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A lot of us from San Diego will be attending the 2008 Las Vegas Salsa Congress. It should be a very fun weekend with some good performances (even if it is only two days). If you are from Las Vegas and have never attended a salsa congress, I highly encourage you to attend and support your salsa venues. Las Vegas used to be the home of the World Salsa Championships hosted by ESPN, before it was moved to Orlando. If you decide to attend, stop by and say hi to some of our famous San Diego salsa scene dancers- the Majesty Ladies, Majesty in Motion Pro Team, Positive Energy, and Juan and Susie. I’m sure Las Vegas salseros can party harder in Sin City than in Los Angeles!
VOTING IS NOW OPEN to all Addicted2Salsa visitors and will continue until May 25th, 2008 11:59pm PST!
We are very happy to have received a lot of great entries. The videos are posted, and YOU get to cast the final vote! Just click on the contest link, or go to http://addicted2salsa.com/contests . You can view all the videos before making your vote.
Good Luck to everyone!
Here are the contestants in alphabetical order:
Achilles & Milagro (Al Asad, Iraq)
Daniel (Atlanta, GA)
Marisa Castillo & Oliver “Ollie” Tan (San Francisco, CA)
Club Mayan results are in! Though they are not posted on the Mayan website yet, the Jamaican Salsero Blog has posted the information along with a review of the competition from the competitor’s perspective. The 13th Annual Mayan World Salsa Competition took place over the last two weeks, with professional finals this past Saturday.
The winners were David Nieto and Charlene Rose, followed by Raul Santiago and Sergia Anderson in 2nd place, and Christian Oviedo and Diana Sanchez in 3rd. Other well known dancers that didn’t make it to the top include Liz Lira with Luis Aguilar, who came in 4th place, and Isidro Corona and Sheila Zepeda (Bay area favorites), who have done quite well in Albert Torres’ World Salsa Championships.
Some have criticized the Mayan Competition, claiming that this once revered contest that determined the true greats has since been corrupted and is even being replaced by the World Salsa Championships (Albert Torres Productions). The main complaint is that the Mayan is “an LA competition“, meaning that in order to win, one must be from Los Angeles. This is evidenced by the fact that the International category is defined as “outside of California” (though even in the International warm-up dance, some of the internationals hailed from as far as San Francisco- see more info on the video below).
Despite criticisms, many of the best On1 dancers still compete in this competition every year. This year, there were some surprises. Couples like Isidro and Sheila, who won the semifinal round in the world championships, only placed 9th in the Mayan competition. The winners of the Mayan competition, David and Charlene, placed 4th in the semi-finals and 3rd in the finals of the world competition. Some of the discrepancies are no doubt due to differences between individual performances, but it is interesting to compare the two competitions. The results of the 2007 World Salsa Championships are below; you can judge for yourself once the Mayan videos are posted.
Details of placing aside, the quality of dancing is exceptional in this competition. Check out the Mayan website to watch the semifinal rounds videos in both pro and am categories.
Final Results On 1
1. Abel Peña y Zulmara Torres (Mexico y Los Angeles)
2. Roberto Areans y Marie Josee Strazero (Canadá)
3. David Nieto y Charlene Rose (Ecuador/USA)
We have been getting a lot of questions about our first video dance contest. You have until May 19th, 2008 11:59pm (PACIFIC STANDARD TIME) to submit your video. (Due to time-zones, international contestants have more time to submit). Please remember to keep your video between 20-45 secondsless than 30 seconds in length (a few seconds over is ok - we do not want to hinder creativity, but please no 2+ minute videos for example). Voting will start on May 20th, 2008 (PST). Good Luck!
[Updated] Contest rules state not to exceed 30 seconds. This is highly preferred, however a few seconds over is ok.
If you haven’t yet found out - we are hosting our first contest ever on the website in partnership with FOX and So You Think You Can Dance! You only have a few days left to submit your video. Remember, it just has to be a quick video with a dance pattern that you think people will like! You don’t need a fancy camera and you don’t need to explain the move. It’s that simple! It is something you can do at the end of a salsa dance class! Salsa, Cha Cha, Merengue, Salsaton.. anything goes. [Instructions]
In a salsa galaxy, far, far away… let’s just call it Iowa.
To show you an example of a quick video you could take, I have dug up one of the many videos from the very old ‘Salsa History Archives’ of Salsa Anthony version 1.0. This is a video of when I first started to learn how to dance in Ames, IA in a Salsa dance club I started with a few friends called ‘Descarga Latin Dance‘. While I will let you laugh at my XL-clothing attire and ‘boots for dance shoes’ - I hope it shows everyone that with hard work, you can grow your dancing abilities little by little: ANYONE CAN DANCE SALSA. We all go through the same growing pains. Hopefully this serves as inspiration to a few of you out there.
For those who closely follow the Los Angeles salsa scene, the 13th Annual Mayan World Salsa Competition will be held on May 17th, 2008 with first prize being $5,000 dollars. That is still a good amount of dough even if the US dollar is falling…. (I wish we got paid in Euros or Pounds).
For those new in the salsa ‘world’, this is not a regular salsa congress competition - it is more about themes, costumes, lifts, tricks and basic dance choreography. Before the ESPN World Salsa Championships, this used to be the standard of salsa competitions when I first started dancing. They tend to be very liberal with the adding of random ‘rewind’ and ‘explosion’ effects in the soundtrack-features typical of LA style. Check out LA salsa greats like Liz Lira, David Nieto, and Christian Oviedo- who you would recognize from the “A Weekend in Salsa” video (the first couple dancing) that I shot at the last Los Angeles Salsa Congress.
Be sure to check it out if you are in the area. You can view Preliminary and Semi-Final round videos on the Mayan website. Before the advent of YouTube, these videos were a gift to all salseros looking for free online videos to be able to watch what is going on in the salsa scene. Enjoy…and wait to see who ends up winning the finals!
Our friends at Amicitia Dance Co. (Junior & Emily) are throwing a social at the San Diego Convention Center! World-class performers from SF, LA, and San Diego (Mamboleo, Majesty in Motion, Alma Latina, Positive Energy, Juan & Susie, Salsa Divas) will be performing. Come to dance or even just share the amazing shows with your friends/family!!!
From the Bay Area, Isidro & Sheila, from LA, Edwin Rivera, even Ashle from So You Think You Can Dance?!
Big elevated stage, two dance floors, and a cash bar too. Let’s all support the San Diego scene!
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