Zouk Performances to Die for at the SSC 2009

On February 2, 2009March 30, 2023 By taniacreationsIn Orble Post, The Dancing BugLeave a comment

Claudio & Monica social dancing Zouk at The SSC 2009

The search for what makes a choreo great goes on.

During the congress I wasn’t dancing I went to all the parties, shows and a few workshops, so I got a bit tired. This thing of having a fractured bone with a constant pain also added to my feeling exhausted. So although I had planed to write on Saturday and Sunday mornings I ended up sleeping instead. The dancers among my readers will understand me well, the people that go clubbing too.

Therefore, I now have three nights of shows in my head, I will have to use them as I go, forget about the linearity of the tale and just enjoy the links in the thinking.

I realised that, as I said before, the music is essential but there are catches to it. For example, if you get a great music but doesn’t use it well it is as bad as if you didn’t get a great song at all. Look for music with ups and downs, breaks and strong beats, something dramatic always adds flair to the performance. And a good choreographer uses it.

One of the guys in the dance world in Sydney that is a master of this and one of my favourite partners in the dance floor is Claudio Gomes from Step Up. When I was just getting there with my Zouk dancing I went to a 101°C Party and danced with him. It was one of “the good ones”, a perfect dance with no lost leads and the perfect following of his movements.

When we finished one of my fellow dancers, J. Gray, came to me to say:

‘I never got Zouk until tonight. I saw you dancing with the Brazilian Teacher and finally got it. It was amazing.’

And he commented on the following of the beats of the music.

So that is what Claudio and Monica with their Formation Team performed on Sunday and brought a wonderful example of following the song. They chose a great music, added a charming costume and did a beautiful piece using every single beat of the song.

Once again I will proclaim not to be neutral. Zouk is my favourite dance and this year, the shows I liked the best were the ones of this style. I know it is the Sydney Salsa Congress, so Salsa is in the spotlight but, no one who saw Kadu and Larissa, and Mafie Zouker, will tell me they were not incredible!

Kadu & Larissa Gafieira’s performance at The SSC 2009

I couldn’t even describe how amazing those shows were, but of course you are talking some of the best in the world here.

I’m trying to muster words to describe. It was like an earthquake or a volcano explosion you “witness”.

By the end of each of the choreos, I felt like saying only one thing: “Please do it again! Please, please, please, let me see it once more? Can I get the video right now? Can I take it home?”

I felt like Scooby Doo when he got one of those dog’s cookies in the cartoon, I felt like I jut had a treat, felt like floating in the air, eyes closed, hugging myself.

Larissa must be a demigoddess with divine powers, like the ones from mythology made from the intervention of one of the pagan gods.

She is so smooth, so liquid on stage and yet so perfect in her movements that it is indescribable. With partners that do what they do, Kadu and Mafie Zouker, there was nothing more amazing.

Larissa & Tania / Mafie Zouker / Mafie Zouker & Marcia Pinheiro dancing at the SSC 2009

Kadu and Larissa performed on Saturday and I went home not with the image of them in my mind but with the blur of incredible sensations they caused in me.

Then on Sunday Mafie Zouker took her, in a choreography created and rehearsed in only one week together, I’m not even sure they had met ever before then, I don’t think so.

He may be a bit of a snob, but Mafie Zouker is still one of the best zoukers in the world. His body movement is so sexy girls feel like melting, guys feel like imitating him. Putting him to dance with Larissa was not fair to the rest of the world. Then you add Kadu from the middle of the routine onwards and you get the shivers. [Choreo here]

I cannot wait to see it again, and that will be only on video. That is why this congress we cannot miss, even with a faulty wing. Things that happen here will not be replicated ever in any other place. The chances of getting these three together again on stage are very small indeed and even if they did, this choreo is unique made for this place alone. Completely unique.

22 Orble Votes

The Jesus’ Earring and Stockings Bug

On February 2, 2009March 30, 2023 By taniacreationsIn Orble Post, The Dancing BugLeave a comment

Jaime Jesus, Tania, Liz and DJ Amit at the SSC09

I love Jaime’s choreographies, for me he is one of these geniuses of Latin Dance.

Jaime Jesus is one of the owners of Latin Dance Australia and one of the three that put the Congress together.

I worked for him and Marcia Percival (the other owner of LDA and parter at the SSC) for four years and had the time of my life doing so.

Marcia Pinheiro Percival at The Sydney Salsa Congress 2009

So please forgive me if I like his creations, I will not proclaim I’m neutral, but you will see I am fair in my writing.

