First off, for the three people that don't already know who you are, please introduce yourself.

Hello to all the salsaholics all over the World, my real name is Rose Lau, but I've grown accustomed to calling myself "Rose Knows of www.tosalsa.com" so people don't get confused when they meet me in person. I'm 1st generation Chinese-Canadian, born and bred in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Rose Knows came about from a fellow salsa dancer who helped us design some of the graphics on the site and felt that it would be great to start up a column called "Rose Knows" where I could write up about the Toronto salsa scene since I seemed to know so much about everything.

How long have you been dancing salsa? How did you first get into it?

I've been dancing salsa now for about 5 years, but I knew about it for a year before I got hooked. I had two girlfriends who were already dancing in the clubs and/or taking lessons and kept trying to get me into it. It wasn't until I got out of a long-term relationship that I felt the urge to check out a latin club as I needed something social to do as all my friends were married with kids and I always loved partner dancing since I was a kid. My mom and aunt taught me the basic waltz and cha cha when I was only about 8-10 years old. I also used to be in dance competitions when I was in my late teens and was one of the Top 5 couples in Toronto at that time.

When I went to the Berlin Nightclub in Toronto on a Tuesday night, I fell instantly in love with the salsa music and saw that everyone was partner-dancing. I watched mesmerized by some of the best dancers out on the floor. A cha cha came on and I got the courage to ask one of the dancers for a dance as I knew basic cha cha. Later a salsa came on and I wanted so badly to try salsa that I went up to a dancer whom I thought was one of the best on the dance floor and asked him for a dance -- after all, how hard can it be to follow a partner. He looked at me in surprise, but granted me my wish. It was pretty obvious after about 30 seconds that I didn't know any of the steps he was doing, and after the song, he politely said "Thank You Very Much" which sounded more like, "Thanks but you don't know how to dance Salsa". After that moment, I left the club with the determination that I would learn it as quickly as possible as I finally had found a partner-dance that you could do in the nightclubs with people of my own generation and not the older generation you normally find in the ballroom scene.

How did you learn how to dance? What method works best for you?

I called up my girlfriend who was taking lessons and asked her for the name of her instructor, Peter Djakovic (who used to teach with Josie Neglia before she left Toronto). He was so busy, we kept playing phone-tag for a few days and I was lucky enough to find out he was teaching a summer session for 6 weeks, 2 times a week. I was so determined to learn quickly and since I had some previous dance experience, I signed up for Beginner and Intermediate. The first lesson was the toughest as I was learning the merengue, beginner salsa basic, and another salsa turn pattern -- all in one night. By the end of about 3 hours of dancing, I had a headache from all the different steps. I went home and practiced the next night and the 2nd night of lessons became a breeze. I picked up quickly after that; and even had to be the lead in the beginner's class when there were too many girls.

Method... hmmm, it's hard to say, I think once I learned and understood the basic steps, the technique, the theory behind leading and following and had danced non-stop each night with many different partners, I would say at the beginning, taking classes, and then once I understood the basics, the challenge for me was to be able to follow any lead in any style; and to be able to execute any moves my partner decides to try. When I need a new challenge, I either take classes or get a refresher from videotapes (when I have time) and practice with one of my friends who also wants to learn new moves. Unfortunately with the rapid expansion of the website, I've had very little time to really improve on my dancing.

How would you describe your style? Who are some of your influences?

To be honest, I don't know what my style is... I think I'm a mix of all types of styles since I've either tried to learn some of the more popular styles of salsa, on 1, on 2 and casino rueda; and then as a follower, tried to follow whatever style my partner has, whether he's dancing on beat or not (which can be a real challenge). I don't consider myself a showy dancer except when I like to surprise dancers with my signature split (which took me over a year to develop), and one inawhile, throw on a raunchy salsa outfit to shock my friends.

