One year passes really quickly. Although in that period a lot of things usually happen, lots of new stuff we learn, many new people we meet and experience some really good and some really bad moments. Being dancoholics or simply just loving to learn new dances, we usually grow in that field as well. It may be just a hobby, but it’s a fun one. Nobody is unhappy while dancing, dance is like a medicine when we’re moody, like a radio when we’re happy and always in the reach of the hand. So I am most happy to see so many people participate in the end-of-year production of Buba, sports and recreation centre from Ljubljana. We saw 15 different shows, everything from salsa, to swing, ballroom dances, oriental and some more professional shows.
It was a great pleasure to perform in that cast and I loooved to perform my favorite routine “Shadows” with Dulce Locura.
Here’s a movie of some of the performances:
Well, once more… it was a great weekend! We spent it with two newcomers on our festivals: Fadi Hamdani (Fadi Dancefusion) and Vedran Marčeta. They both were great and taught us some new stuff (like bachango or cuban salsa with hiphop flavour, along with some crazy tricks and bodymoves). Bachango is a mixture of bachata and tango, so I finally got a chance to learn a few basic tango steps. (I always find an excuse of not having enough time for tango classes, so this time, luckily, they were just given to me ). I simply loooooove tango and seeing Vedran and Samra perform was a complete shocker. Finding out that the girl is dancing only 6 months took my shoes of!!! Seriously impressive and great show.
The other isntructor was Fadi, who I met on a couple of congresses already and liked his work instantly. He has a great talent for musicality, great bodymovement and great desire to dance and perform. Which is probably the reason, why he performed two shows The new one is a bomb!! Unfortunatelly I didn’t catch it on a tape but all others are in the futuring clip!
I am mostly proud of Buba’s social dancers. This was the first routine, where I was asked to choreograph and it seemed quite challenging at the beginning. But I think it turned out very cool. Now we’re all preparing intensivly for the Salsa Power festival in October. To reassure everybody: Dulce Lcoura is not asleep - we will be performing there! Though it seems hard to do a good show with the majority of brilliant performances we see lately. I’m happy dance is growing and so many people want to learn and do it!
Now lay back and enjoy the clip from last Saturday:
They say it’s gonna be a hot weekend! First summerish weekend of the year. And speaking from the heart – one can feel that. The temperatures rose to almost 30°C in a couple of days, without any prior warning, so it takes time to adjust. And I guess this weekend will be even hotter than hot. Why? Cause there’s another festival on the way. A smaller version of Salsa Power festival – one day event with a few classes and top party called Salsa Flower Power.
Slovenia will, for the first time host Fadi Hamdan alias Fadi Fusion from Spain and Vedran Marčeta from BiH.
I met both guys last year and I know, they’re great instructors and dancers. I can’t wait to learn from them and see their show. For a little appetizer, check this show from Fadi,… I think his body isolations are phenomenal and musicality just wonderful. I really enjoy this type of shows, so people, please continue with this kind of work
And I’m more than happy to announce Buba’s social dancers will perform on the party as well. We had a little something to do with that. So go guys – enjoy on that stage
Location: Buba and Klub CD
Time: 1pm for workshops, 9pm for party
Dress code: Spring touch (or summer I guess)
I’m sure you remember that nice interview we had with Benjamim Nande a while ago. I guess he really is one of those people who love their work – he loves to dance, loves to teach, loves to live. All people who attended 2nd salsa and kizomba seminar in Belgrade noticed that. To tell you how it was and how people felt there, I’ve managed to get a nice statement from the organizer of the seminar, Jasna Kovačević. She’s a great person, who, like Benjamim, loves kizomba and wants to spread that love around the world. Along with her statement you can see a short clip with impressions from there. So just sit down, breath in and try to feel kizomba …
Jasna Kovačević, Belgrade: “Today, two weeks after the seminar, I can sum it up for you. You asked how the workshop went… In one word: Fantastic! It actually turned out to be a quite big, international seminar, with a lot of people coming outside of Belgrade. It was like a mini congress.
In total we counted 80 people, only half of them came from Belgrade. The rest were from Nis, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia and we even had two guests from Slovenia. So, kizomba is slowly reaching your country as well, which is a nice thing to know, isn’t it? To tell you the truth, when I started organizing this, I didn’t imagine so many people will come, especially not from far away. Not that Slovenia is so far, but there are costs and time connected with this kind of travel. But, I believe it was worth it. By what I heard later, impressions are all great.
I guess you’re wondering, what went on during those 3 days Benjamim spent in Belgrade? First, having in mind Benjamim’s fascination with salsa music, we organized one extra class on friday night, where Benjamim played a lot of interesting music and explained it’s roots. That is how this weekend started. That was followed by 6 hours of kizomba, 4 hours of salsa and we even had one extra class of bachata. To teach bachata I invited one local couple of teachers. People loved their class, and learned what is the difference between kizomba and bachata. Real different once you put them one next to another.
