Below was our CBC adventure!

On Tuesday Evan, Sara, Emely and I met at 7:45am inside the CBC building downtown to film our segment of the show “Steven and Chris”, a new and very popular daytime talk show with the host of HGTV’s Design Rivals.

We were shown to the Green Room to relax while they prepared for our walk through. What was fun to note is that this is the same Green Room that all the top celebrities hang out at when visiting George Stroumboulopoulos on The Hour so we were very happy to hang out in that room!

Everyone who works on the show was super friendly, caring and professional and we were able to run through our segment several times to get a feel for the floor, space and meet Steven and Chris.

Then it was off to makeup which the girls really enjoyed. With hundreds of lipsticks and eye shades, we were in girl heaven. At 11am we sat down to enjoy the filming of the first two segments in preparation for our own segment. And finally it was our turn.

Evan and I started the segment by doing a 30 second freestyle dance. Then Steven and Chris joined us on stage to talk a little bit about the benefits of salsa and why it is so hot. Chris was quite nervous about learning how to dance but he was a good sport and very soon Emely had partnered with Chris and Sara partnered with Steven and we were showing the guys the basic salsa step, the right turn, and a cross body lead.

Steven was really getting the hang of it but Chris was struggling a bit and even tried to run off the stage with Emely (all in fun of course!). It was definitely a light hearted and fun segment and the guys were great sports.

Check out the link above and feel free to put list a comment with CBC about what you thought!

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Yesterday an article in Reader’s Digest featured Toronto Dance Salsa in an article just in time for Valentine’s Day called “Put Your Love in Motion”. It is a fun article about doing romantic active activities with your sweetie.

AND we were just called by CBC! They have a great new show called Steven and Chris with the awesome designer guys from HGTV’s Design Rivals.

It looks like we are going to teach Steven and Chris how to salsa dance on Tuesday and the show will be aired on Friday, February 8th at 2pm on CBC. That’s next week so hopefully you can catch Evan, Sara, Emely and myself dancing some salsa on CBC!

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Evan and I will be with the host and we have Sara and Rob, Kimberly and Mark, and Emmett and Velina demonstrating the different phases of the DVD. Each of them had to take a day off work to do this which is really great of them so thank you again, guys!

If you would like to check us out The Shopping Channel is Channel 19 in Toronto. Not sure what it is in other areas.

Will report on Wednesday how it went!

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Private Lessons – Part 3: Bring a Camera

Guest writer: Evan Carmichael

When you are doing a private lesson I have said that you typically learn three times as quickly as in a regular class. In other words, in one hour of a private lesson you will know how to do what ordinarily takes you three hours to learn in group classes.

It can be hard to remember all the moves that you go over in a private lesson and if you don’t practice you will forget it. It’s also easy to forget the exact way a move is done. Because you are expected to practice at home, you don’t get as much time with the instructor to practice during the private. Chances are you are going to forget some of the exact footwork and body work and end up practicing the moves incorrectly.

A great way to prevent this is to bring a camera to your private lesson. Ask your instructor if, at the end of the private lesson, you can record the moves that you learned over the hour long session. The best way to do it is to have the instructor call out the move and then proceed to demonstrate it in slow motion as well as in real time. This will give you a good understanding of exactly how the moves should look.

Most instructors will not have a problem if you record the summary session. It will help you absorb the information better and will make you a better dancer. They might ask you to keep it to yourself and not post it on YouTube and other video-sharing websites, which is a reasonable request.

By bringing a camera and recording the moves you have a way to practice the exact motions so you do not make a mistake and you can etch it into your muscle memory. Remember that practice makes perfect but you need to practice the correct way of doing the moves so remember to bring a camera to the next private you go to!

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So now that I am finally an official blogger, I peruse the internet to see what other dance bloggers are writing about and of course it is all about the TV hit “So You Think You Can Dance”. We have a new batch of 20 finalists competing for the coveted “Favourite Dancer in the US” spot. Last week, we were privy to the first salsa routine by Lauren and Neil which didn’t go too well for the couple. If you missed the segment here it is courtesy of YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bfoZKIrFRM

I haven’t loved many of the salsa routines shown on this show. Alex Da Silva always fulfills the tricks, lifts and dips drama that we all love but I do wish there was some of the smoothness of the New York on 2 dancing involved with a little more Afro Cuban body movement and finesse. However my favourite salsa routine by Alex Da Silva took place last season when Benji (last season’s winner) danced the Black Mambo with his partner and cousin Heidi (also a finalist). Check it out…love the speed, crispness and musical accents. Very fun performance!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bfoZKIrFRM

Regardless of the salsa routines, you can’t help but loving So You Think You Can Dance. Maybe in the future they will rotate their salsa choreographers and we can see a Frankie Martinez routine!

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