I hope something like this never happens to salsa songs: http://is.gd/b62F . I may need a cochlear implant after listening to this.
Updates from Anthony Persaud RSS
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3 weeks, 4 days ago |
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1 month ago |
I saw this comment on a video of ours in YouTube and I liked it very much. It was a great analogy of comparing different salsa styles by a user named tommrod:
“Salsa is a language, and as a language, it can be spoken in many accents, slang terms, and varying tone as one may like.”
For some reason, it just never occurred to me that this was a perfect analogy for “understanding” different salsa styles. A lot of dancers tend to be on the “Cali Colombia Salsa is the best”, or “LA on1 is true salsa”…etc. In reality, just as the Spanish language, even though there are proper ways to speak Spanish (grammar, spelling, syntax..etc) - we do come to accept the diversity of Spanish dialects. On1, On2, Casino, Pachanga, Cali…. They are all just different dialetcs of salsa dancing, each with their own variations on accents as well. The diversity is innumerable.
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1 month, 2 weeks ago |
@Djung121
Of course you can practice by yourself - it is highly recommended. If you are a beginner, the simplest way is to continue to listen closely to music to make sure you can find the rhythm and beat to any song. Training the ear is probably one of the first steps to dancing properly to salsa.
Second, naturalize your footwork. By this I mean, try to force your upper body to do some action, while you lower body (feet) is doing simple footwork (suzy cues, footwork for a cross body lead). This will help you doing footwork during combinations easier. Do all this while you have a favorite song playing. When I first started learning to dance salsa, I used to fold laundry while listening to my favorite song. Folding laundry in the air with your hands while dancing salsa with your feet really helped my initial dancing.
One of the best ways to develop personal style is to play your favorite song (I mean a song that really gets you moving) and dance in front of a mirror. Play around with your footwork, body movement and isolations, and simple spins to the song you are listening to. Try to experiment with moves you have obtained from other sources: other dances, martial arts, physical training. Anything goes - do what you think looks good in the mirror. This also builds dance confidence. If you can’t do salsa shines (footwork) in front of yourself without feeling adequate, it will be harder in front of a stranger.
Hope this gets you started, but there is definitely a lot of things you can do to improve your salsa without a partner.
Also, I receive a lot of emails from soldiers in the military dancing salsa. You might want to see who else in your area is interested as well. Maybe start a small salsa club group in your free time.
On a personal note, I’d like to thank you for your service overseas. It is highly appreciated! Thanks.
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1 month, 2 weeks ago |
I had received a question from a user:
“Hello. Just wanted to say thanks for the videos I think they’re great even though I just started they are very easy to follow along. I just have a question. On1 is said to be the easier to learn, but On2 looks more fun and I like where the breaks are in the music more. Do you still recommend that I learn On1 until I’m comfortable with it, then move on to On2, or is it not necessarily a bad idea to learn On2? Thank you.”
My answer is that it first depends on your local salsa scene. If most of the dancers there dance on1 and you are a beginner, it is better work out the fundamentals in the timing that will provide you with the most dances. This however, will require more time to convert from on1 to on2 timing (on2 is just a bit harder if you’ve formed habits). However, if you have some dancers in your scene that are willing/able to dance on2 and you really enjoy dancing on2 - I say go for it. One of the best ways to learn on2 is joining a dance team that dances on that timing. You can get all of your timing practice in, while being able to know dancers that can dance on that timing as well.
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1 month, 3 weeks ago |
@Gallo, I used to live in Minnesota a few years ago during my salsa time there. There used to be a club called ‘The Quest’ which would have salsa dancing on Monday nights. However, I think it might have closed.
You may want to try the list over at Salsa Power. http://www.salsapower.com/cities/us/minnesota.htm
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2 months, 1 week ago |
Found this awesome video for a different style of salsa body movement for men. It looks like a mixture of karate/tai-chi and rowing boats.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKm0xL2zWBA
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2 months, 1 week ago |
I enjoy this song very much. I thought I’d share it for those who don’t get much access to salsa/cha-cha music outside of the US!
Download: Morning Cha-Cha
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2 months, 2 weeks ago |
@Davethe3rd
I have added the forums link back to its old state: http://addicted2salsa.com/forums/
Hope you find what you are looking for. If you have questions, be sure to ask them here (since the forums will slowly go away).
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2 months, 2 weeks ago |
That is a great start! I’ve said it again, most of the work of learning salsa is on helping your brain to think and process information, and respond in a manner that we are not used to. One of the greatest milestone a salser@ will have is the ability to slow things down (like a “Matrix” ability). As a beginner, I remember how much work it was to pull-off a cross-body lead with turn to a 180. Everything seemed to move so fast, that it felt I couldn’t perform the move properly or even combine multiple patterns together: I needed a basic in-between to think about what to do next.
However, after several months of more dancing, I had my ‘Matrix’ experience. Something had clicked in my head. As I was dancing, I felt that everything felt much slower than normal. I did not feel as rushed as before. It felt as if I had more time to think through the moves, know what was happening between my partner and I, more time to mind my surroundings (columns/other dancers taking up too much space), and extra ‘memory’ to figure out and retain what the next 16 counts of moves would be. It was an amazing experience, similarly to learning how to sprint from walking. Having this new ’skill’ which I think every dancer develops, also aids in your everyday life and work. While it is said that most people only use 10% of their brains, I think dancers, having forced themselves to develop this complex thinking skill, get an extra 5%.
