We are excited to celebrate Valentine’s with you all TDS style!

On Saturday February 13th we will be having a special outing to Acrobat Lounge. As usual we will be holding a beginner and intermediate lesson from 9pm – 10pm. Social dancing will commence at 10pm with DJ Evan. By the way, Evan always accepts song requests so make sure you let him know what you want to hear!

We will also be having a special Valentine’s Day Dancing Game which will get people meeting new people and winning prizes. Come with your partner or on your own as it is a great night to get to know many awesome salseras and salseros.

At 11:30pm we will be having special performances by:
1) The TDS Pro Team
2) United Salseros
3) Latin Groove Productions
4) Brazil Dance World

Cover is only $10 at the door (no advance tickets are necessary). Hope to see you all there!

The post Be My Salsentine Party at Acrobat Lounge! appeared first on Toronto Dance Salsa.

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!

The post The finals are this Sunday! appeared first on Toronto Dance Salsa.

It was an awesome evening – our most organized by far! We opened the doors at 6:30pm and by 7pm when the lessons began we were already starting to fill up the huge venue. Sara and Farnoosh taught the intermediate lesson on stage and Tracie and Mark taught the beginner lesson upstairs.

At 8pm DJ Efren started spinning his very high energy salsa tunes and the lights went down. By this time we had about 400 people in attendance dancing up a storm. Upstairs in the dancer’s lounge the 18 competitors were getting their makeup done professionally by Alice from Mary Kay Cosmetics who volunteered her time to spice up the competitors. A huge thank you to her and her colleague – they were amazing and did a great job!

At 9pm sharp George(eous) our host began the competition. Funny as always (and making fun of me as usual 😉 George thanked our sponsors, the judges and introduced our 18 competitors who warmed up on stage for 2 minutes. Then each competitor was introduced with their bio and performed a freestyle performance for 2 minutes. Here are the names of the competitors in no particular order:

1. Winnie Fung and Manuel Alvarez
2. Mridu Das and Elton Martins
3. Michelle Sui and Bobby Cabral
4. Karen Di Monte and John Radtke
5. Julia Brodyansky and Vincent Cheng
6. Marta Slowik and Alex Florescu
7. Stephanie Cansino and Nick Sagias
8. Eva Wen and Derek Wisniewski
9. Maysa Tani and Dan Tahirkheli

The energy of the crowd was excellent and the judges had the very difficult job of rating each couple. Once all competitors performed Sara and I ran upstairs to tally up the scores and get the names of the 5 couples with the highest scores. At the same time, the adorable kids from Latin Groove Productions performed on stage. Thanks to Oscar for bringing his group to perform – the crowd loved the group!

Finally it was time for the results. Once again, in no particular order, here are the 5 finalist couples who will be competing for the TDS Champion Title:

1. Winnie Fung and Manuel Alvarez
2. Mridu Das and Elton Martins
3. Karen Di Monte and John Radtke
4. Marta Slowik and Alex Florescu
5. Maysa Tani and Dan Tahirkheli

Everyone received an awesome gift bag with prizes like a year’s VIP pass to Six Degrees, TDS t-shirt, El Rancho VIP 4 month pass, passes to Lula Lounge, Plaza Flamingo, Baila Society classes and more. Thank you to the sponsors for the great prizes!

Overall an amazing evening. I can’t wait to experience the final round on Sunday May 31st at 7pm at Six Degrees. Hope to see you all there!

The post The Preliminary Round of the Competition! appeared first on Toronto Dance Salsa.

Over 40 helpers came out the potluck with a huge variety of yummy treats. The tables were loaded down with appetizers, entrees and desserts. There was a great variety which is always a pleasure to see (and eat!).

After the training and dessert, Caryl Cuizon taught an hour and a half shines performance workshop. The basic idea was to teach everyone a shine routine. Then the group would be broken up into 3 groups who would perform the routine in different ways. Some made it sexy, others made it classy and others made it urbane. So the same routine ended up looking three completely different ways which was really fun and exciting to see.

After the workshop the helpers hung around for some social dancing with DJ Evan. Thanks to everyone for coming out and your contributions and looking forward to celebrating the end of the winter semester in March!

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For those who have never been to Lula Lounge, there are great live bands there and a really fun feeling to the club. The club is at the Dufferin and Dundas area. 1585 Dundas St. W., west of Dufferin 416 588 0307.

Here are some upcoming salsa events!

Friday, 21 November 2008
Salsa Dance Party w Cafe Cubano
With their potent blend of dance-floor friendly salsa and high-energy showmanship, Cafe Cubano evoke the spirit of the legendary dance clubs of Havana. Afrolatino Dance Company

Saturday, 22 November 2008
Salsa Dance Party w Cache
Toronto’s Fiercest Salsa Band, Caché delivers hardcore dance music inspired by the vintage salsa sound of the 1970s.

