About the Congress Parties

Capoeira Performance at the Sydney Salsa Congress - Brazilian Room 2009

I still remember the first time I’ve seen the party at the Sydney Salsa Congress and every time I get goose bumps.

That was what made me decide: yes, I will learn this salsa thing.

One live band playing for thousands of salseros going crazy at an enormous wooden floor. Filling up the State Sport’s Centre is a feat. And all those people spinning and partying to the sounds of a live salsa band was enough to amaze any watcher.

This year the Sydney Salsa Congress had a special something for the dancers.

On Saturday and Sunday the rooms were divided.

There was the regular Salsa room that continued to play Salsa, Bachata, Chacha and Merengue.

Then there was a new Brazilian Room. A dream comes true for Marcia Percival, and a lot of other dancers like me.

Marcia & Mafie Zouker dancing Zouk / Marcia dancing Axe / Tatiana and Gaspar dancing Zouk - Brazilian Room SSC 2009

It was the acknowledgement that the other styles are getting more and more from the latin dancers’ time.

In this room we had Zouk, Forro and Samba for everyone to dance, also Marcia led an Axe, Kadu and Larissa performed a Gafieira Show, the Capoeira boys stole the stage for their amazing acrobatics and everyone went crazy on the Samba Parade with all this girls going crazy behind the drums.

Jeanne is such a beauty dancing I couldn’t stop looking at her moves. She is a Brazilian Dancer in Australia, a contestant at “So You Think You Can Dance” the Reality TV Show this year. The DJs were great, Amit DJ Zoubasa, Kadu, Mafie Zouker made everyone dance until they dropped.

This dancing until you drop at this congress is not an exaggeration. If you seen a previous picture I posted of the guys resting on the floor you will get my meaning.
These people start dancing on Thursday night, go until late, then wake up, attend workshops all day, then party all night, repeated for two more days. My sister was driving me and every time she got out or into the car she was saying:

’Ai, ai, ai, ai.’

Translation to English:

‘Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch.’ That is how bad everyone gets.

Tais dancing the congress away in the first 2 photos / Tatiana & Gaspar – Zouk at the Brazilian Room SSC 2009

By Friday afternoon you have your doubts you will be able to keep going, but the party is oh sooo goood! So you dance until you can’t walk anymore. Then yes, another song you like plays exactly when you think you’ve had enough, you have to dance it. You go to the car or hotel room thinking you are stepping on shards of glass. Your feet cannot take it anymore.

When you wake up you keep thinking if someone got the plate of the truck that hit you. Then you close your eyes and see the workshop schedule you have memorised. You know you cannot miss that class! Only god knows how you get up and get changed.

By Saturday you think you will not survive but you keep going, it’s all just too good not to. By Sunday half of you are enjoying all moments the most as the congress is almost finished and the other half cannot see the end of it.

Monday is an official sick day. You cannot get out of bed still you have a smile stuck onto your face.

The parties this year also had a nice appeal to it.

The organizers had this idea of “selling dances” where all the money went to World Vision, the charity. So a few people got some dances with the international and national artists, without having to make up the nerve to ask them for a dance.

Instead they paid for a dance, and contributed for a charity.

That is what I call winwin.

Dancers are all the same, ever.

Talking about international artists I was watching Tatiana dance a zouk, her first zouk ever, with Gaspar. She was beautiful and soft. Of course she missed a few leads and looked a bit panicked but still she followed and did really well. It is funny how even being a dancer like her, so good, she would still feel insecure and ask after the dance: ‘did I look too bad?’

‘No Tatiana, you didn’t look any bad, not at all.’ And I got beautiful pictures to prove it.

Dancers are like that, able to improvise, move no matter to what music, follow or lead partners, dance with one hand, and create in all matters.

See this picture of a dancer who created a different way to hold a bottle of water: