San Diego is a young salsa city. It is not as mature as San Francisco, Los Angeles or (even close) New York in terms of the salsa community. However, a lot of progress has been made over this last year. We have had Junior and Emily, Mambo2Salsa by Angel and Tulane, and Serena Cuevas’ team (yet to be nicknamed and announced) begin to grow in San Diego.Today, a new dance team as come to San Diego: Sakara (www.sakara.us). The uniqueness of this dance team is the incorporation of enormous amounts of isolated body motions in their routine and style - which is a refresher to having to do zillion of patterns. Their tag-line: ‘fluidity of movement’. It is a breath of fresh air. .. I was surprised to find out that they were providing a 4-hour workshop for just $5 dollars. While Majesty has had free workshops in the past (a week before their audition), Sakara brought good quality food and refreshments.
The workshop consisted of fundamentals, spin technique, body movement and simple dance patterns. At first, the group was divided into two sections: one for spinning and one for partner work. Now, I admit I arrived a few minutes late. However, when I arrived, I decided to join the spinning group for two reasons: the partner work group had a large number of men over women, and second, I wanted to learn their spin technique. After a few minutes in the female group, Violeta (co-director) came up to me (pointing me out to the entire crowd), looked at my name tag, and stated loudly : “Anthony! What do you think you are doing? …Ladies… please point to where Anthony needs to go today” - clearly stating that I (or men) are not allowed to learn female spin technique or possibly be a follower. Other than the fact that it might be considered rude to a potential customer, it seems to go against sound arguments that have been posted before on how men/women should learn both roles (lead and following).
The workshop for body isolation was very challenging and interesting. Their style seems to be a mix of modern, ballet and salsa fused together to form an organic type of movement. In one part of the body movement pattern, we had to have our right shoulder rotate forward simultaneous with our left shoulder rotating backwards, while having our hips move circularly, yet maintaining an isolated abdominal area. Note that normally when you are doing shoulder rotations - both shoulders tend to go the same direction. Even though it might sound awkward - the move (when done correctly), looks great!
The final partner work consisted of a double turn, with a copa that opened up to a titanic, to a slick cross-body-dip lead. It was taught on the New York On2 timing, which is good for those intermediate dancers from this scene. The move was a fresh look at adding body-styling to a cross-body lead. The only downside was that there were no partner rotations - and therefore we cannot assess whether we learned it correctly by testing the lesson with other dancers.
Going to the Marriott for the preview event - had good dances with Violeta and Lesley. They are great dancers with great incorporation of movement into everything they do. My favorite dance was with Lesley as she kept her style very smooth and was incredibly playful - my favorite quality in a dancer. :-)Overall it was an interesting experience that can bring some new type of dancing and style to the San Diego salsa scene and expand the On2 dancing community from just being a style that only belongs within dance teams. They currently have plans to bring Santo Rico to give a workshop in December 2008 to help bring more inspiration to salsa dancing in California.
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In your reply to the rudeness exhibited towards you; perhaps you should take your your rudeness into consideration. From your own admission, you were late. Upon entering and upon noticing that all the men were in one group(big hint), you should have asked someone. The whole conspiracy theory of yours regarding men not being allowed to learn spin technique is silly. There simply was not enough men for all the women. After being paired up; beginners having priority, Violeta decided to use the time with the remaining experienced women, more efficiently. The reason I am responding is because you put a negative spin on something that was totally a positive thing. Violeta is a playful person and that is what makes her enjoyable to be around. I am sorry that your feelings got hurt. A big hug from me.
In terms of the incident, my belief is that if one arrives late - one should place themselves in the back of the class to not disturb the rest of the students and the instructor. And as I did this for courtesy and respect - I hoped that if there were any problems, it would be handled more politely. In my humble opinion, stopping the class, creating a scene, and embarrassing individuals was unnecessary - especially if had nothing to do with salsa technique. I’m sure everyone at some point, has arrived 3 minutes late to class when trying to find parking.
Like I said before, I am looking forward to seeing the benefits this team brings to the San Diego salsa scene. I’m sure they will take this city to the next salsa level.
PS. I’m glad you read our reports.
I enjoyed the workshop and I’m very excited about Sakara coming to San Diego!!! Body movement was great, and I love the freshness of the footwork they taught.