I’m not a neurologist, however, I think what happens is that the brain ends up either strengthening paths to perform those moves, or makes ’shorter’ connections to those repeated motor instructions. This makes it a lot easier to manage these tasks. And because you end up saving time by ‘thinking less’, it feels like you can perform many tasks in parallel - maintain timing, protect the lady in a crowded nightclub, add body movement, lead patterns properly,
fix errors if a pattern goes wrong, keep our feet moving… (the list goes on)I look forward to when you reach this milestone.
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2 months, 3 weeks ago |
@greeneggs
You try using the instrumentation loops that are provided with Garageband. You can find cool tutorial videos on how to use Garageband on Apple’s website. If you come up with cool tracks, send it our way - we would love to hear your creativity!
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2 months, 3 weeks ago |
Everyone knows about the great David Stein here in San Diego, directory of Majesty In Motion Dance Co. (I’m currently on their Pro Team). Well, I just found one of my favorite (and funniest) instructional dance videos of him from way back in Orange County, CA. Since I am always about learning how to shoot better instructional videos, I take cue from this one: Never try to shoot videos while intoxicated. This is all in good fun.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArcPkh1-Yc0
I’m sure “my time” will come someday where I will have to look back at videos of myself teaching and dancing from the Iowa State years… but until then, I thought I’d share the “salsa classics”.
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2 months, 3 weeks ago |
@donv69
You are correct with the cowbell being on 1,3,5 and 7. However, that instrument may not be prevalent in more ‘mambo-styled’ or ‘modern salsa’ songs. You will sometimes have to rely on the Piano or the ‘ti-ki-pah!’ sound, where the ‘ti’ is your 1 or 5. The best way to determine the beat for any song is to find the Conga slap (which requires serious training of your listening skills). Once you find the conga slap (which mark the 2 and 6), it is easy then to the clave. Since all other instruments in a song play relative to the clave, it because extremely easy to find any of the other beats.
To prevent some frustrations, you may also discover that songs between the 1960s - early 1980s will have rhythm changes , which will also throw you off. For example, you may have found the 1 and the 5 correctly, but in the middle of the song, there may be a rhythm change that will invert the location of the 1 and 5 for a short period of time. This is because a musician may want to play with the clave (switching it from 2-3 to 3-2 or vice versa) - however, this is a longer explanation than what I have here.
I’m not sure what you mean by reproducing the quality of music because it usually depends on the DJ on how they have their Equalizer set during the night.
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2 months, 4 weeks ago |
@palinaurus
Thanks! I found it on iTunes. I think I’ll add it to he next episode of cover songs. “Clocks” by Coldplay to Cuban Cha-Cha . It was under ‘Rhythms del Mundo & Coldplay’. After sampling the rest of the album, it is not that bad. I was impressed they took a lot of other famous artists (such as Marron 5 and Franz Ferdinand) which are NOT even close to the Latin genre. Now, the question is, do I want to make another ‘Cover Songs pt deux’ or ‘Magic of Cha-Cha’ part deux…….
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2 months, 4 weeks ago |
Trust me you are not the only one! We are both working very hard in our regular jobs (no thanks to this economic crisis!), and we hope we find some time to shoot new videos. We have the episodes planned out: how to do a 180/360 cross-body lead, improve spinning for the ladies, how to do dips the right way and a few other fun things. If I have time, I would like to do another audio episode - however, now that I can get all of your feedback, what would you want in an audio episode? Just music or also advice (answering salsa questions)?
I haven’t heard the version of “Clocks” to salsa. I’m a small fan of Coldplay, especially Violet Hill and The Scientist, but those don’t qualify as salsa songs!
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3 months ago |
@jen12
Welcome to addicted2salsa. If you have any questions feel free to ask us. By the way, do you have any clips of salsa dancing in Palestine? It would be great to see salsa video clips from all over the world!
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3 months ago |
@Marco
I highly recommend camcorders that record to flashcards, SDcards or Sony’s MagicGate (they are all basically the same). They are much lighter and easier to use when at a club or congress. I used to use MiniDV tape drives to record the videos and
social dancing, and now with the new HD camcorders that record to this type of media, it is a lot easier to get it off the card and on to the computer. If you are really into video, I recommend a Mac with the free iMovie (or for a price, Final Cut Express or Pro).I haven’t checked the camcorders you listed, but I recommend that they support the AVCHD codec (for HD) and do not precompress the footage you shoot (reduces quality).
I bought the Sony one (similar to the one on the right), but any good brand (Canon for example) should work just as well. AVCHD + Good Software is what makes a difference.
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3 months ago |
For those who went to the festival, but might have not had a chance to record (to help practice what you’ve learned) here are some of the videos from the San Diego Salsa Festival. Thank you to the instructors for letting us record.
They are in iPod/iPhone format, so practice where you can! Enjoy!
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3 months ago |
Your logins from the addicted2salsa website will work (I migrated all the accounts over). Feel free to post anything. You can add the RSS feed to your Google Homepage (if you have one).
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3 months ago |
This is the first post! This is what is called a ‘micro-blogging’ site. It is a way for you to share quick thoughts, ask questions you want answered, or just simply share cool salsa dance video clips that you want.
I hope this is a much better way to communicate with the salsa community. Your addicted2salsa login information should work here!