My influences -- I don't think of dancers as an influence, but more as a source of inspiration. I've viewed so many dance performers and great social dancers over the past 5 years, who inspire me to become better -- not emulating how they dance exactly, but to express myself more fully. Unfortunately, as the website takes up alot of my free time, I don't think I've really had the chance to really push myself to my full creativity as a dancer.

How long have you been working with the internet? How did you get started?

I only really started to learn how to use the internet when we started the site two years ago -- I knew nothing about website design and very little about website surfing. I never liked the surfing the internet as I found the 56K modem too slow until High speed Internet was launched. The initial pages were designed and set up by my web partner, Ziv, as he knew HTML. Once the pages were designed, I just had to update them with stories using a website design package, such as Dreamweaver or Front Page. Later, I took courses to learn website design and HTML, and then the site was able to grow quickly after that from all the content as I had more time to surf and learn about salsa dancing and then the music.

What made you decide to create TOsalsa? What was your vision?

Well, when I started salsa, I had a friend who was the Salsaweb Correspondent for Toronto. I got hooked by Edie's stories and was frustrated by the lack of updates for the Toronto scene. Many of my salsa friends would tell me about latin festivals or events AFTER it happened; plus I used to send out an email to all my salsa friends about where I was going dancing each week -- hoping that it would convince them to come out to the same popular clubs I would frequent so I could ensure a great night of dancing with plenty of partners.

I had the idea of possibly starting my own site, but didn't know web design and looked around for a partner to work with me on it. I looked around for 6 months and gave up, until one of my regular dance friends, Ziv, who started to help me with the Salsa Email Calendar I started, asked me while we were dancing in a club one night if I was interested in working together on a Toronto salsa site as he knew how to design websites -- that was about November of 1999. I grabbed at the opportunity and it was the right time to start as we were about to have the first Toronto Salsaweb Convention in Toronto in April 2000. We launched the site about a week before the Congress.

Our vision at that time was to make Toronto a major salsa destination for dancers around the World and to become a major source for all Toronto dancers.

How did you go about building it?

Originally, the graphics were done by Dennis Augustine, who now has his own website design company, Ziv handled all the programming and architecture, including the events and instructor sections, I handled the marketing and the story content on the site; and Frank, the salsaweb correspondent at the time, handled the club information.

We started with all the basic components any salsa site should have for their own city -- Club Listings, Instructor Listings, Events, Articles, Links and my weekly column.

As we grew larger, we were lucky to have various Toronto salsa dancers and some international instructors who helped to provide content for our site. We've been lucky to find other dancers or instructors who believe in what we do and have donated some of their time. Much of our inspiration also comes from what the Readers write in and ask about; and/or what I would like to see on our site based on a dancer's perspective.

Also, I've built relationships with other salsa websites, such as SalsaNewYork and Salsaweb, who also love alot of our content and have helped us gain more exposure internationally.

How did you get the word out? Or, how did you transform TOsalsa from small regional site to the giant that it is today?

Actually, we didn't do much to get the word out... ours is mostly by word-of-mouth and/or dancers searching for various bits of salsa information and somehow discovered our site. I think one of our strengths which many dancers mention is that we keep the site updated pretty much every day. I think we're probably the only site which updates it almost daily. And it's not because I always want to, I would love to go out and do other things, but there's so much information to update, that if I don't do it daily, I'll be spending my whole weekend catching up on all the emails and latest events. What surprised me is how many people tell me they go to our site during their coffee breaks or when they need a stress release from their job; and there's others who used to live in Toronto or cannot find the time to dance who love to read my weekly columns just to keep up with what's happening in Toronto and with their salsa friends or to dance vicariously through my stories.

How did we transform TOsalsa to being a giant? I don't think we're quite there yet, but I'm totally fascinated by the readership we are starting to get from around the World. I'm not sure how everyone finds out about our site, whether it's from other dancers, or when they search for something about salsa -- they somehow link to our site. Canada and the US is our biggest market, but we have a growing readership from UK, Europe, Australia and obscure places such as Turkey.

