We would like to wish a Happy 2009 to all of our friends, family and addicted2salsa fans all over the world. Julie and I hope that 2009 brings joy and happiness to all of you and would like to thank you for your continued support during 2008.
No matter where you dance in the world, we hope you add to your New Year’s resolution to introduce salsa to at least one person so that everyone gets a chance to experience salsa once in their lifetime : whether its the music, the dance or the addicting lifestyle.
Do you have any fun or interesting New Year’s dance/music resolutions?
The 180° Cross Body Lead
In this episode of Addicted2Salsa, we go back to the basics to help you learn how to do a 180° Cross-Body Lead with a Turn (*a few others call this the ‘Coca-Cola’ move). This move is a lot simpler than it may appear. We first start off refreshing you what a Cross-Body Lead with a Turn looks like and from there add-on the extra dance steps required to do a half-revolution. Getting the 180 degree cross body lead will help build the salsa framework for you to execute the 360 cross body lead - which will show you in a future episode. If you have any questions, feel free to post them at http://social.addicted2salsa.com .
The song used in this video is ‘Manias’ by Tito Nieves.
I’ve always liked dance-stepping-like games, such as Dance-Dance-Revolution (DDR) or Pump-It-Up, because not only are they fun, but they are a gateway drug game to real dancing. During my early days of salsa, I used to play DDR endlessly hoping to improve my footwork speed (yes, it did help!). I only wish they would have had more Latin soundtracks, such as Cha-Cha, which makes it great to practice steps and isolations at one’s home. I love watching great dancers play these games to see their creativity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h8Uatvnxz0
I was surprised to find out they even have World Championships for the games now:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvwzpgFCxGw
Kelly Rice over at Ritmo Bello wrote an article providing 5 tips on how to dance on a budget during tough economic times. While I leave it to you to check out her article for the details, she mentions: taking group classes, getting involved with the community, practicing everywhere, watching others dance and setting up a trade agreement (bartering).
Here in San Diego, on average, a group class costs around $10-$13 and cover costs for a club are $8-$10. If you then add the micro-expenses related to salsa (gasoline, bar drinks (water), clothing and an extra shower a day, etc) - it adds up very quick if you go out dancing several times a week.
Knowing that fewer students are able to spend that much in salsa dance classes, paying for gas, parking and cover costs at the club, I decided to add my two cents to help you ‘recession proof’ your salsa lifestyle. While I am not an economist or financial adviser, here is my list of ways to help your salsa lifestyle while on a budget.
Continue reading ‘How to Recession Proof your Salsa Lifestyle’
[Updated] After running all the contestant entries through our algorithm (yes, I actually wrote software for this contest), I’d like to congratulate Peter Elia from New Zealand for winning the Bachata Building Blocks 2 DVD. If you didn’t win this time, not to worry, we will be having contests on a more regular basis!
I have been receiving a few emails about Bachata dancing these past few weeks, so I decided to get in contact with one of our most popular bachata dance instructors in the San Diego area and introduce him to you: Carlos Cinta. Carlos, originally from Chicago, has been dancing for around 5 years with a very unique bachata dance style. While he mentions that he sometimes dances traditional bachata (Dominican Republic), he mainly instructs what we know as modern bachata which combines patterns and shines.
As most dancers, they end up loving what they first start out disliking. He says: “The funny story about bachata is that I absolutely HATED bachata when I first heard it. HATED IT!!! Then I saw a couple in the club dance it the romantic way and I told myself that I had to learn it.” Carlos’ passion for teaching grew when he “constantly saw people only doing the basic step” the entire song. He knew there was more to bachata than those steps and he was committed in promoting it at the clubs. Carlos has then gone on to instruct at numerous events and institutions here in San Diego including San Diego Salsa Festival and Dance After School.
To make more people fall in love with bachata, Carlos has given us a “BACHATA BUILDING BLOCKS VOLUME 2″ Intermediate DVD to raffle off to Addicted2Salsa visitors. If you are interesting in winning this great DVD, leave one comment below on what got you started dancing. The comment doesn’t matter, but they are fun to read and share. We will select a random user comment below on Dec 12th 2008, and the selected user will get the DVD by mail. See the full story and comments for details.
Here is a video of Carlos at one of his lessons.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XFoixNx9vg
Continue reading ‘Bachata Dance Giveaway : Carlos Cinta DVD [Winner]‘
