It’s back!!!! The 2nd Annual San Diego Salsa Festival, brought to you by Angel and Tulane Rivera in association with Albert Torres Productions, will be held September 19-21, 2008 at the Four Points Sheraton! We had so much fun at this event last year– the shows were amazing, there were workshops from the best dancers out there, and of course social dancing until the wee hours of dawn. There was a warm, unifying atmosphere all around, showing that this event will keep growing and be even more amazing this year! They will have LIVE MUSIC by the band Lucky 7, music by Super DJ Robby and DJ Frank until 4am, not to mention over 40 WORKSHOPS, professional dance shows, and a COMPETITION which is a qualifier to the World Salsa Championships on ESPN.
Confirmed instructors:
Victor and Burju (Boston) David and Jennifer (San Diego)
Silfredo La O Vigo (Cuba)
Laura Mendoza (San Diego)
Angel and Tulane (San Diego)
Magna Gopal (New Jersey)
Joel and Ana (Boston)
Ricardo and Viviana (Colombia)
…with many more to be confirmed!
Our friend Alan from Nuevotec Productions has made an awesome documentary about the ESPN Salsa World Championships - which is being called a ‘Salsamentary’. It is an amazing work to get to know how the entire World Championships started, learn about the people, the dancers and everything that goes on behind the scenes. Here is a brief description:
Salsamentary takes a look at the journey of six dancers as they step on salsa’s largest stage through its highest level of competitive dancing. Each dancer has their own reason for competing. Some enjoy the challenge of competing against the world’s best dancers. Others want to build their salsa dance resume and credentials quickly through the event, which is televised on several ESPN national and international stations, as well as DVDs sold globally. The rewards cannot be expressed just in terms of the prize money awarded to the first, second, and third places.
For those who did not attend this year - the World Salsa Championships were held in Orlando, Florida this year. Here are the results (very similar to last year - however with some new folks). For the latest scores for all divisions see ‘Other sources’ below.
[Updated] I had made a mistake and posted the old scores because the World Championship Website was outdated… will post full scores later. Until then, check out the scores at salsacrazy.
The wonderful (possibly future co-host) Julie sent me these videos, and I found them to be inspirational. It is of course a biased list since you have some of my favorite-styled dancers there.
Here you have Magna and Adolfo social dancing at a Salsa Congress to “Para Ochun y Yemaya” by Hector Lavoe and Willie Colon.
Here are two great dancers: Burju (Hacha y Machete) and Milton Cobo (Cobo Brothers) social dancing in the San Francisco Salsa Congress. They are both known for having incredible body movement, and while the video is short, it is still sweet.
One of the favorite videos in this set. This is my favorite couples to watch dance. This is Hacha y Machete (Victor and Burju) Freestyling at the UK Salsa Congress. Of course, I’ve never asked the question to Victor or Burju on who is the Hacha and who is the Machete out of them both.
And of course, finally - for something a little faster - is the other Cobo Brother, James Cobo dancing at the UK Congress showing the pattern he taught (or just freestyling).
Well, I got a good email from a viewer that just mentioned that they just finished having their first Salsa Congress in Dubai! The event was from Nov 22nd - 24th, 2007….Wow. Dubai - all the way over there. Even near the desert there is still salsa. Here is the clip he sent in.
Some of the other performers at the congress: Alfredo (Bulgaria),alsa Dance Squad (Holland), Hacha Y Machete (Burju&Victor): (Boston), Susana & Leon Rose (UK), Tito & Tamara (USA), Edwin Rivera (New York), Los Hermanos (Spain), Kaytee (India), James & Alex (Dubai), Salsa All Style (France), BNF(Dubai), MajuSee(France), Neeraj & Ania(Switzerland), Carmen & Rodrigo (Spain)
It’s back!!!! The 2nd Annual San Diego Salsa Festival, brought to you by Angel and Tulane Rivera in association with Albert Torres Productions, will be held September 19-21, 2008 at the Four Points Sheraton! We had so much fun at this event last year– the shows were amazing, there were workshops from the best dancers out there, and of course social dancing until the wee hours of dawn. There was a warm, unifying atmosphere all around, showing that this event will keep growing and be even more amazing this year! 