Friday, 28 November 2008
Luis Mario Ochoa Latin Jazz Duo (8pm) and Cimarrón (10 pm)
Luis Mario Ochoa and Cimarron bring their 100% Salsa show to Lula Lounge for a night dedicated to the dancer. This is Buena Vista Social Club night at Lula with give-aways of the Buena Vista Social Club at Carnegie Hall, 8pm latin jazz duo and dance lesson by Dance to Live!

Saturday, 29 November 2008
Salsa Dance Party w Cafe Cubano
With their potent blend of dance-floor friendly salsa and high-energy showmanship, Cafe Cubano evoke the spirit of the legendary dance clubs of Havana.
More Info / Reserve

Friday, 05 December 2008
Salsa Dance Party w Cafe Cubano
With their potent blend of dance-floor friendly salsa and high-energy showmanship, Cafe Cubano evoke the spirit of the legendary dance clubs of Havana. With dance lesson by Bailaboogaloo!

Saturday, 06 December 2008
Salsa Dance Party with Lady Son Y Articulo Veinte
The fabulous Lady Son (Yeti Ajasin) takes the stage with her powerful voice and muy caliente Afro-Cuban rumba/ son band.

Friday, 12 December 2008
The Son Ache Party with DJ Billy Bryans
One of Toronto’s most popular Cuban music groups, Son Ache performs their patented blend of high-energy son montuno that has been packing dance-floors for many years.

Saturday, 13 December 2008
Alberto Alberto y su Orquesta
Fresh off his latest tour with Cuban bandleader Maraca, vocalist extraordinaire Alberto Alberto debuts his new salsa band with original material from his newly released solo album Traigo de Todo.

Saturday, 20 December 2008
Salsa Saturday w Ricky Franco
Dynamic frontman Ricky Franco brings his powerhouse P-Crew Orchestra for a night of hard-core salsa with an R&B edge.

Saturday, 27 December 2008
Salsa Dance Party w Cache
Toronto’s Fiercest Salsa Band, Caché delivers hardcore dance music inspired by the vintage salsa sound of the 1970s.

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The judges have been way too nice. There has been very little critiquing to push the dancers to really become better. The choreography is somewhat fluffy – not edgy and memorable like Mia or Wade or some other amazing choreographers from the U.S. Show. The host is a little fluffy too and needs to develop a little edge herself.

The worst part of the show by far is the costume selection. Many people won’t notice how bad the costumes are but they are terrible. They look tacky and overdone and take away from the dancers and what they are expressing through their movements. If Nico is supposed to be a dark angel, having black wings really is not necessary. He can convey this with his dance, body movement and facials. Between the toy soldiers, clowns, fake afroed disco dancers and other ridiculous costumes, the dancing is lost and that is too bad because the dancers are quite good.

However, I will make an effort to comment on the final shows as we are getting down to the top few dancers and I do want the Canadian show to do well and improve. Hopefully they are reading viewers’ comments and can make some adjustments for next season.

In the next blog I will cover my favourite dancers…

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“Top 5 Ways to Speed Up Your Salsa Dancing Skills

What Level are You On?

Whether you are a beginning, intermediate, or advanced salsa dancer, there are certain tips and tools that will always come in handy when you want to dance at your best. It is one of the greatest things about salsa dancing. We are ALL ALWAYS learning, so that means that even the best dancers that you look up to will never know all there is to know about dancing. If we knew everything there was to know it would quite frankly get boring. Constantly challenging ourselves, as dancers, with new styles, moves and tricks is what keeps us dancing. So with that said there are certain important tips that will never die. I have been dancing socially for about 10 years now. When I feel myself getting rusty, I revert back to the ‘ol basics.

Top 5 Salsa Dancing Tips
1. COUNT 123,4,567,8, that is right…it may sound easy, but even now when I dance with experienced dancers I find myself wondering…”What beat are they dancing on?” Count silently in your head, especially when you are just starting out. I kid you not, I was counting out loud on the dance floor for the first 3 years. Not only did it help me to stay on the beat, but if your partner is observant enough, they might actually hear you and follow your lead.

2. Make salsa tension a top priority. Doesn’t matter if you are the leader or the follower. The connection between the two dancers is what makes salsa what it is. Remember the four points of contact in the closed position. The hands, the leaders hand on the followers shoulder blade, the followers hand on the front of the leaders shoulder, and the leaders and followers elbows that line up when in closed position. Remember to meet your partners tension and adjust to each individual.

3. Watch other dancers. Whether it is the class instructor you are watching, dancers in the salsa clubs, or salsa videos. Watch different styles of dancers and pick the styles you want to adapt to your own. There is no right or wrong style of salsa dancing. The more you make the style your own, the more interesting you dancing style will become. So take a little something from everyone, keep what you like and forget what you don’t.