On Thursday LDA’s advanced Salsa Student team performed at the congress.

It was a choreo I had seen before and already loved but it was even cleaner and perfect this time. The only little thing that was half a beat off, was Jaime’s lift of his partner at the end. I have a very good eye for details because of my years as a ballet dancer and could not understand how Jaime, the choreographer himself, could be the only one making the move a bit behind. When I talked to him after the shows I discovered why: a Dancing Bug!

The lift was to get the girl on top of the guy’s shoulder then bring them down, I’m not exactly sure how, as even if you are doing lifts yourself it feels like a magic trick.

Well, when he had his partner over his shoulder, with her legs in the direction of his head, Jaime’s earring got caught in her fishnet stockings! He solved it so smoothly no-one even realised what happened.

These bugs are funny and there are so many of them that the public does not realise!

20 Orble Votes

The Search for What Makes a Choreo Great

On January 30, 2009March 30, 2023 By taniacreationsIn Orble Post, The Dancing BugLeave a comment

It’s been years and years that I have been in the search and still I cannot tell you exactly what makes a great choreography.

I have probably been on stage more than a hundred times.

The most difficult piece I’ve ever performed was also probably the shortest and my dream come true: the two minutes and thirty-six seconds of the Swan Lake’s, the White Swan, Odette Variation [example here].

It was the toughest training I have ever endured.

My teacher used to weight us every class, and show off to the other students our blisters, two in each toe. t

To prove they could still rehearse with the points with only one or two small blisters on their feet.

Anyway, since then, I’ve been looking for this “what” that makes a great choreography…

I have a few ideas, nothing conclusive, maybe, by the end of the congress, I will know a bit more.

Some examples of genius come to my mind…

I’ve seen this video with a salsa choreography that was a Masquerade at the UK Salsa Congress two or three years ago.

Oliver Piñeda performed a solo with it which was unforgettable.

This masquerade was the most beautiful salsa routine for a group that I had ever seen until then.

Obviously this is too personal, I loved the music and the style.

Here are some things that showed they really put effort into:

The costumes were so appropriate, they really looked like they were dancing at the grand ball dance floor of the Chenonceau, a castle in France that has this ballroom right on top of the Loire river.
The formations, the harmony, the expressions and the movements… the final result was sublime.

Oliver Piñeda and Tania at the SSC

Last night I saw great things and choreographies and in each I could tell, in my opinion, where they have done better. I will say a few things that were remarkable.

Latin Dance Melbourne brought a really nice Reggaeton, good energy, good moves a sexy group and what called my attention was how clean the choreo was.

On that note the group from Rio Rhythmics, the zouk with two ladies for one man was also clean and nice to watch. The public loved it and the guys looked like they were having the time of their lives.

Bachatango is something I brought close to my heart so I had to love Latin Energy’s routine. I wrote about it at the bachateros website (www.bachateros.com.au), they used such a sexy French song!

In my search I found out that music is number one to start a great choreo.
Costumers are as important to make it look good. I will have to confess here that I think the latin scene still has quite a bit to improve on this.
Not because the costumes are not good but because most of us forget about adequacy. By that I mean that although some things are beautiful on the plan, they do not look good on the people using it. As simple as that: if you have ladies with a bit of muffins (or love handles) you shouldn’t put them almost naked on stage, even if you have one girl that will look good on it. Actually this shouldn’t be chosen by how the majority will look, it’s something the minority should resolve. If one guy or one lady doesn’t look his or her best, the costume should be changed. The group has to look good. Latin dancers tend to love sexy, tight and cleavage, but all those have to be used with expertise when applied to each person its going to cover, or not!

My favourite costume from last night was the Pirates Team’s although others also come to my mind.

Becky’s girls, the Charleston costume from Salsa Connection in Adelaide, the ladies in Red from Sydney.

I’m not sure what was better, the body paining of that afrocuban team or the routine… hard choice.

Still from the Pirate’s routine another thing made it an awesome choreography: the rehearsed facial expressions. That was amazing, the guys were standing out, they all made these funny open mouthed expressions at the same time, each with his own flavour but I loved it. I usually prefer natural expressions. I don’t like the faces the ballroom dancers use on their routines with all his forced expressions that ruin the photos and distract your attention from the dancing itself, but in this case it was part of the characterization of the piece. It was beautiful, nice pirates!

Another school that was stuck in my mind was the one where the guys were dancing a very nice Michael Jackson and the girls did a nice thing at a break of the music.

