Friday, September 25th – OUTING TO PERIDOT LOUNGE – (81 Bloor Street East) – OPEN TO EVERYONE! Beginner and intermediate lesson available from 10:00 – 10:30pm. Cover is $10 and includes lessons. 250 people expected.

Saturday, October 17th – OUTING TO ACROBAT LOUNGE- (2464 Yonge St just North of Eglinton) – OPEN TO EVERYONE! Beginner and intermediate lesson available from 9:00 to 10:00pm. Cover is $10 and includes lessons. 250ppl expected.

Saturday, October 31st – SPECIAL HALLOWEEN DRESS UP PARTY AT ACROBAT LOUNGE– (2464 Yonge St just North of Eglinton) – OPEN TO EVERYONE! Beginner and intermediate lesson available from 9:00 to 10:00pm. Cover is $10 and includes lessons. 250ppl expected. Prizes for best costumes!!

Sunday, Sept 27th, Oct 4th, Oct 18th and Oct 25th anytime from 6:00 – 9:00pm SUNDAY SALSA SOCIAL AT EMPRESS WALK STUDIO! OPEN TO EVERYONE! These fun and comfortable practice sessions take place every Sunday. Come with or without a partner. Helpers around to dance with and answer questions. Cover is $7 with water. Over 100 people expected every week. NO SOCIAL Oct 11th!

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For those students who were asking to see our new son, here is Hayden. He salsa danced for 9 months in my tummy before arriving June 24th. Now he is learning to kick and move his arms and soon he will be the short guy all the ladies will be dancing with at the socials 🙂

So I started teaching on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays at Empress. I am teaching every level we have to offer from level 1 all the way through to level 6 which doesn`t happen every semester so I am really luck this time to get to experience all the levels. My students and helpers rock and made me feel like I hadn`t been away for long.

So I can`t wait to get to know my students better. Hope to see everyone out at our outing tomorrow evening (Friday, Sept 25th) to Peridot Lounge or at our social on Sunday evening at Empress.

Happy dancing!

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Here is an updated list of our summer outings:

Saturday, June 27th – OUTING TO PERIDOT LOUNGE- (81 Bloor Street East at Yonge) – OPEN TO EVERYONE! Beginner and intermediate lesson available from 10:00 to 10:30pm. Cover is $10 and includes lessons. 250ppl expected.

Saturday, July 11th – OUTING TO ACROBAT LOUNGE- (2464 Yonge St just North of Eglinton) – OPEN TO EVERYONE! Beginner and intermediate lesson available from 9:00 to 10:00pm. Cover is $10 and includes lessons. 250ppl expected.

Friday, July 24th at 9:30pm – OUTING TO PLAZA FLAMINGO – TENTATIVE – (423 College Street at Bathurst) – OPEN TO EVERYONE! Beginner and intermediate lesson available from 9:30 to 10:30pm. Cover is $10 and includes lessons. 250 people expected.

Saturday, August 8th – OUTING TO ACROBAT LOUNGE- (2464 Yonge St just North of Eglinton) – OPEN TO EVERYONE! Beginner and intermediate lesson available from 9:00 to 10:00pm. Cover is $10 and includes lessons. 250ppl expected.

Sunday, June 28th, July 5th, 12th, 19th and 26th anytime from 6:00 – 9:00pm SUNDAY SALSA SOCIAL AT EMPRESS WALK STUDIO! OPEN TO EVERYONE! These fun and comfortable practice sessions take place every Sunday. Come with or without a partner. Lots of helpers around to dance with and answer questions. Cover is $7 with water. Over 100 people expected every week.

Hope to see you all there!

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The outings that are coming up are no exception. Here they are for the next two months:

1) Saturday April 18th at 9pm – Acrobat Lounge at 2464 Yonge Street (N of Eglinton)
2) Sunday April 19th from 6-9pm – Sunday Social at Empress (only social in April)
3) Sunday April 26th at 7pm – TDS Amateur Competition Preliminaries at Six Degrees
4) Saturday May 9th at 9:45pm – Peridot Lounge at 81 Bloor St E (at Yonge)
5) Sunday May 31st at 7pm – TDS Amateur Competition Finals at Six Degrees

We will keep you informed of any other events we hold. Please note there are no socials on long weekends (Easter Sunday April 12th) and no socials on the competition evenings.

There are also no classes on Easter Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday. There are classes on as usual on Saturday April 11th.

See you at the next outing!

