We had almost 250 people in attendance and when I left people were still unstoppable, dancing the night away.

The evening started off with 3 separate lessons. Kimberly and Velina taught the absolute beginners the salsa basics with turns. Rob and Sara taught the level 1s a sexy routine and Evan and I challenged the level 2s and up.

Our former student, helper and club instructor Kerem made his DJing debut last night as DJ K and he rocked the house with my favourite salsa songs. The feedback was excellent and we will be sure to have DJ K come back and DJ for us in the future.

I would say 80% of those who came last night had a costume and it was amazing to see. Over 30 people entered the best costume competition and with 7 finalists it was a very tough call. However Roger Chandhok won the competition as a remarkable twin copy of Michael Jackson, moon walk and all! Roger won two tickets to see the Willie Colon concert next Saturday at the Docks.

It was also the birthday of Sara, one of our instructors, and we all celebrated salsa style with a 2 part salsa dance – Happy Birthday Sara!

Photos will hopefully be up by tomorrow so check the events section of the website to see the awesome costumes!

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The evening began with our lessons. Kimberly and Emely took the beginner students into a separate room and taught them salsa basics, the Cuban inside turn and some Suzy Qs – very sexy! Evan and I taught the level 2s and up a difficult level 4 type combination. It was great to see everyone getting the combo and trying it out during the evening.

After some great social dancing we had our Amateur Salsa Competition Champions, Alfred and Nina, perform for us their winning routine. It was fun and energetic with some great tricks and dips – very entertaining!

It was Anthony Fajardo’s birthday (he has been a helper with us for quite a while) and we tired him out with a birthday dance.

When I left at 10:30pm the dance floor was still hopping – great to see everyone enjoying the evening so much!

Next outing: Plaza Flamingo either Oct 12th or 19th.

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Many students want to get some extra practice so here are so places to go salsa dancing:

1) Toronto Dance Salsa Practice Session – every Monday beginning October 29th there will be an hour practice session at the Adelaide Club (Bay & Adelaide) where an instructor and several helpers will be around to dance, ask questions, catch up on a missed class, etc. Only $4 for the hour!

2) Toronto Dance Salsa Outings – every two weeks on different weekend evenings we take all our students out to local salsa clubs. We have a workshop for an hour where we teach you cool new turnpatterns and then everyone social dances. What is great is that the crowd is all students so you feel comfortable and not intimidated. Our first outing is this Sunday, Sept 30th at 7pm at Montana Lounge.

3) Toronto Salsa Practice Session – this is not a Toronto Dance Salsa event but we highly recommend it. On Saturdays at Trinity Church downtown there is a big practice session – it is cheap and fun and purely for practice and enjoyment: torontosalsapractice.com

4) At any of our great salsa clubs – my favourite club is Babaluus in Yorkville but don’t go on Friday or Saturday as it is too packed. Sunday, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are a better option. Check out the list of clubs available by clicking here.

5) At home! You can grab one of our level 1 DVDs and practice at home on your own or with a friend.

Hope this helps…get out and dance!

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Even though it was hot in there, it didn’t stop the crowd from taking advantage of the lessons and dancing non-stop. I was happy to see lots of beginners on the dance floor, practicing their right turns and open breaks and, as usual, I as always proud to see the level 3s and up practicing the more complicated moves and looking really great!

It was nice of everyone to remember that I recently celebrated my birthday and, in the usual salsa tradition, I received a birthday dance (in fact, not one but two and later on an added bonus). A birthday dance basically means everyone gathers around in a circle and takes a quick turn dancing with the birthday boy or girl. It usually lasts one or two songs. Yesterday was quite hot and it was hard to dance more then 2 songs in a row with close to 20 partners, switching from leading to following, from dancing on 1 to dancing on 2. However, it was great fun and thanks to all who participated and Evan for setting it up!

Later on Teddy Olaso and the gang from United Salseros/Mambo Mosaic did another dance which as also quite hilarioun and I danced with many partners I haven’t seen in a while…thanks to Jessie, Brian, Jason, Kerem, and more for the dance!

Many people have asked me questions about birthday dance etiquette so tomorrow I will offer some tips on this salsa tradition.

Our next outing is Friday, August 24th at 8:30pm at Plaza Flamingo for a special evening of bachata with Alex Bello. More info to follow!

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We are definitely lucky to have found Montana’s. Unfortunately they will only allow us to host a salsa night on Sundays as opposed to Fridays or Saturdays. However, if we start early enough (7pm seems to work quite well) then people will dance until 10pm and still get their salsa fix.

That is exactly what happened last night. We have about 120ppl in attendance for our classes from 7-8pm and by 8:30pm we had almost 200ppl there. We were busiest at about 9pm and by 10pm people started to go home. The party was still going at 11:30pm when I left after a long day of classes at Northridge and the outing which was great to see but it was nice to start early and go to bed early for Monday morning.

Kimberly and Ildi taught the absolute beginner class, Rob and Sara taught the level 1s and Evan and I taught the intermediate class. It is always so nice to see students executing the moves during the night and everyone looked great dancing!

We are trying to get our next outing there too so fingers crossed!

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