Columbus SalsaFest

On November 10th Marques, Chimere, Josiah, and I traveled to Columbus Ohio, for Columbus SalsaFest. Okay really we just went for the social dance that evening. Due to everyone’s busy schedules, and timing, we were not able to participate in the full event, but we still had fun! Marques and I performed, along with another salsa couple, an argentine tango couple, and a small salsa team. There were more performances on other days of the event as well.

The dance was held at The Vault, which was a converted bank vault (and surrounding area). There was a bar inside the Vault, and a large open space for dancing. The floor wasn’t great, it was concrete I think, and a little uneven, but it wasn’t too bad. There was an upstairs overlook as well, probably would have been nice as a lounge, but there weren’t any places to sit. I guess they wanted all the dancers to stay downstairs were the action was. :-D

There were enough interesting and new male leads to keep me entertained, and everyone I met seemed really nice. One thing I noticed was that they played a lot more ChaChaCha than we do (which is fine with me since I love ChaCha), and the majority of the dancers present were On2 dancers. That made the night interesting as well since most dancers in Indianapolis do not dance On2 yet.

All in all, Columbus seems like a relatively dead city when it comes to nightlife downtown… while driving to and from the social dance, I don’t think we saw any clubs open… there were no cabs, few cars, and only a handful of people scattered around the city. This was around 10pm and 1am, so it was still relatively early for a Saturday night… It made all of us appreciate Indianapolis, that is for sure!

Salsa in Chicago

Recently I traveled to Chicago, on October 20th (2007), to watch a performance by Luna Negra Dance Theatre - a modern dance company. Their show incorporated Salsa, Mambo, and Tango with modern dance, or at least that is how they were advertising it. I was very glad to see a modern company bring awareness of other dance styles to their audience, especially styles I love so much! I am assuming it is due to the fact that it is a company that mostly consisted of Latinos/Latinas…

For an honest review, I felt that the dancers didn’t truly understand the dances they were trying to represent. Too often people see a few movies and think they understand a dance, without having taken lessons or been in the actual atmosphere (for example, actually going to a salsa club)… this is the feeling that I got from this company. Yes, most of the company is consisted of Latino/Latina dancers, but they are still primarily Modern/Ballet trained. I think they just used the music (not the actual dances) as their inspiration, which is fine… the performance was good, and the dancers were pleasing to watch, but I think my expectations were just a little too high going into the theatre.

Anyway, after the show I picked up a friend who lives in the area, and we went to Rumba for their Salsa night (this was a Saturday). There were plenty of good male leads, and the floor was more packed than the Jazz Kitchen (if that seems possible). Surprisingly, most of the great male leads that I danced with that night did not do LA Style or New York style salsa, they were more Cumbia type dancers. They were great at interpreting the music, and had a lot of feeling in their dancing… The music selection was excellent, not a bad song was played all night. Basically we danced until they closed the club.

I definitely plan on returning to Chicago to salsa in the near future…

Reminder 2007 World Salsa Championships

I would like to remind everyone that the 2007 ESPN World Salsa Champions will be Dec.12-16, 2007 in Orlando, Florida. I am not planning on flying out there, but I will be waiting for the videos to appear on the internet.

For those who do not have any knowledge of this event please checkout my collection of videos from last years championships and my blog post talking about last years competition.

It is great to see the mainstream media (ESPN) sponsoring and promoting salsa!

New Blog Introduction!

Hi! I am sure most of you already know me already, as I am now a regular in the salsa scene here in Indianapolis. However, I am still relatively new to the Salsa community, and new to SalsaIndy, so I decided to write an introduction of myself for my first blog. My name is Jennifer, and I just moved to Indianapolis in May (from Bloomington, IN). I was coming up to Indianapolis 2-3 times per week to dance (sometimes more), so the move was very beneficial for me.

I have been a dancer pretty much my whole life. I have tried almost every type of dance that I have had the opportunity to learn, and until now have been so diversified that I was unable to truly focus on one style. The good side of this is that I know a lot about many different dance styles, and this helps me understand, appreciate, and relate to many different types of dancers.

Just before my move, Marques and I decided to try out as dance partners, and though we have had a somewhat rocky start (with me having mono, etc), we decided to continue. Now, just a little over 6 months later, we have begun teaching salsa classes together downtown at Riolo Dance Studio and I am helping run SalsaIndy.

Aside from teaching salsa, and performing with Marques, I still try to keep up with other styles of dance. I also am very interested in the history of the various dances, and interested in academic analysis of dance as well. I think practicing is very important for any teacher, performer, or social dancer (yes even social dancer – because practicing will help make your dancing more comfortable for your partner, and if it doesn't feel good, then what's the point?)… but I find that really understanding the dance through history also helps me in my dance education, and helps me in teaching others as well.

Anyway, I'm happy to be here!! Many more exciting things await in the near future, but I have to leave something to blog about next ;)

Salsa@6 still holding strong

It's high-energy, It's culture, It's food, It's fun, It’s … Salsa@6. That is the slogan used for one of Indy's newly established salsa venue. We all have seen salsa venues come and go and when you hear about a new venue you ask yourself is this one is going to last?

Salsa@6 created by Roz Wells officially kicked off on November 2, 2006 making it a year old! Most new salsa venues are lucky to last a couple of months and closed down because the bar does not make enough cash.

So what's their secret? One is the owner Dave, he has been running a Latin night (which happens to occur later that night) for the last 9 years and he knows that it takes time to build up a Latin/salsa night. This event runs from 6pm to 9pm and does not compete with the prime nightclub hours. Last and most importantly is the people. Every Thursday you will find Roz's crew. This insures that you will always have someone to socialize and dance with.

Note to the Latin and salsa promoters out there. Take Salsa@6's model and apply it to your own. Salsa is about the dancing and community and one cannot survive without the other.

Till next time see you on the dance floor