Archive for the ‘Congresses’ Category

We recently had the opportunity to interview Angel Ortiz host of the 2010 New Jersey International Salsa Congress. We will be in attendance of this premiere event on April 22nd-25th.

K&I 1. How did you get started dancing Salsa?

Angel Ortiz: It was in 1989 on a Tuesday evening, I went to the famous Copacabana Nightclub in New York City. This was the hotspot for Salsa every Tuesday evening (original location). The music, watching the people dance, and the excitement of the nightclub scene caught my attention. I then kept going on Tuesday’s when I had the chance. I had not done any previous salsa dancing or taken any lessons. It was really exciting times. While there, I made new friends and was referred to Eddie Torres. I then started taking private lessons with Eddie. In early 1990, he placed me in his professional dance team. Since then, I’ve traveled to 113 cities in 27 countries teaching salsa On1 and On2 Crossbody lead style.

K&I 2. What do you enjoy most about salsa congresses?

AO: For me it starts with the traveling part of it. I love traveling, seeing new places, and re-visiting previous locations. Secondly, the gathering of friends, sharing stories, and having lots of fun is another aspect. But what really impresses me is the fact that the salsa congress can be compared and described as a “united nations” of dancers. Truly an amazing gathering of people from all walks of life.

K&I 3. What motivated you to join up with the first ever New Jersey Int Salsa Congress?

AO: Because it’s the first of its kind in New Jersey! Secondly, because with up to 21yrs in the business as a traveling guest instructor, I felt the Congress would be a great forum and avenue in which to share this knowledge base with the organizers of the event as well as with all those eventually visiting the event. It’s a unique perspective I wanted to share with the goal of encouraging and fostering more awareness to keep Salsa Congresses going for another 20yrs!

K&I 4. What can one expect from the Congress?

AO: (a) The Experience! Fun, dancing, and more dancing. (more…)

If you happened to be following Shaka Brown on twitter this past weekend then you would have received a plethora of tweets from the 2009 World Salsa Championships in Fort Lauderdale, FL. We didn’t get a chance to go down to Florida in the sunny weather and loveliness… nope we’re stuck up north in the 2 feet of snow – oh well.

We did however manage to find a bunch of the performances online and compiled them into a nice little playlist for you. The performances are all amazing – (i’m always impressed by Cali style) but everyone was great.

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Ryoko and Ken

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2:32

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1,654

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World Salsa Championships 2009 Semi-finals:Masaki and Minako from Japan

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2:40

Views

3,255

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World Salsa Championships 2009 Semi-Final:Envy from Japan

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2:44

Views

5,034

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CIMG1632.AVI

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2:39

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831

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World Salsa Championships 2009 Semi-finals:Ritmo de Cali from Japan

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2:58

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22,412

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Modus Vivendi at the World Salsa Championships 2009 - Semi finals

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2:38

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4,802

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Luis Aguilar and Anya Katsevman competing at the world salsa championships 2009 semi final round

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2:28

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3,801

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World Salsa Championships 2009 Semi-Final:Envy from Japan

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2:44

Views

5,034

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Genner y Judy at the 2009 World Salsa Championship

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1:57

Views

8,935

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Ian and I had the chance to attend the 9th Annual New York International Salsa Congress and we’re still buzzing from it. This was one of the biggest congresses in the world accommodating 4000+ salseros y salseras. The congress started on Wednesday the 2nd till Sunday the 6th PLUS there was a Salsa Cruise on Monday. We made it out for the All Day Saturday and Sunday workshops, performances, and social dances.

The workshops were plentiful! The few that were sure-fire picks included Eddie Torres (of course!), Leon Rose, and Melissa Rosado. There were so many workshops at times it was hard to choose. However we did get a chance to go to a bunch of let’s say “Extracurricular Workshops”. Perhaps Cha-Cha-Cha can be in this category. But specifically we are talking about the Bachata and Samba workshops.