Four of them looking to the back, with the shorts so short guys would fall instantly in love with their legs. So I bet everyone was looking to their bums, specially when the first girls started moving it side to side on the beat of the music, followed by the second girl half a bar later, then the third, and the fourth.

Simple, simple, simple choreographing but an effect that drove the public to shouting and whistling!!!

The three groups that always stand out for the beauty, their technical abilities and the amazing salsa are for me the ones from this city I love, my Sydney (sorry rest of Australia, I have to be a bit bias here):

They are the ones I’ve seen the most, I dance with them a lot, so it is impossible for me to separate what is real technical quality and what is pure love, so I will just say I loved their performances.

Last another completely biased opinion, my Angels were beautiful. I’m happy to say I didn’t cry.

I was supposed to be dancing an Angel choreography that I didn’t make due to my broken wing.

This performance was created for Lee Wright a fellow dancer who is gone to the other side of the dancing stage… we dance for him, hoping he is dancing in heaven.

I felt happy and proud to have been with them in the making of this homage to Lee Wright.

To have wore the angel’s wings, to have teased Tony Lara saying: how are we going to be angels dancing Bachata? Bachata is too naughty to be heavenly. Well I was wrong. They looked like heavenly to me, even my partner’s unholy smile!

31 Orble Votes

Latin Dance Melbourne – Reggaeton team in Jeans

Strictly Salsa – Ladies in red

My Dance Partner, Junaid Jaffar, and his smile backstage

All at the Sydney Salsa Congress 2009

Anyone can Dance and Shine SSC09

On January 30, 2009March 30, 2023 By taniacreationsIn Orble Post, The Dancing BugLeave a comment

Strictly Salsa Team Backstage

Watching last night’s shows without dancing myself was a different experience,

I could see things I haven’t realised before. The one that stands out is that anyone can dance. More than just that, no mater your physical type, your age or any physical characteristics, everyone looks good, the differences are only genetic make up. Being the night for the student shows, the variety was bigger.

I have to confess that as a ballet dancer (by default always tending to the anorexic type) I do think professional dancers, have to take good care of what is their “bread and butter”: their own body, their spirit’s house, to the best of their hability.

I spent my entire teenage phase counting calories of everything I ate. I cannot deny that great bodies on stage do appeal to the plasticity of the art. Nonetheless, I also know that when not professional, dancers should think of only one thing: have fun! From training to performance.

I could see all types on stage, the outgoing and the shy, the gorgeous and the… not that pretty; some so thin I wanted to feed them at the end of the choreo, others could eat a bit more broccolis, maybe.

There were the bold and the introverts, like they had it shining in their foreheads: “my life is indoors” and the outgoing ones that seemed to transmit: “come to papa!”.

There was a huge variety but all united by one thing: dancing.

The stage adds to everyone’s power. There is always something nice to say: great smiles shine like super novas up there.

This girl with a white Charleston costume had a great body roll, that one from Groove Brazil, dancing with Angelo, could dip so gracefully!

That guy was having such a good time it was contagious, the one dressed as a pirate, made me feel like laughing out loud of sheer happiness as I was watching him dance.

The public knows about energy, how it feels when you are up there and the public likes it.

Every person helps, screaming, clapping, wowing at the right moments. There are cheering crowds for specific teams or cities.

One of the brilliant ideas of this congress is not to be a competition, Jaime Jesus, Marcia Pinheiro and Angela Lau are the heads behind it all.

From the start they decided it is to be about sharing and growing and helping and it is. You meet people, make friends, have chats, the atmosphere is great.

Backstage at the Sydney Salsa Congress 09

I felt so loved last night… A lot of people came to talk to me, ask me what happened to my arm (also referred to wing, paw, sling, etc) showed me sympathy. I could see it in their eyes… they understood in a way only another dancer will.

I also could feel they took it to their hearts when I said: enjoy it, every second, if anything happens like with me and you can’t dance, even for one day, you have to be able to think as I’m doing now: that’s ok, because I took it all from every dance I had until then: no regrets.

Other than Salsa, the other styles are getting more and more space in the Latin scene: Zouk, Bachata, Bachatango, Reggaeton, Afro-Cuban and Samba made their way to the stage with nice appearances.
Dance makes dancers beautiful, more powerful, taller and shinier than they could ever be, just on the street…

I send my Love to all the performers last night. You were all great, it was my privilege to watch and shout. I’m sorry that I couldn’t clap with one hand, although my legs are showing the results of me clapping hard onto them.