4. Practice the basic step. This should go without saying, but it really does make the biggest difference. Practice in your kitchen, practice when you are walking around your house. The more you engrain the basic step into your muscle memory, the easier all of the other turns and patterns will become. Build a solid foundation with the basic step. It will never fail you.

5.Last, but certainly not least, listen to salsa music. You are what you eat, so to speak. If you listen to salsa music all the time, you will get more and more familiar with how the rhythm of the music progresses, and how your dancing will speed up and slow down with the music. Dancers connection to the music is really what make them amazing dancers. It is not about showing all your flashy moves, it is about letting the music move you.

The most important thing is to enjoy yourself. This may seem like a give in, but it is what salsa dancing is all about. It is natural to get nervous when you are first starting out. But we all started somewhere, so just communicate with the person you are dancing with and just remember that they were right where you are at some point in their dancing lives.”

The post Good Article About Improving Your Dance Skills appeared first on Toronto Dance Salsa.

The evening began with a beginner lesson downstairs with Sara Sharifpoor and Velina Sotirova and an intermediate lesson with Evan and myself upstairs. We had a great turnout for the lessons and I was happy to see that the students picked up the combination with greater ease than last week at Plaza Flamingo.

DJ Evan then got the night started with lots of great salsa, merengue and bachata. I saw plenty of faces of new students and past students so it was great to see everyone enjoying themselves. I had some fun dances myself – thanks to Frank, John, Vince, Mark, Rob and anyone else I danced with for the fun times!

Our next outing is on Friday October 17th at 9:30pm at Plaza Flamingo. Also keep Saturday November 1st open as that is our traditional Halloween Dress Up Salsa Party, this year at Peridot!

The post Peridot last Saturday! appeared first on Toronto Dance Salsa.

We started the evening with a beginner and intermediate workshop. Kimberly and Nina taught the beginner class and along with the salsa basics covered Cuban inside turns and sexy styling. Evan and I did the intermediate class and really challenged the group. Just remember when you are doing a club class that the quality of the class will not be at the level of a group class. It is harder to hear, there are more students of all types of skill levels and the combination is longer. So just keep in mind that it is not necessary to get the whole combination. Whatever you can remember and feel comfortable executing is fine. And don’t leave the club without reviewing the combo at least ten if not twenty times so you commit it to memory.

After the lesson the lights went down and the social dancing began. The DJ played non stop salsa for 1.5hrs which was a great opportunity to really practice and get into the swing of things. I loved seeing beginners dancing with intermediate students and vice versa. It was also great seeing old students I haven’t seen in a while and I encourage everyone to get back into the salsa groove even if you have taken the summer off as this fall and winter will have plenty of dancing opportunities and a chance to meet great new friends.

Our next outing is this Saturday Sept 27th at 9pm at Peridot…see you all there!

The post Friday at Plaza Flamingo appeared first on Toronto Dance Salsa.

TWOSOME EVENTS PRESENTS…

We have another great event lined up for the September 20th weekend starring Alex Da Silva from ‘So you think you can Dance’, World Professional South American Show Dance Champions Andre & Natalie Paramonov, four-time World Swing Dance Champion Yuval Hod, Nino Digiulio, Julie Epplett, Latin Energy and more.

* Over 30 hours of dance workshops
* Performances by Yuval Hod, Alex Da Silva, Natalie & Andre Paramonov, Latin Energy, and more
* Dinner on Saturday Evening
* General Dancing from DJ Pat Gullo playing Latin & Ballroom Music and DJ Nino Digiulio playing Salsa & West Coast Swing Music in a Separate Room
* And our new feature, STUDENT PERFORMANCES. There will be two groups of approximately 30 people in each group that will dedicate 4 classes over the course of 2 days to do a choreographed routine on Sunday. One routine will be choreographed by Alex Da Silva, and the other by Andre Paramonov.

PRICES:
EXTENDED TO AUG 31st *EARLY BIRD*
Complete Package *BEST DEAL*
$199.00 or $179.00 for group of 10 or more
Saturday Workshops Only $90.00
Saturday Evening Only $85.00
Sunday Workshops Only $90.00

After AUG 31st
Complete Package * BEST DEAL*
$229.00 or $205.00 for group of 10 or more
Saturday Workshops Only $99.00
Saturday Evening Only $95.00
Sunday Workshops Only $99.00

Saturday Late Night Pass (11:00pm – 2:00am) Available only at the event for $15.00 ea
Sunday Spectator Pass (5:00- 6:00pm) Available only at the event for $10.00 ea

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON-0tgs0mZg and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPSE7jxP1fE

For further details of thisupcoming event, please visit www.twosomedance.com

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