Saturday

We started with Leon Rose’s On2 Partnerwork class. Having taken his class last year at the DC Salsa Congress in 2008 it was a no-brainer that we had to take his class again. His moves are always a little *different* or perhaps intricate, or crazy-ish. The class was a good start to the morning, enthusiastic and high energy. The move includes intricate handholds and requires sharp execution. You can view it below in our NYISC Workshop Gallery. A common problem with moves that are a little tricky is that if you don’t rotate fast enough the students sometimes get stuck with a partner who just doesn’t get it. Our conclusion is that for a group this big it is important to rotate quickly. Spending 10 minutes with one partner who hasn’t grasped it yet doesn’t help either of you.

The next class we tried to go to was Eddie Torres‘ On 2 Partnerwork (more…)

Katie and I had the pleasure of going to the 2009 DC Salsa Congress hosted by Shaka Brown of ClaveKazi and iMambo.tv. This was our second appearance at the DC Congress and it was even better than we remembered. There was an abundance of talent (y sabor!) in every room, from instructors, performers, students and vendors. If you didn’t have the salsa bug before, you did after this congress.

Highlights from the DC Salsa Congress 2009

The performances, the workshops, the teachers, the dancers, the vendors, Everything was great at the DC Salsa Congress this year. The video below shows highlights from all the performances plus interviews with Shaka Brown, Betto Herrera, and Darlin Garcia. Enjoy!

Friday started off like most beginnings to a congress: Everyone running on the adrenaline of being at a congress and the anticipation of a full night of dancing coupled with the relief after a long day at work.
The night began with a welcome from Shaka, then straight into a solid 2 hours of performances. There was a great showing of talent, dedication, skill, and some cool tricks, too.
I couldn’t wait to get out on that dance floor. To be honest I was dancing in my seat through out all the performances. I was excited when Shaka finally said those five beautiful words “Get up and Get out” because you know that means; It’s time to set up the dance floor!

The open dance started out slow, but picked up shortly after. Actually it was a good night to dance since there weren’t a BILLION people on the dance floor there was some breathing room to try out some new moves and get in a dance with your favorite YouTube salsa star! We couldn’t quite make it till 3am but we stayed till about 2. That’s pretty good, right? We had a bit of a drive since we didn’t get a hotel this year. Although I HIGHLY recommend getting a hotel room to anyone on the fence; it is great when you want to take a break and chill out.

Shaka Brown, coordinator of the DC Salsa Congress and Katie. Click it for a funny pic!

Saturday morning, after our obligatory Starbucks run , we dragged ourselves to our first workshop and prayed that the caffeine would hurry up and kick in.

We started out in Sean and Lisa’s Class Int. Turn Patterns On 2 and were working on a move that was pretty impressive. Sean and Lisa are really fun teachers. Not only was the move interesting but they livened up the class, which is not easy to do with salseros y salseras who are still half asleep from dancing the night before. It got us ready for the rest of the day and back into dance-dance-dance mode.

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Ian and I had the pleasure of of going to the 5th Annual CT Salsa Fest in Stamford, CT  (Ian’s hometown!). What can I say about the Salsa Fest? It was exciting, humbling, exhausting, entertaining, and all around amazing. The short version is that the CT Salsa Fest hosted incredible performers, phenomenal instructors, and fantastic (and unpretentious) dancers. Held at the Hilton Stamford Hotel, the festival included professional workshops, dance performances, live bands, DJs, and social dancing starting on Friday May 22nd till Sunday May 24th. The event was hosted by Lou Lopez of Latin Moves Dance Studio, one of the premiere Latin dance studios in Stamford, CT.

The PreGame

To wet the salsa whistle , Friday night at the CT Salsa Fest included more than 20 performances from groups primarily in the Tri-State Area, although there were groups from Canada, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and Colombia. This is definitely the way you want to kick off an event of this magnitude. Just hit us with what you’ve got; great, energetic performances. Following these performances, the open dance portion of the night started with the band “Karibe Mambo“, a fantastic CT-based Salsa Band. They lit the dance floor on fire, figuratively of course .

And The Workshops Begin…

By Saturday morning, we were scrambling to get ready for the workshops. Luckily, since all the salseros were running a little late, we ended up being on time (that makes sense, I think). The first class we went to was Ismael Otero of Caribbean Soul. We’ve taken classes with him before and it is always a pleasure. He is a fantastic dancer, proclaimed the “Million Moves Man”, and it’s true but I learned his secret. Well actually he said it out loud. (more…)