I don’t want to praise the seminar too much… of course there were some negative sides of it as well… The only problematic part was that there were so many different levels of dancers which made the job for Benjamim real hard in teaching salsa part. We had some salsa teachers there, and some people who started dancing salsa just recently, both cuban and LA style. But, in a way everyone got something new there and had fun. At least kizomba was almost new to everyone, except to the group of my students.
The most important thing, however, was that people really learned a lot about kizomba, a lot of steps, a lot of movements, got the basic right and at the end they could all dance with the music with a nice set of steps. And most of all they enjoyed it! I’m getting, still, all kinds of nice reviews and thank yous for organizing this and it really feels great. I see I will have to repeat this again, and next time I expect you to come as well
With a bunch of video material we had after the weekend we made a short video with some interesting sequences that show how good this weekend really was. So, I’ll stop talking now and let you see the video..
14th of February.. ahhh… the red, the sweet, the mooshy… Paradise for gift stores… and great excuse to party The “in-love Saturday” was celebrated in a completely new venue for salsa parties – Gospodarsko razstavišče. That is one huge place, where probably for the first time, noone could say it was too crowdy Buba gave us two floors, one with salsa rhytms and one in disco spirit. That is why some outsiders joined the party as well – which is a good thing of course!
As usual big salsa parties give us exciting show program and this one was no different. We saw 5 shows, which you can see in this short clip (shows are a bit cropped, since I had to squeeze them in 10 minutes only)
It was great seeing the disco-salsa performance on a salsa stage finally (great job guys – especially the newcomers to Buba Show Team); I’m happy to see kizomba slowly reaching Slovenia (though this was the first time I saw it done coupleless); Donia and girls from Croatia – hats down (boy were you synchronized); La Luna is getting better and better with each show they make and those sexy oriental dancers… uh,.. hot’n’spicy.. as always
And a big thank you to Tjaša for the clips. Great angle
Salsa Power edition will continue with party spirit in Spring, when Salsa Flower Party shall take place. But we’ll write about that some other time.
Now go put on a costume and go party!! We have to chase this winter away…
In the last month we were overflodded with Christmas parties… of course… It’s that time of the year. Tonight we’ll be having the last one for this year, I think. In the organisation of sports and recreation center BU-BA, Salsa christmas party will take place in Klub CD (Cankarjev Dom in Ljubljana), starting at 21h. Naturally, you will be able to see some shows (including Dulce Locura!!!), you’ll get a free welcome drink, midnight champaigne etc. Since the tickets are sold out, I guess it should turn out quite ok
This month all slovenian salsa dance schools organized their Christmas parties.. and just to get you in the feeling of how that looks like.. on the dancefloor.. here’s an example from Bolero’s salsa party:
Hehe… guys,… with all those girls… you still have to dance with eachother?!
Ok, everyone already knows I was in Athens,… and almost everybody I know was there Well, not all, but still,… Athens felt like a general reunion of all salseros I have ever met on any congress. Plus a couple of thousand of new ones.
This was a super-sized festival. Everything was exaggerated – in a good way. First the line up. If I had to add anyone else on that list I don’t know who would it be (SDS couldn’t make it, otherwise even they would be added). There were just all currently top and most wanted instructors and performers. Crazy!! Eddie Torres, Yamulee, Swing Guys, Tito&Tamara, Tropical Gem, Susana Montero, Leon Rose, Magna, Flamboyante, Neeraj&Gosia, U-tribe, Hacha Y Machete, Albert Torres as moderator and … Ok, I can’t name them all… there were just to many. But I have to mention Supermario of course , the co-organizer,.. and Todos and Maria the organizers of the 1st Todo Latino Salsa Festival.. Though I would rename the festival in Todo Loco Salsa Festival, if it was up to me ;)
Second fascination were the live bands!!! Oh my god. Imagine New swing sextet and El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico on the stage and 2.000 dancers dancing under that huge stage?! Simply WOW! The music was PHENOMENAL!! You could just listen and enjoy it as much as dancing on it. (I don’t have to stress, that this time the songs they played were not 20 -30 minutes long, but only 3-4 min each!). And how do you squeeze 2.000 dancers in one venue? Well, you rent an Olympic stadium of course… what else?!
Yeah… I still can’t believe the super-sized things that were there.
Did I mention parties were on till 8am? No, correction,.. they actually ended at 8.30… which was the time for performers to do their rehearsal for the night shows. 2 hours of shows each night!!! Plus the competition!
Ok, so many data,.. I have to organize a little bit this review, otherwise no one will understand anything.
Where does the soul derive from?