20 Orble Votes

My Clubbing Experience

On January 27, 2009March 30, 2023 By taniacreationsIn Orble Post, The Dancing Bug1 Comment

Photo: Everyone dancing at the LDA BALL 2007

I’m a dancer, a latin dancer, so what I usually do when I go out is to go out dancing.
Due to a series of personal reasons, the last time I went clubbing was… a long time ago. I was still a teenager. Recently I decided to see what it was all about. Especially seeing myself free and single.

To experience that, I joined two friends who love clubbing, they are beautiful and have done it all their teen and adult lives.
We all dressed up but one of my friends had the beautiful idea of wearing shorts, and yes, they were very short shorts.

As a result the guys didn’t see her at all, only her legs. It was as if there was nothing on top of the rim of the short shorts. One of these obsessed males was talking to her, or in her direction and she had to tell him:

‘Hellooooooo! I’m up here! You are talking to my legs!’

Worse than this was the one that threw himself on the floor as a rugby player diving for an incredible ball, hugged her legs and really didn’t want to let the legs go. I’m pretty sure the level of blood in his alcohol was extremely low!

The adventures are endless but for a dancer like me it was… a bit boring.

When I arrived the first thing I felt was the booming of the music in my bones.

Man, it was loud! And it was good! Dancers love loud deafening music. The ones that make the floor vibrate and your whole body hum. Even hearing impaired dancers want loud, loud music: they dance from the reverberation of the floor.

So in the club the music was exciting at first, but quite repetitive. Although there were DJs and they seemed to be changing the music, the sound, the beat itself, didn’t change at all.

My second impression was that people seemed to be moving, but for dancing… hummmm, not exactly.

They were stepping all right. A bit like merengue.

If a tree, an old, stiff tree could dance, this is how they would do: one, two; one, two; step, step; step, step; left, right; left, right; and so on.

Nothing below the chest moved; while arms were flailing in the air and heads going all over the place.

To the end of the night the trees were a bit wobblier, due to alcohol consumption.

I did try dancing like that, and got to the conclusion that my heart beat was slower than when I’m sleeping. During my rest time I’m usually dreaming, and my dreams are exciting enough to accelerate my heart more than during this type of dancing.

This dance was so monotonous and mind numbing that really didn’t get the blood flowing. Maybe if a prince was there or a zouker, or both, or both in one!

Watching all that “dancing” I strongly felt like screaming: ‘W W W DOT LATINDANCE DOT COM DOT AU PEOPLE!’

I kept having these daydreams (even though it was night) about a dancer, appearing out of nowhere, seeing me, noticing I was a dancer, as I would have noticed him, sweeping me off my feet, gone with the wind style, and dancing zouk to the dance music, leaving everyone around us drooling and seriously compromised, saying:

‘What is that? Should I stay and find out? Should I go to the bathroom to sort out this problem right now?’

As no one learnt how to dance and no zouker showed up disguised as a pretty prince, I just enjoyed the rest of the night observing people.

Couldn’t help myself, I did keep picturing what kind of moves this or that couple could pull on the bedroom. It wasn’t such a masterpiece, to be honest. I was laughing at it.

I really felt part of an elite: www.latindancersarehot.com.au

43 Orble Votes

Sydney by the Moon

On January 19, 2009March 28, 2023 By taniacreationsIn Orble Post, The Dancing BugLeave a comment

I just found out I have a broken arm. So I went looking for things I had already written to publish.

As a one-hand-typist I’m an excellent dancer… I found this text I wrote a few years ago. Here it is:

“There are hundreds of things to do in Sydney, and I’ve done most of them.

Aquariums, going to the top of the list, to all the marvellous beaches, the Maritime Museum, the 3D Cinema…
Yet, I decided to do something a few people would have thought to. Few people meaning “the blessed ones that dance”.

It all came to my mind during one of my lonely night walks. I was going back home from Woolloomooloo to Balgowlah, a long and magical way that includes a walk through the park, a ferry ride and a bus trip.
Just as I entered Hyde Park , with my CD-player banging music in my ears I was stunned by the sight of the rounded water fountain that has a level grass circle and an amphitheatre around it.

What had let me in awe was the perfect background, the sight of the cathedral all illuminated, the warm weather, the loneliness of the park.
It was then that the idea stuck in my mind and I knew it would not go away until I made it come true. I dreamt about it the whole night.

