Free latin salsa dance videos that teach you moves to use at the latin dance nightclub. With dancing articles, dance news, dance podcasts, salsa dance videos and forums - we try to help you become the best salsa and latin dancer you can be (as soon as possible).
I finally started recovering from our trip to the 10th Annual Los Angeles Salsa Congress. While the event gets various mixed reviews this year, one workshop session I personally enjoyed was by the famous pair, the on2 World Salsa Champions: Oliver and Luda. For those who may not have known about their amazing dance skills, I posted a video below of, what I consider one of their best choreographies. They have won first place every year since 2005 at the World Salsa Championships. This performance shows how sharp yet smooth technical skill, amazing musicality in choreography and their ability to inspire future performers. The Australia salsa scene is lucky to have this amazing pair.
Hello guys and gals. Dany Joshua here with a second post this week: A complete and succinct explanation of the basic On2 Salsa step by Jai Catalano, host of the ESPN 2007 World Salsa Championships.
Ok. So yes, this post is very, uhhh… well, basic. Still, it’s sorta cool how ESPN explains our beloved 1 2 3, 5 6 7.
At just 20 years old, the “bandboy” for Tito Rodriguez was invited to the stage to sing. With the songs “Changó tá vení” and Barito”, he left the crowd of all of New York’s best dancers in awe. This is how José “Cheo” Feliciano Vega first became known publicly, though his musical development had been long in progress. He began in a school of music in Puerto Rico, and then continued to study music when his family moved to New York in 1952. Inspired by artists like Frank “Machito” Mon Rivera, Tito Puente, and Tito Rodriguez, Cheo took a special interest in the percussion instruments, though he would eventually be most famous for his voice.
Cheo went on to join Joe Cuba’s sextet. With the sextet for a decade, Cheo sung many of the sextet’s now famous songs, such as “Salsa y bembé”, “Callejero”, “Cachondea”, “A las seis”, “El ratón” (see below), and “el pito”, which was used in a Coca Cola ad.
Hello Salsa friends! This is Dany Joshua from ScarletMambo.com. Anthony wrote an excellent post about playing the “son montuno” on the piano. The ability to hear (and play) the “son montuno” is helpful for hearing the 1st beat of the 8-beat Salsa measure, which many beginners find very difficult to hear or differentiate from the 5th beat.
Another useful skill is hearing and playing the “tumbao” on the congas, especially for On2 dancers. After you hear this rhythmic pattern, you will see why it is called the tumbao. Actually, it should be called the “tumtumbao”.
Nate Torres, a young musician from Bronx, NY, filmed a 7-part series of instructional videos that teaches basic conga techniques. Notice his New York accent.
Video 4 explains how to play the basic tumbao rhythm.
If you have taken taking Eddie Torres’ class, he sometimes quotes Tito Puente saying that the On2 Salsa step is very natural because it compliments the tumbao slap on the 2nd and 6th beats.
Videos 1-3 explain how to play basic sounds on the congas. Videos 5-7 explains more intricate percussion patterns.
While answering a few basic cha-cha dance questions in the forums, I found a great video that helped illustrate how you can lead different styled cross-body leads in cha-cha (where you can skip the cha-cha step). You can always stick to the basic in doing the cha-cha step in place while performing a CBL, but after a while, that gets pretty boring (yawn!).
After you master the cha-cha step (you can do it without thinking), you can add creativity by modify your cha-cha steps and body movement in a CBL move. Remember, you can always NOT perform the cha-cha step, however, that requires you to have great timing so that: 1) you never throw your partner off time AND 2) you can easily get back in sync with the music. To be more clear (so I don’t get into trouble), while you may have modified your steps to not perform the cha-cha-cha to the music, the steps you replace them with must still be in sync with the music.
Here below is a clip from a couple social dancing cha-cha at the Puerto Rico salsa congress. It should provide more inspiration and creativity for those searching…
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.
Recent Comments