With regard to leo’s comment, I have a different opinion. I was not a big fan of Anthony being called out. (That and the not rotating thing were probably the only two negatives I found). Obviously he could see that the room was divided by gender, and made a conscious choice to practice spins…why shouldn’t he have the opportunity to learn their technique? When we go to congresses, we get to choose what workshops we go to, and many guys do choose ladies styling classes without getting redirected to another male-appropriate workshop. Plus, I definitely don’t think there was any logical connection between calling him out and him being late, since other people were singled out as well for other reasons throughout the workshop. It seems to be more of a teaching style, which to some is enjoyable and playful, and to others may not be…it depends on the context and the person.
All I can say is that I’m glad it wasn’t me!
I’m just so jealoused that you guys have workshops for $5 and/or free. Here (in Kansas City), workshops start out at $50. I guess it makes sense since they they have to fly in and lodge instructors. Over the past year, we’ve had Latin Rhythms (Chicago), Micah and Kathy (Chicago), Edie the salsa freak and quite a few others. This past weekend we had Ceasar and Natasha (from LA) perform and offer a workshop. I didn’t attend but I gather it was very helpful.
Anyhow, thanks Anthony for the writeup.
Micah and Kathy are just awesome! Mr Crazy Hands - love his style!
Hello Anthony,
Les and I definitely appreciate your write up regarding our workshop, we didn’t realize we had paparazzi in the buliding.lol.. Well as Leo stated, I didn’t mean to verbally abuse you in any way, I apologize if you felt disrespected in any way. As I did notice you saunter in late (yes 3 minutes…late is late…lol), I just wanted to bring some “relaxation and laughter” to everyone by acknowledging that you were obviously with the ladies group. I didn’t realize you wanted to learn the ladies technique, I would have ate my words if that was the case =). Or as the phrase went, “I would have got it together.” Les and I believe 100% that men should be able to learn women’s technique and vice versa, but since the women to men ratio was a bit off, your assistance with the other group was actually necessary. Leo is correct, maybe you missed the point of my humor, but it was actually all in fun. I called quite a few ladies out, but that is actually my teaching style…Sorry your feelings were hurt. =( I will be careful with YOU next time. =)
Thank you for the write up and hopefully our style of dancing (teaching) will help the beautiful city of San Diego.=0)
By the way, LES WAS ON FIRE THAT NIGHT!!! lol… Sorry for those of you who missed her “sensual seduction”. lol
Anthony thank you for your support and I look forward to seeing you once again!!
VIOLETA
Hello Anthony,
(and my fellow salseros)
Thank you for the lovely write-up. For those that know both myself and “V” “rude” is definitely not in our vocabulary or personality, so we send you hugs and kisses as a make-up. The first class of the workshop was basic technical drills for ladies vs. men. We firmly believe that you can have all the patterns and/or styling in the world, but if you don’t know where your feet are suppose to go or how they are suppose to end up, who the heck cares? So yes, we believe and encourage men and ladies to learn each other’s technical drills.
Anthony I have to admit.. we had a great time on the dance floor!!! In fact the whole evening was fun, even though I could not speak. LOL. People were saying WHAT? HUH? or as Evelio would say, “I can’t understand a word that you are saying!”. LOL
As a follow-up to the workshop Violeta and Myself (Lesley) will be starting a new New York Style on2 Dance Company in San Diego for both men and women. Yes two females!!!!!
The team will have a very planned (according to our team choreography bible (LOL) which the team will soon find out about) structured, but fun encouraging environment that promises to challenge any level dancer from the time you arrive to the time you leave. Just take two “Aleve” for pain after rehearsal to minimize the onset of body pain. LOL No really. (LOL)
There are NO AUDITIONS! If you want to be on a team that has the sincere intention to grow you as a dancer from your core foundation, spinning, fluidity of body movement and transitions, then all should come to your first full rehearsal Sat. April 5th.
Rehearsal Days:
Saturday 11-1pm
Wednesday 8:45-10:15
Monthly Dues: $110.00
Absolutely DanceSport, 930 W. Washington St., San Diego, 92103
Cheaper than taking group classes for a month!!! with the only difference that you will learn alot MORE!!!)
MEN!! we encourage you to join. We can guarantee that your technical development, in addition to your footwork and styling will definitely be “unique” to say the least. LOL. And yes, we believe that men should be able to spin just as good as our females.
Don’t forget: 1st rehearsal is Sat. April 5th at Absolutely DanceSport, 930 W. Washington St. San Diego, CA 92103!!!!