It was an awesome evening with almost 50 people participating in the festivities. We began at 5:30pm with a big potluck. The tables were overflowing with amazing food from around the world and the group was able to catch up after the summer and meet new members of the group.

At 6:30pm we began the training and brainstorming portion of the evening to discuss helper duties, responsibilities, feedback and ideas. Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and participation.

It was at this point that I announced our new initiative: Helper of the Semester. We will be choosing a Helper of the Semester quarterly to recognize their contributions. Our first Helper of the Semester for the summer quarter is David Charing! Tomorrow I will write about David’s contributions so you will all know why we chose him but don’t forget to congratulate Dave when you see him in class or at the socials/outings.

At 7:30pm we began our 2 hour Casino Rueda workshop with Bong Gonzalez. This was a blast. We formed a giant casino wheel and traded partners with ease after a brief introduction to the mechanics of the dance. The mistakes were hilarious and it was really a memorable workshop.

We finished the evening off with desserts and dancing until almost midnight. Overall a great evenings. It was great to see everyone after the summer and I can’t wait to hold the recognition evening for the summer helpers at the end of the month!

The post Helper Get Together appeared first on Toronto Dance Salsa.

We met at Bevermead Beach in the Kawartha’s – it is about 1.15hrs drive from Toronto. To my surprise people were early and assisted us in setting up the volleyball net on the beach. By 11:30am over 25 helpers were in attendance playing some seriously competitive beach volleyball, frisbee, kiteflying, and relaxing by the water. We even had some brave souls jump in the lake for a dip.

2 hours later we jumped in our cars and made a 9 vehicle driving line to Evan’s parents Lakehouse. It is an unbelievable home right on Lake Shemong with all the toys (hot tub, boat, tubes, floating toys, etc). We had an amazing BBQ lunch there with home made hamburgers, BBQ chicken, salads and corn and then wasted no time in taking turns boat riding, trying to dunk the passengers behind us on the inflatable hotdog, dipping in the jacuzzi, swimming in the lake and much more.

By 6pm everyone gathered around the karioke machine and proceeded to sing to the oldies and John Radke took out his guitar and serenaded us with some cool tunes. Annamarie (Evan’s mother and the hostest with the mostest) made everyone shakers and we were able to sing and rattle our shakers to the music.

We followed this off by a BBQ dinner of Italian Sausages, salads and an ice cream sundae bar. During dinner we had some Toronto Dance Salsa trivia and after dinner we retired to the bunkey which is a great area overlooking the lake for some games.

There was a huge amount of laughs and it was a very exciting day. I am so happy and proud to have such an amazing group of helpers and I thank everyone for their energy, enthusiasm and participation. Photos to be posted very soon!

Final huge thanks go to Annamarie, David and Evan for making the day unforgettable.

Oh no, the pressure is on to beat this outing…what to do next???

The post Helper Outing appeared first on Toronto Dance Salsa.