Tag Archive for 'Los Angeles'

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Mayan World Salsa Dance Competition 2008 – Finals

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!

Published 3 years, 9 months ago in Contests and Salsa News. Closed Tags: , , , .

A Weekend Salsa Dancing : The West Coast Salsa Festival

A Weekend in Salsa DancingAfter taking the rest of the video and editing it, I’m happy to start off a new series (that hopefully will continue). I had watched a DVD called On2005 A Year in Mamboland, and I decided to use it as inspiration on how to show all the nice video clips of social dancing at the 2007 West Coast Salsa Congress in Los Angeles California. I title this series: A Weekend in Salsa. I like the name because that usually when most of us go out for salsa during the week. Additionally, that is when most of the salsa congress events occur. Now, I have no real background in directing/production/editing so I did my best for my first shot. This is mainly for you guys to enjoy the dancing that goes on a salsa congresses during the night events. Again, please enjoy!

Published 4 years, 8 months ago in Congress and podcast. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , .

More 2007 LA Salsa Congress Dance Videos….

So, still editing the HOURS of videos I took from the LA Salsa Congress this past weekend. Now, because of bandwidth limitations, I won’t be able to post all the video footage I took, however I will try and make a montage on the best that I took. I have already posted some of the videos of the addicted2salsa members dancing in the forums . Here I present a few more:

First of all, here is some style that is specifically of the city of Los Angeles. Here is the famous Alex Da Silva dancing with his partner at the LA Salsa Congress. While I’m not a big fan of the LA Style – he still makes it look like you want to learn it. Simply incredible.

Next, we have a dancer who I will name ‘RuedaMan’ becuase I really don’t know his name, but I know he’s very big into the salsa rueda part of salsa. Here he is testing his cuban-style skills with a pair of girls.

Last but not least, we have one of our very own ‘Flare’ dancing with the famous Angel Rivera from A Time To Dance Studio . Angel is an awesome dancer, very good smooth style with a lot of simple flavor. His style is amazing to watch because while he adds flavor to the dance, he still remains precise on his patterns and has incredible speed – even on carpet. I’ll stop complimenting him there cause I don’t want him to think I’m kissing-up. ;-) j/k.

Published 4 years, 8 months ago in Congress. Closed Tags: , , , , .

Salsa Technicals : Playing with the music … Alex Lima

Well, got back from LA Congress (in one piece). However, more on that story (and its videos later on). However, I’d like to talk about playing with the music – since I finally found some video that someone took of Alex Lima one of my favorite solo dancers that really understand how to choreograph to the music. His solo choreography is amazingly fast, precise and fun to watch. I saw Alex Lima perform at Palm Springs several months ago, but at that time I was without a camera. Regardless, pay attention to the song that is being played as he dances to it. Notice how the footwork and body movements are nicely synchronized to the fluidness of the song. Of course, this is a video – but I remembered watching it live was an amazing experience.

Published 4 years, 8 months ago in salsa technicals. Closed Tags: , , .

2007 West Coast Salsa Congress

Now, while I’m on salsa hiatus (because of my injured hand) – I will still be attending the 2007 West Coast Salsa Congress in Los Angeles, CA (May 24th-27th, 2007). I have never been to the LA Congress (and to be honest, I heard last year a lot of people were dissapointed with the event) – but I’m looking forward to experiencing it first hand. I will be there to hopefully capture great dancers and moments, so I can share them with those of you that will not be attending.

I’m really looking forward to one of my favorite bands playing at the event: La Sonora Ponceña (as seen in the left). I think it will be a great event and hopefully I’ll see some of you there.

For more info: http://www.alberttorresevents.com/congress/2007/

Published 4 years, 9 months ago in Congress. Closed Tags: , , .