so many transitions that no one knew where to look at any
given time; and I think that's one of the strengths of our whole routine
-- the variety and diversity in the transitions and dance styles.
And when I started to catch up on all the emails from the past week, my
internet friend, Juan from Miami, found a discussion forum which had some
great responses about Salsa Team Canada and Canadians in general...
"I just got back from San Juan this morning,
and my god, I had the best time ever at the Salsa Congress! The dancers,
the performances (the Canadian and Italian performances stand out in my
mind...)...
The various Canadian dance teams from Toronto, Ottowa and Montreal. Plus
their combined performance Friday night which meant all 3 cities had a
piece of choreography to learn on their own, separated from the other
teams, and then perform ALL together on stage. Which meant about 43 dancers
on the stage at any given time. To say that they won the audience over
is an understate-ment.
Team Canada basically raised the bar for teamwork and while they never
said anything themselves, the emcees at the Congress said that Canada's
performance was like an open challenge to other countries
and cities to unite and put a routine together. Could you imagine all
of NYC uniting? Or LA? I'd think some egos would prevent it from happening.
On the other hand, it would be SO DAMN COOL if it happened and was pulled
together."
Beto Zaleta, DC
Way to go -- Salsa Team Canada, along with the Toronto dance teams
of Salsation, Latin Energy, Los Salsomanos and Strickly Salsa, Sonia &
Moris from Montreal and Urban Beat from Ottawa! We did what we set out
to do, make our mark internationally and let the world know that Canada
can dance!
August
10, 2002
The Aftermath of Puerto Rico...
It's so nice to be home and to able to relax and just have fun dancing
again, although in some ways, I wish I had spent a little more time
in Puerto Rico to just bake in the sun, but I underestimated the amount
of work involved during the day with STC and TOsalsa; and the time to
spend talk-ing with all the instructors from the around the World.
There just wasn't enough hours in the day to mix, mingle, eat and have
fun in the sun. By about 1 am, I was too tired and my feet would be
killing me from all the running around all day long, so I didn't even
stay up to the wee hours danc-ing this year. This Puerto Rico Congress
was more about ensuring STC was a success and I also had to focus on
my own perform-ance, watching all the dance shows from around the World,
taking as many pics as I could (as we weren't allowed to videotape),
then I had the opportunity to witness some of the latin music legends
live (and shake their hands) -- such as Ray Barretto at the Tito Puente
Ampitheater (thanks to Kleyber of Picante Express) and Andy Montanez,
playing live in Old San Juan (you can look forward to some music videoclips
later), not including trying to stay awake to listen to the bands at
the Congress, including Tito Nieves, Bobby Valentin, Domingo Quinones
and Jose Alberto "El Canario".
Everyday, I got up by 9 am to take at least one workshop a day, zoom
off to the Business Center for write-ups and email, go have a bite to
eat at the local eateries, rehearse for an hour with STC, spend time
meeting with Sonia or other instructors, get ready for the shows by
4 pm, then zoom off for a bite to eat at dinner which would last about
2 hours due to the no. of dancers coming in and out (it was a great
way to meet dancers from everywhere), then get ready for the evening
shows which started at 9 pm, then put my cameras away just to try to
relax, socialize and dance to the live bands each night.
There was so much going on everyday that thank goodness for my photos,
or I would have forgotten many of the great dance performances we got
to witness from all over the World. Again, the level has been raised
once again, and even the costumes are getting more elaborate. Again,
I fell in love with the dance groups from Venezuela and Puerto Rico
of all ages. Abakua from NYC was also there, but unfortunately this
year, I missed both of their new group shows (one was on Monday and
I didn't arrive until Tuesday, and the other on Saturday while I went
to the Ray Barretto concert), Tropical Gem from Italy who always have
great shows, Salsa Brava and Decarga Latina, a group from Portugal whom
I met last year that did a very romantic, sensual salsa and there was
a group from Paris with their very erotic "Miss Saigon" choreography,
Sonia and Sergio from Italy had a fresh, new no. that grabbed our attention
and of course, the teams from Canada who really made an impact on the
audience this year. This is the first year we've had at least 6 performances
from Canada and Salsa Team Canada, the first-ever adult fully choreographed
salsa show of 43 dancers on stage. We danced to the full version of
Batman & Spiderman by Azabache, utilizing cuban rhythm movements,
hip hop and pure salsa. There were many other great shows, but these
are the ones that stick out in my mind.
Over the next few weeks, I hope that many of the dancers from Salsa
Team Canada will start to write in about their own experiences and we'll
be posting a special page with all their comments. You can consider
this the mini-review of the Congress with a more elaborate one still
to be written along with pics.
And where did I dance this past week. Well since I only got back on
Tuesday, I had a chance to dance and mingle with my friends (mostly
mingle as I was still tired from Puerto Rico) at the absolutely gorgeous
Liberty Grand which was a fun-filled night full of salsa with DJ Fab
and Billy Bryans, and then at the Courthouse on Friday, where I made
up for all the dancing I didn't do at the Congress.
And what can you look forward to on our site? Well, you may be happy
to hear we're FINALLY getting the ball rolling on a facelift which may
take months to launch due to the ever-growing amount of information
we keep piling onto this site.
As you know, I finally launched something I've always wanted on our
site from day one -- videoclips! And after talking with some of the
dance groups, such as Nelson from Descarga Latina, Frankie from Abakua,
and Ismael from Carribbean Soul -- I'm happy to report that I'll be
streaming some of their performances on our site from the West Coast
Salsa Congress and possibly from other Congresses, such as Chicago or
Detroit! You'll also be able to see music videoclips of Ray Barretto
and Andy Montanez from San Juan, Puerto Rico. And if you know me, this
is just the tip of the iceberg, so stay tuned...
Regarding videotapes, I also
brought back a limited supply of the new Nelson Flores Intermediate-Advanced
tapes on Mambo Shines and one on Turn Patterns. This is Eddie-Torres
or New York Style on 2. It's about time, Nelson! For anyone who hasn't
had a chance to take one of his workshops or see his group, Descarga
Latina perform, you're missing out. He is one of my favourites -- I
still remember the first time I took his workshop back at the Toronto
Salsaweb Convention in April 2000. He broke it down so simply and had
the best sense of humour. And when I got to witness his dance group
for the first time at the Latin Madness mambo musical in NYC last April
-- they blew me away again with their choreography in the musical. Also,
all his dancers are very friendly and approachable; and I always say
"Hi" and have a chat with them wherever I go. I also have
tapes of last year's East Coast Salsa Congress performances (Vol. 1
and 2) and Super Mario from England (on 1 Turn Patterns) that I brought
back this year from LA. If you're interested in any of the videotapes,
please email
me for more information as I'm still trying to finalize details
for our site.
This is another growing section which I still have to find some time
to put together as I have at least 6 or 7 videos to review.
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