The evening began with a fun hour long lesson. Tracie and Mark taught the beginner lesson upstairs and Emely and Olivier taught the intermediate lesson on the main floor. After an hour of social dancing the competition began and the four finalists each took the stage to perform their choreographed routines. No limits on dips and allowances on lifts meant some very showy and entertaining tricks from all the competitors.

While we tabulated the judges’ scores, we were privy to three awesome performances by Latin Energy, the Semi Pro Team at iFreestyle and United Salseros. Thank you so much to each performer and the schools for a wonderful and inspiring display of salsa!

By the time the last school finished performing, the results were in and here they are below. Congratulations to all four couples – what a great effort!

1st Place – Mridu & Elton
2nd Place – Winnie & Manuel
3rd Place – Karen & John
Runners Up – Maysa & Dan

Special thank you to Evan, George, Sara, Tracie, Mark, Emely, Olivier, Adis, Nora and our great judges Teddy, Rene, Angus, Vanesa and Oscar.

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The doors open at 6:30pm and we have two lessons lined up from 7pm – 8pm downstairs (intermediate) and upstairs (beginner) with Emely and Tracie.

From 8 – 9pm there is social dancing with DJ Efren who always keeps the mood fun and exciting with upbeat, sexy salsa, merengue and bachata songs.

At 9m the competition will begin. We have 4 couples competing in the finals:

Mridu and Elton
Winnie and Manuel
Maysa and Dan
Karen & John

Each will perform a 2 minute to 2.5 minute routine that they have choreographed. The judges (Oscar, Vanesa, Teddy, Rene and Angus) will have the opportunity to rate each couple and, once the 4 couples finish their routines, I will have the opportunity to add up the scores with Sara while the audience enjoys 3 performances by our fellow dance schools: Latin Energy, iFreestyle and Mambo Mosaic. The announcement of the winner will be announced after the schools perform and then DJ Efren will continue on with the social dancing for the rest of the evening.

Hope to see you all out supporting our competitors. I will post the results next week!

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What a fantastic evening Friday turned out to be! With almost 700 people in attendance the 2008 Toronto Dance Salsa Amateur Competition Finals was a smashing success. The evening started off with a beginner lesson with Velina and Jennifer and an intermediate lesson with Rob and Sonya. Despite the large crowds both classes were fun and by the end of the hour the students were able to execute the combinations.

Social dancing began immediately after the lessons until 11pm and although we had so many people in attendance there was still lots of elbow room to really dance.

At 11pm sharp George(ous) began the competition. As usual he was funny, engaging and entertaining and the crowd really enjoyed the introductions and funny stories. The judges were introduced: Teddy and Rene from United Salseros, Angus from iFreestyle, Ana Machada and Salsa Steph from Go Dance Mambo.

Then it was time for the competitors to do their warm up. All the couples warmed up on stage for 2 minutes at which time George called each couple to perform. Each couple had been working for the past 4 weeks to create a choreography to a 2 to 2.5 minute routine and the effort was evident on stage. I was really proud of everyone – most of them had been in my level 1 a year or two ago and to see them on stage in costume performing in front of hundreds of people was amazing and inspiring.

Once the competitors finished I ran to add up the scores with Sara. At this time we had 5 performances by iFreestyle, Go Dance Mambo and Mambo Mosaic. Each one was unique and very entertaining. Thank you to all the performers who took the time and energy to perform that night.

Immediately after the performances George announced the winners – it was a very exciting moment for everyone! The winners were:

1st Place – Kelly and Barry
2nd Place – Camela and Manuel
3rd Place – Therese and James
Runner Up – Marsha and John
Runner Up – Jennifer and Tyrone

Barry and Kelly won the following:
A full Canada Salsa Congress Pass for each of them, a full Miami Salsa Congress Pass for each of them with 1 night hotel stay, a full World Salsa Competition Pass for each, 3 pairs each of dance shoes from both Century Wide shoes, Gabellini Shoes and Addicted to Dance Shoes, dinner & show from Plaza Flamingo, Peridot Rest Lounge Gift Certificates, 1 year membership to Lula Lounge’s salsa Fridays, t-shirts from Shokkwear, Meet Market Adventures Gift Certificate and Trophies

Congratulations to everyone for competing. It is such a courageous thing to do and many people don’t realize the amount of work that goes into performing so I am very proud of everyone.

Thank you to everyone who made the evening rock – Evan, George, the judges, the performers, the sponsors and the competitors. Looking forward to seeing you all next year at the 2009 competition!

The post Competition Last Friday! appeared first on Toronto Dance Salsa.

The competitors are as follows:
Tyrone Sterling & Jennifer Botelho
James Kalfin and Therese Maceda
Barry Ip & Kelly Elliott
John Radtke & Marsha Soefredie
Joseph Sackey & Natasha Gibson
Mildred Quinto and David Charing
Manuel Alvarez & Camela Adams
Jonathan William & Andrea Ferguson

So far the prize list is amazing! We have passes to the World Salsa Championship, the Miami Salsa Congress, the Calgary Salsa Congress, dance shoes from Addicted 2 Dance Shoes, Century Wide Shoes, Gabellini Shoes and much much more.

We also have some great judges participating including:
Teddy Olaso – United Salseros
Angus Dirnbeck – iFreestyle
Vanessa Stay – Latin Energy
Oscar Naranjo – Latin Energy
Ana Machado – Ana Machado Dance School
Salsa Steph – Go Dance Mambo

Hopefully can all join us for the prelimaries which are taking place this weekend. Here are the details:

Toronto Dance Salsa Amateur Competition
6 Degrees Nightclub – 2335 Yonge Street (North of Eglinton)
Sunday June 8th at 7pm
7-8pm lessons for beginners, level 1s and intermediates
8-9pm social dancing
9-10pm competition and performances by Latin Energy and iFreestyle
10 onwards social dancing
Cover: $12

For details on the competition click here for details.

The post The Competition is Coming! appeared first on Toronto Dance Salsa.

They have added cover for men on Wednesdays now. It is $5 and includes coat check which is still a great price but it is good for everyone to know. We didn’t have cash on us and had to go back to the car in the sleet to grab some. Not sure if this is a permanent change but bring extra cash on Wednesdays gentlemen!

I danced for about 1 and a half hours. I am usually busy dancing with friends and very rarely now get asked to dance by people I don’t know but last night I had two new dances as well as a dance with one of my level 4 students and helper, Ozzy. I was just passing by when I heard him say to Sara, one of my instructors, that he was definitely not going to dance with me – one instructor was enough for the evening. So of course we had to dance after that comment 😉 Great job, Ozzy!

I also danced with Evan, Rob, Tawfiq and Angus…all great dancers. I can’t believe how good everyone is getting. Evan has a great trick he does before he goes out on Wednesdays. He looks through our videos of salsa moves or even YouTube for new moves and memorizes one new move and tries to practice it that night so it will be incorporated into his regular repertoire. Works very well!

We saw tons of Toronto Dance Salsa students around so come out on Wednesdays and practice your salsa!

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