How many people visit the site each month? What about emails - how many emails do you have to go through each day?

We now average about 25-30,000 visitors each month, compared to 10,000 visitors last year, but our site seems to grow exponentially each month. Emails, I actually don't think about it or have time to count, as we get alot of emails about all kinds of events around the World; so I only really pay attention to those which are pertinent to site updates.

One of the reasons that TOsalsa is so popular is because you constantly keep it updated. Do you have a regular day job? If so, where do you find the time to do all these updates?

Yes, I do have a regular day job. I work as a Business Systems Analyst for a food company and was previously in Marketing for the same firm. I do the updates in my spare time after work and/or between salsa dancing and travelling to various dance conventions -- you could say I'm probably one of the ultimate salsa freaks who can't resist the opportunity to surf, read and/or travel with my salsa friends.

What is the worst thing about running a successful web site? The best thing?

The worst thing is that it takes away from my salsa dancing and my workout schedule -- I would get such a physical high when I used to go out on a regular basis and it helped to keep me in great shape -- at one point I actually went down two dress sizes, but I wasn't getting enough sleep as I tried to do everything. I now spend too much time sitting behind the computer day and night and I've put back on the weight I lost. If you talk with other website hosts, I think it's hilarious when you ask them what time they go to sleep and/or how much sleep they get, and usually it's about the same during the week -- only 4-6 hours.

The best thing about it is the new friends you can make via the internet, having the opportunity to meet and talk to the salsa music stars and various dancers, such as Tony Meredith and Melanie Lapatin, El Gran Combo, Celia Cruz, Victor Manuelle, and many others. The site also constantly challenges me to learn more about the latest software programs and to use another part of my creative side.

Salsa in Canada is really booming right now. Can you give us some background on the Toronto scene... where it came from, where it is, and where you see it going?

Salsa has only been growing in Toronto in the past 10 years -- and has only had dance performance groups in the past two years. When I started Salsa, the only style you could dance was Colombian-style or Toronto Cumbia style on 1. Within a year and a half, I got bored of that style and that's about the time Toronto had started to learn LA and Casino Rueda. About 6 months later, many of the advanced dancers and Instructors were also starting to learn New York Style on 2. What's great about Toronto, is that many of the advanced and more open-mineded dancers know how to dance just about every style. We pride ourselves on being able to dance with anyone no matter what style they dance; and you will find we also inter-mix the LA, Casino and New York patterns into one dance.

In the past few years, we've been able to experience the salsa scene in various parts of Canada, but many dancers have told us that we are the most progressive and fastest growing talent pool for Canada. I consider myself very lucky to be in Toronto as we have some of the best male dancers around, who can hold their own with LA and New York City. Being surrounded by great dancers inspires you to get better and forces you to stay on your toes or you'll get left behind.

Where is Salsa going in Canada? Well, I noticed that this year for the first time, Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto actually took their own time and money to go and compete at the Mayan Competition in LA. I think that shows you how gutsy Canada is getting, and I was really disappointed that no dancers from NYC or Miami took up the challenge.

Let's talk about Salsa Team Canada for a second. How did that come about? What's the status at the moment?

Salsa Team Canada idea came about while many of the Toronto and Montreal dancers were at the Puerto Rico Salsa Congress last July. One of my dance friends, Bong, actually tricked me and Sonia of San Tropez Dance Co. in Montreal, into the idea of working together on a dance group made up of Canadians from different cities. Sonia had initially been talking to Bong about a dance group and he suggested wouldn't it be cool to put together a dance team (but she was thinking sometime in the future). Bong came up to me and said Sonia had this great idea of putting together a Canadian dance group and that he thought I should work with her on the idea. I fell instantly in love with the concept and quickly went to find her to talk about the idea. We emailed back and forth, but finalized the details at the Ottawa Salsa Congress last November for auditions, rehearsals and the coordination between 3 cities.

