The evening began with a fun hour long lesson. Tracie and Mark taught the beginner lesson upstairs and Emely and Olivier taught the intermediate lesson on the main floor. After an hour of social dancing the competition began and the four finalists each took the stage to perform their choreographed routines. No limits on dips and allowances on lifts meant some very showy and entertaining tricks from all the competitors.

While we tabulated the judges’ scores, we were privy to three awesome performances by Latin Energy, the Semi Pro Team at iFreestyle and United Salseros. Thank you so much to each performer and the schools for a wonderful and inspiring display of salsa!

By the time the last school finished performing, the results were in and here they are below. Congratulations to all four couples – what a great effort!

1st Place – Mridu & Elton
2nd Place – Winnie & Manuel
3rd Place – Karen & John
Runners Up – Maysa & Dan

Special thank you to Evan, George, Sara, Tracie, Mark, Emely, Olivier, Adis, Nora and our great judges Teddy, Rene, Angus, Vanesa and Oscar.

The post TDS Amateur Salsa Competition Update! 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.

Over 450 people came out to Six Degrees last night to enjoy the evening and cheer on the competitors and performers for our second annual Toronto Dance Salsa Amateur Competition.

The evening started at 7pm with three lessons. Velina and Lovelize taught the absolute beginners, Sara and Rob taught the level 1s and Emely and Emmett taught the intermediate lesson on stage with a very sexy dip. Everyone did a great job considering the massive amount of students that came out.

Social dancing began at 8pm and it was nice to see salseros of any level dancing together. The competitors and judges also arrived by this time and we were able to draw the order of the competitors. Alfred & Nina, last year’s competition winners, also gave a short pep talk to the group of competitors and it was awesome to see all the competitors excited and pumped about going on stage.

At 9pm sharp George a.k.a. Georgeous, the man who took sexy back, and our Host with the Most started the competition. As usual George was funny, engaging and kept the spirit of the crowd high.

George asked all the competitors to do a 2 minute warm up on stage and then introduced the judges: Teddy and Rene from United Salseros, Vanesa and Oscar from Latin Energy, Ana Machado and Salsa Steph from Go Dance Mambo.

Here were the order of the competitors:

David & Milded
Tyrone & Jennifer
John & Marsha
James & Therese
Joseph & Natasha
Manuel & Camela
Jonathan & Andrea
Barry & Kelly

Everyone did an amazing job and we got to see lots of fun body waves, dips and tricks.
The crowd was great at keeping the energy high. After everyone finished I quickly gathered the numbers from the judges and, with Sara’s assistance (thanks Sara!) we added the numbers while iFreestyle and Latin Energy dazzled the crowd with some awesome performances.

Finally we were done and George proceeded, with the help of Salsa Steph, to give away 4 tickets to the Salsa Chocolate Party happening next Friday, 4 DVDs from Salsa Steph regarding Timing & Rhythm and 4 TDS DVDs.

The George called out the 5 finalist who will be performing a choreographed routine for the finals. In no particular order, here they are:

Tyrone & Jennifer
John & Marsha
James & Therese
Manuel & Camela
Barry & Kelly

Congrats to everyone who competed – whether or not you go to the finals doesn’t take away from the big accomplishment of last night. Some competitors had only been salsa dancing for 7month to 1 year so that is a huge accomplishment.

More details of the finals to come!

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