Maybe I should start with a negative critique, cause positive are obviously countless. (more…)
The party on Saturday was absolutely fantastic. Luis and Melissa have the best energy and… well, the atmosphere in Zagreb is always so relaxed, friendly and fun. :) We came to the party rather late (it’s very easy to get lost in Zagreb, so what?!) but the floor was already warmed up for us and we were actually just on time for the shows. One local group performed hiphop routine (there was a loooot of them) and Luis and Melissa did their crazy spinning-changing costumes-going all wild routine (I already saw that show 2 years ago, but still, it was good). What I liked the most, were the few spontaneous moments, when Hrvoje danced with Melissa and Luis danced bachata with another girl (sorry, I don’t know her name). That was impressing! For real.. what an improvisation of the 4 of them. I totally enjoyed staying in the circle that formed around them, just watching. Bravo I say to them!
I also got a public birthday wish (thank you Nataša for organising it and Ricky for wishing it ), the salsa jam kinda didn’t go through though (that’s a wierd word combination..). But I really appreciate and charish the kindness you guys showed. Love u all!
Nataša is actually a very dear friend from Zagreb, which was polite enough to publish her clip of Luis and Melissa freestyling on Friday night (I think) and allowed me to post it here. So straight from the hot croatian dancefloor, we present Luis and Melissa:
And congratulations to the organisers: Tajana, Ricky, Jelena, Hrvoje.. who else was involved?! You did a great job. I heard the classes were absolutely fantastic as well. I liked when I heard Melissa did a ladies styling class for three levels of dancing, all in one class. Impressing.
Oh, I almost forgot! Stressed as confused as i am, I managed to loose my car keys in the Spoon party place. THANK YOU SO MUCH to Tajana for finding it and sending them back to me! And Robi for searching, Varja for bringing them to Slovenija and of course Danijel for taking me home that night and keeping me warm . Oh yes,.. eternaly grateful to all of you guys. That would not be pleasant, if nobody found them.. and cold! Phew…
What a great date to start a festival 21st of November!
Today is the official day of the start of SalsaZone Fever event, which takes place in Zagreb. Guest foreign techers are well known Luis&Melissa, who will teach students on intermediate/advanced level. The best thing, as usual, are the parties of course.
Whoever reads this, and comes to the party tomorrow night - one dance and one drink are on me!
Well, what’s there to say… With a few-days delay I can slowly start gathering my impressions. It was simply superb! From parties, to classes, to socializing … Thanx to all that came and made my weekend!
To start with, I guess it’s most appropriate to say Dulce Locura premiered their new show. We worked our asses and will of course keep improving it … but this time we finally came out with salsa… or salsa musicality… whichever you want. Here’s the clip:
Now, let’s sum up the best classes, shows etc.:
- Supermario and Susana Montero were sold out of course (meaning their classes were full) … and completely justified, cause they have the best teaching methods, great ideas and most of all amazing energy!
- Orville and Sabrina did some crazy tricks, the master class was too challenging even to the best social dancers on the scene!!
- Loved Nemanja’s classes,… I mostly respect people who know a lot of dance theory, present it in an entertaining way and make you understand the dance. And I did the son!! Yeeey… (thank you, thank you)
- Israel was in his own element, giving fun workout classes
- The most spectacular shows of course were form Salsation group. That is showmaking… Entertaining, synchronized,.. simply WOW!
- We saw some premiers as well, from Dado and Conny (putting a show together in two weeks – hat down), Talal and Maria (Talal doing a partnerwork show,… nice, nice.. )… The belly dancers were hot and sexy of course..
- We also had the two World championship qualifiers: Evgeni&Lili and Gil&Anke… You can see they train and work hard. Both are very explosive, tight, musical, have the attitude, really great. We’ll be crossing fingers for you guys… and congratulations for the qualifications. Many may not know, but that is really hard to win!
- Oh, let’s not forget: the DJs were great! Good music selection… the Indian people even got some bachata
4 on 4… instructors vs. organizers.. poor Gil!
Side-effects of the festival:
- … besides being burned out, blistered and heavenly happy …
- The myth is confirmed: Sunday night parties ARE the best!! Why? Hm,.. maybe cause instructors totally relax, act like kids and all,… cause everybody is warmed up, has improved its dancing and cause we all just want to catch the last moments of the weekend.
- We missed salseros and fans on Friday night party, … Saturday was packed though!
- Apparently the food in Slovenia is shitty and the safest food is McDonald’s… right….
- I wasn’t able to attend the afterparty (everyone has his limits I guess), but I heard it was good .. lasted till 7am! Crazy people.
For everything else, the aftermovie shall be made. Don’t miss it. Cause I have a feeling it might be fun! And if you missed the festival this year, don’t do the same mistake next year. October 2009, here we come!
So I am most happy to see so many people participate in the end-of-year production of Buba, sports and recreation centre from Ljubljana. We saw 15 different shows, everything from salsa, to swing, ballroom dances, oriental and some more professional shows.
). I simply loooooove tango and seeing Vedran and Samra perform was a complete shocker. Finding out that the girl is dancing only 6 months took my shoes of!!! Seriously impressive and great show.