Over the past 6 months, the various choreographers in each City has been working and rehearsing with their dancers on their own choreography. On May 12th, we had a fundraiser in Montreal where we all rehearsed together for the first time. In all modesty, I've seen many dance performances in the past two years, and I think this piece will be special as you have so much diversity in the choreography with 40-50 dancers weaving in and out of the number. Usually, most dance groups have only one choreographer and the choreography turns out to be either a long, drawn-out story, or many couples doing the same turn patterns.

On June 29th, our next fundraiser will be in Ottawa, and we'll be putting on our final touches with costumes and we will also be performing on July 1st - Canada's Birthday on Parliament Hill! This is history in the making as it will be the first time a salsa group will be performing on national TV in Canada!

I know that a number of Canadian couples also competed in the Mayan this year. What did you think of this year's Mayan, and how do you think the Canadians did overall?

Well, I was a little disappointed with the competition as I felt it wasn't judged fairly enough. I've participated and witnessed many competitions and really don't think amateur judges can be very impartial, especially on timing. Also, since the majority of the judges were LA-based, can they even appreciate any other salsa style? And maybe that's why no Newyoricans showed up for the competition as they may not appreciate their style of dancing.

It was a bit of a letdown for me as I have heard of the Mayan Competition four years ago and how amazing it was. This was my first time seeing it in person and I don't think I would attend again unless one of my friends were competing.

And how did we do? I don't think we did too badly as we are still a fairly young Country for Salsa. After all, two Canadian couples did advance in the International division. If you put it on the level of LA tricks and timing -- we still have a ways to go to catch up, but we're not too far behind. I think it really depends on what you are looking for in terms of performance -- is a couple only going to win based on speed, agility and tricks and/or can a couple with great, funky styling, dancing on time, with great choreography, but no tricks also earn a right to win First Place.

Okay, some quickies before we close... favorite song?
That would be really difficult for me to pick -- I have too many favourites... and they keep changing as I find some great new songs to dance to... if not, how else can I keep building up my Top 100 Salsa Songs to dance to... I'm working on version 3 right now.

Pet peeves?
Dancers who think they're better than everyone else and will only dance with people they think are at their level.
Dancers who step on you and NEVER say sorry.
Dancers who are so insecure they talk behind your back and NEVER to your face!

Most embarrassing moment?
I think it's everytime I've slipped and fallen when I least expect it, the most recent time was at the West Coast Salsa Congress coming out of the shuttle bus at the hotel, I fell (in slow motion) backwards and luckily (as always) just skinned my elbows -- after all, I was wearing a short dress and didn't want to sprawl all over.

Another time was when a "Salsa Instructor" did a move so roughly in a dark nightclub that I fell out of one of my skimpy dresses for a brief moment and I calmly covered myself up again. He had the nerve to say, "I can't believe you weren't wearing a bra" and I thought to myself "Well, since you're a dance instructor, there was no need to be so rough during the move!" and obviously wasn't very observant (or totally dumb about women's clothing), as there was no room in that dress to even wear a bra!

Most memorable moment?
Everytime I have an amazing dance and connection with my dance partner(s) during one of my favourite songs and everytime I find a new great song to dance to.

Future plans?
Too many to list probably... as most of my friends will tell you, I'm the ultimate Salsa Freak of the North! I have many ideas for the site, have been asked to possibly do a TV dance show, Salsa Team Canada may start teaching school kids and possibly we may eventually start a youth dance team to continue the salsa legacy for Toronto -- need I say more?

And finally, any closing comments?
Keep salsa alive and never let it die... Remember to have at least one dance with someone you don't know -- one day they may be your own dance inspiration; and learn to work together. That's the only way salsa will live on forever...

And for those of you who have helped me to fulfill my salsa dreams, thank you so much for all your help and feedback over the past few years. Without my friends and my readers in Toronto and around the World, TOsalsa.com would not be what it is today and what it will become in the future...