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1) Peridot Lounge – Saturday February 21st – 81 Bloor Street East (at Yonge)
Beginner and intermediate lessons from 10:00 – 10:30pm

2) Plaza Flamingo – Friday March 6th – 423 College Street (at Bathurst)
Beginner and intermediate lessons from 9:30 – 10:30pm

3) Acrobat Lounge – Saturday March 21st – 2464 Yonge Street (at Eglinton)
Beginner and intermediate lessons from 9:00 – 10:00pm
Debut performance by the TDS Professional Dance Team at 11:30pm

As usual we also have our weekly Sunday practice sessions called “socials” at Empress Walk from 6-9pm so come out and make new friends, practice your moves and get a great workout.

Hope to see you all at these events!

Sharon

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The evening started at 9pm with our lessons. Tracie and Mark taught the beginner lesson and Evan and I did the intermediate lesson. Although the space was small and the classes were packed as usual it was still so much fun to see everyone learning and practicing their turn pattern.

At about 10:30pm the band came on. The name of the band is Conjunto La-ca-lú and this was the first time I have seen them perform. They were awesome. Crisp sound, plenty of energy and great unity. Here is a bit about them:

Conjunto La-ca-lú is one of Toronto’s newest salsa bands. Rooted in the Cuban sonora tradition, this group couples a dynamic three-trumpet horn section with a rhythm section featuring Afro-Cuban hand percussion, piano, bass, and tres. This particular instrumentation allows the group to achieve a classic sound while being sufficiently versatile to appeal to the myriad tastes of their contemporary audience. Conjunto La-ca-lú’s repertoire borrows heavily from its predecessors—such as Conjunto Clasico—yet also includes a number of original arrangements of salsa and pop standards as well as a growing catalogue of original compositions. Conjunto La-ca-lú! is co-directed by pianist Sean Bellaviti and percussionist Luis “Luisito” Orbegoso, and features some of this city’s most talented and hard working musicians.

The band had 3 sets which went on to almost 2am. Needless to say it was great to see familiar faces and to meet new students and TDS friends.

Our next outing is Saturday Feb 21st at 9:45pm at Peridot Resto Lounge at 81 Bloor St E at Yonge. Can’t wait to see you all there!

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The evening began with lessons as usual. Velina and Mark taught a beginner lesson and Evan and myself taught the intermediate turn pattern. The classes were packed and hopefully everyone could hear us over the noise. Regardless of the usual sound issues, everyone seemed to do really well with the combinations and hopefully the turn pattern stuck with everyone throughout the evening so that it became muscle memory.

At 11:15pm our TDS Helper Team were introduced for their performance. For those who don’t know, about once a year we hold a special class just for helpers that teaches them how to become performers. This includes learning a professional choreography by our awesome choreographer Caryl (go Caryl!), fitting for costumes, and makeup assistance from professional makeup artist Shirley Yung (thanks Shirley!). The team, after months of practicing, has now performed at least twice and has been invited to several other functions to show their stuff.

Here is a list of the performers:

Barry Ip
George Reichert
James Anes
Sandra Villella
Tracey Hsieh
Winnie Fung
Manuel Alvarez
Marta Slowik
Ozzy Gul
Phoebe Yu-Kowalski

Needless to say the group looked amazing. They were polished, energetic and I was super proud of their hard work and dedication. Congratulations to them as well as David and Mildred who are part of the group but could not be in attendance on Friday.

Hopefully everyone had a great time at Plaza. Our next two outings are as follows:

1) Friday Feb 6th at Lula Lounge
2) Saturday Feb 21st at Peridot Lounge

See you all there!

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The evening started off with a beginner lesson with Velina and Stella downstairs and an intermediate lesson upstairs with Evan and I which was really fun. The groups got the combos quickly and continued to practice the new moves throughout the evening. At 10:30pm the lights went down and the music was turned up and the dancing began. More and more people arrived, all with amazing, elaborate costumes. We saw everything from the scary costumes such as vampires and demons, to movie costumes such as the trio in the Wizard of Oz, to superhero costumes, to some very unique costumes (some I didn’t even understand).

We had a group birthday dance with Sara, Ozzy and Jennifer – happy birthday to you all!

I was the bubblicious Girl all in pink and handed out a lot of bubble gum. That was fun! Thanks to all my dances that evening – it was great to see some old students drop by as well as the United Salseros group.

Thanks to everyone who came out and made an effort with their costumes. It was a great night due to all of you!

Next outing: Friday Nov 14th at 9:30pm at Plaza Flamingo…

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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!

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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!

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