Have you ever heard of the Wii Fit? I’m sure you have, but for those who don’t know, it is a highly interactive game for the Nintendo Wii. It provides a pressure and tilt sensitive standing board that can be used to play a series of fun exercises games. The games range from skiing down a slope, to learning body isolations play playing with hula-hoops [NSFW video example] to full Yoga exercises for your core. If you are trying to find new ways to improve your dancing ability through playing video games, this is the answer for you.
Today at the Fashion Valley Mall in San Diego (California), they had a few demo booths of the system for anyone to try out. After getting some nice ‘Wii Fit socks’ to use, I hopped on the board. Right from the start I was forced to engage my core (abs) in order to perform the necessary functions to score points in the game. This is due to the fact that you must maintain balanced on the Wii board while tilting your body to move the items on the screen. This became increasingly difficult in the Yoga excercises, where for example, you need to extend your limbs while maintaining balance on one leg. While describing these actions in words may be trivial, they are actually much harder to do when forced to control, isolate, and alternate muscles at ‘game speed’. I began to immediately see the benefits of working these stabilizer muscles in my legs. They are essential when doing quick footwork and spins.
Now I’m sure most of these mechanics can be replaced with manual exercise. That is really what it all comes down to: simple core training. However, if you are like me who has been told to try out Yoga class but has been scared do to lack of testosterone (other guys) in the room, this might be a good substitute - especially if you enjoy casual gaming. Another way to integrate technology to help you become a better salsa dancer right in your living room.
I only wish there was enough dance gaming demand in the world to encourage developers to produce highly engaging dance gaming experiences. Creating an interactive 2-player game experience for the Nintendo Wii that teaches allows for leading and following in salsa dancing while teaching proper use of pressure (dance connection), posture (core) and foot position (lower body) is something I hope like to play someday. It would even be amazing if you could download ‘new pattern sets’ through the Wii Online store to enhance the game… of course, this would be the basis of an entire new article for me to write.
I know that most of the ladies, after dancing for several months in not-so-comfortable dance shoes, feel they need to rejuvenate their feet to get rid of tough skin and callouses. I’ve never had a pedicure, but this seems to be the ‘hottest’ new trend in the US. John Ho, from Virginia, said he was trying to find something unique for his customers that would replace the use of razors to scrape off dead skin. It seems that “razors have fallen out of favor with state regulators because of concerns about whether they’re sanitary.” Well, I’m glad he didn’t think of using piranhas. For $35 bucks, I’m not sure this would actually work - this deal smells kind of fishy to me. (bad pun intended)
I received this video from our friends over in France. They decided to make the “Addicted2Salsa ‘the first real episode’”. It stars a French version of me and Stephanie Kadlicko (my partner in the VERY early episodes of Addicted2Salsa videos). They add a kung-fu/karate moves to the basic step. Something fun to watch.
If you didn’t know, I love people with a great sense of humor (even if it is at my expense). If you want to make fun of any of my videos (or my dancing) feel free - trust me, I’ll love it.
Lastly, I do not know French as well as I would like. Therefore, if anyone can send me a translation of the spoken script - I would much enjoy it very much! I did love their quote in the video which reads:
“C’est en faisant n’importe quoi que l’on devient n’importe qui” which means “In doing anything, one becomes anybody”. (or someone can correct my French translation if I have it wrong.
I finally took time to look into this new form of dancing called: “JumpStyle”, which in its simplest form is a mixture of ska-jumping, river dancing and techno. From watching SYTYCD, I learned about Gold Inferno - the mask wearing wrestler wannabe who loves to jump. He is the (supposedly) American Jumpstyle Dance Champion. I could not find out through my research how many people competed for that beloved title. However, for those extremely excited to integrate Jumpstyle dancing into their salsa footwork or those looking for a few smiles today, Mr. Gold Inferno has a set of super tutorial videos that will have you jumping for joy.
Now, after I had finished laughing for a few hours on his videos - I ended up discovering that it is more popular than expected, especially overseas. I may not be a fan of the dance style or costume usage, however, I’m happy that he will make some people step up to try dancing. While I can’t tell what is the current state of jumpstyle in the world, maybe our visitors overseas can send us an email about it. Until then, you can have a few more laughs at the golden warrior on his youtube page.
This is one of the funniest videos I’ve seen to date on youtube that has been stuck in my head. It is not salsa related, but I’m sure you’ll find it entertaining as well. The video is about how to romance a girl with just ONE semester of spanish. Very impressive. And a very catchy song!
Have you ever heard of the Wii Fit? I’m sure you have, but for those who don’t know, it is a highly interactive game for the Nintendo Wii. It provides a pressure and tilt sensitive standing board that can be used to play a series of fun exercises games. The games range from skiing down a slope, to learning body isolations play playing with hula-hoops [NSFW video example] to full Yoga exercises for your core. If you are trying to find new ways to improve your dancing ability through playing video games, this is the answer for you.