In the morning it was the first thing on my mind, and the idea guided me during my daily tasks: getting changed I chose a pair of soft black pants, stretchy black tops, old black socks. The shoes didn’t matter; I would take them off.

I made sure I didn’t forget my CD player, the same CD I was listening to the day before, something to attach the CD player onto my body.

Then I was ready; the difficult thing would be to wait until the night time. I worked as someone with the mind on the moon. Every chance I had during the day, I used to listen to the same music. Over and over again.
And finally I could go home.

It was as if some god had blessed my idea.

I was gifted with a round, perfect, yellowish and big full moon, just above the cathedral.

As I got to the fountain I set my backpack on the steps, took my shoes off.

Then, I looked around me, to make sure that I was alone.

Next, I put my CD player and chose that music, I strapped my player onto my torso, with a tight belt bag. Then I danced. I left my body follow the rhythm, the drums, the voices, every and each sound. I drank of the liberty, I let my soul be filled with the beauty of the place, and delivered my movements to the universe.

I was one with Sydney, with its air, its lights, it’s night.

In this blessed place, the one city in the world I can say I love with all my heart.”

22 Orble Votes

Confession of Love

On January 14, 2009March 30, 2023 By taniacreationsIn Orble Post, The Dancing BugLeave a comment

Tais, Tania, Juliana and Marcia having fun dancing the CanCan at Ana’s Birthday Party

Sometimes I feel like an idiot, because every time I dance I’m smiling the whole time. I’m sure it will be a bit of a problem because Latin Dancing as it is, is already all sexy and stuff, the guys that don’t know me will think its all about them! Well nothing I can do about it.

I’ve been like this my whole life, while my teenage friends were all worried about boys I was running from one ballet school to another and worried to remember the steps from the choreo practice from the day before.

I’m Brazilian but never danced any of the Latin styles while in Brazil, only one Samba on ballet points dressed in a sack written “Café do Brasil”, I’m sure this doesn’t count.

My long dancing career at that time was comprised of classical and contemporary styles. Even then, I was already like today: totally and completely addicted to dancing.

But as a teenager I didn’t know I wouldn’t live forever and especially, I thought dancing was mine for the keep.

Not a reality by the way, before I restarted dancing here I had to stop for 6 years, lots of things happened, work related and personal issues, during this time I came to Australia and worked really hard for a Permanent Visa. Several times I would wake up in the middle of the night crying, tears running down my cheeks because I dreamt I was dancing, I was on stage, I could do the splits or seven pirouettes without effort. Not dancing was my cross to bear all those years.

Now, I am much more aware of how precious is a dance, and having had a sense of the fragility of life, and how one day you may be able to do something next day it may be out of reach for whatever reason, I enjoy every single dance that happens upon me. And I grin like and idiot!

I just love dancing. I’m talking real Love here, capital L. So much that every turn is like a miracle, every time I get the lead right is like the achievement of my life, every second counts, a dip feels like a blessing and a nice word at the end of the music makes my night or my day. Dancing is my bliss, my heaven, my love… my own, my precious!

To everyone my advice is: enjoy! You are never too good, a move or a choreography is never boring, a class is never slow, a dance is never wasted, not if you really dance for the love of it. Take it all! No mater what, have fun!

30 Orble Votes

The Dancing Bug, the Virus and You

On January 4, 2009March 28, 2023 By taniacreationsIn Orble Post, The Dancing BugLeave a comment

You might be thinking as all addicts think:

‘Nawww, not me.’

Denying to the end.

Here is the proof you are a Latin Dance Addict, see if you identify yourself with this:

You are singing the songs, even the ones in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Indian, not having a clue what you are saying.
You actually start to like salsa, bachata, merengue, zouk songs just to be listened to, even when you are driving. If you understand what they are saying, as I mostly do, it is even worse! You like the songs even knowing they are the tackiest of the tacky queens!
If you cannot count anymore: you are counting 6 spoons of sugar for a recipe and you probably go: one, two, three, five, six, seven (and you get the impression there is something wrong about adding six spoons and ending with the number seven in your mind, but never mind, you just keep dancing while you cook).
The kitchen floor shows the results of your steps, the scratches are all over it.
You know by heart all the music that you have in your mp3 player, CDs, Computer, etc.
Worse if you know all the music that are NOT there, and you neeeed to have it, ASAP!
There is no music of any kind that you don’t see yourself dancing …
You may forget to put your clothes on but you will never forget your music player, you would feel naked without music.
You are hooked on YouTube and Facebook, you click “yes, I’m coming” to 123 events on a weekend.
In Facebook you can feel your heartbeat accelerates when a great new event appear online.
On YouTube your “favourites” only have dance videos.
You think that sweating is normal, more than that, it’s sexy.
You collect bruises and show them around, obviously the histories of how they were acquired have to follow.
You never leave the house without a full change of clothes in your bag, and several pairs of dance shoes, obviously.
When you hear the word “dancing” you think it’s with you, no matter if the talker is actually referring to dancing monkeys or trained fleas.
By the middle of the word “Choreog…” both your hands are up and maybe one (or two) legs! Your smile is ridiculous by the way.
When you are in a choreo, if the song is in English, parts of the lyrics of the song sneak into your vocabulary.
You have THE GROUP, those friends that you met to dance with, from whom you might not know too much but you still know all that you need: they dance like you! And THE GROUP becomes a unit, that goes everywhere together.
If you have been to a congress together, where one of you was found at least 50% of the total group was always found too.
People are considering putting you away, because you listen to music every single spare minute that you have and you act funny as you do (there is no way not to mark the rhythm or move your head on that special beat, or sing, or dance…).
You have visions of dancing in the rain, in the dry, in the park, on the beach, under the moonlight, under the sunlight, maybe under a tree also, or under the earth (the metro halls are specially inspiring), in the hall, at the Townhall, on the stairs (can’t you see a beautiful sequence with people dancing every two steps?) around a swimming pool, near a lake, on a hill, on top of those rocks, the list is limitless…
If you have thought: “Yep, that’s me” more than twice you are already doomed. You are addicted to dancing. Some say only doing one of these things, or thinking one of these thoughts, would be enough to be considered freakish. Don’t let any shrink put his or her eyes on you; they will commit you for sure!

You ARE The SHOW, and it MUST go ON!

21 Orble Votes

Bugs on Stage

On November 14, 2008March 28, 2023 By taniacreationsIn Orble Post, The Dancing BugLeave a comment

Photo: Tania performing The White Swan Suite, from The Swan Lake, in Campinas, SP, Brazil, for Viva Vida Academy of Dance, under the Tutelage of Marina Simões in 1994

Dancing bugs are not exclusive of Latin dancing. Even when dancing by yourself all these things can happen.

What things? Bugs.

I’ve been a ballet, jazz, contemporary, modern dancer for 20 years before starting on the Latin styles here in Australia.

I remember some nice stories, especially from performances; they are where the funniest situations are born. Once we had this group of beginners little girls on their first performance ever dressed as ladybugs (talking about bugs) they were the cutest things, not one over six years old, in red carcasses and funny little antlers fixed by a tiara on their heads. At the beginning of the choreo they had this thing of holding hands two by two and moving their heads.

The bug happened when the antlers of two of the lady bugs got stuck. They did what they were trained to do: dance no matter what, and they did the rest of the choreo stuck to one another, trying to keep the formations: tendu, tendu, passé, pas de bourree.

The public loved it! And they got the chance to do it again.

The teacher unstuck them and they could repeat the presentation without being dragged around one by the other.

Another time it was the shoes, I had this turn ending with a jette, that traditional ballet jump with a split on the air.

I spun with all my might and when the leg came up for the jette, the shoe didn’t like the centrifugal and centripetal forces and went flying all the way to the curtains. I did what I had to do: prayed “I hope I don’t slip when my shoe-less and stocking-more foot hits the floor and I don’t end up in a real undesired split!”

I can’t forget about my magic transformation from yellow to beige too.

We had these several choreos one after the other, the public can’t imagine how much you get changed behind the scenery at the backstage.

I always say that if I was a man I would certainly love to dance, you get away with seeing so many interesting things behind the curtains!

We had to get changed in less than 40 seconds. I was already on stage, on my third movement when I had to look down and saw the collant was inside out! Lucky my costume was yellow and the inside was beige, so the contrast wasn’t too bad. But bad enough!

The champion of the bugs I can remember was about this choreo, it was an intense atmospheric one.

It had a heavy theme that comprised a Jesus on a cross that was to be rescued by two of my friends. This Jesus was wearing the traditional sheet wrapped up on top of the boxers. All was well, we were there dressed as Jesuit monks, with torches under our chins giving that macabre look, the music involving us all with its doomed notes… and the sheet decides for a rebellion and simply falls transforming Jesus in a skinny guy wearing boxers and what looked like pampers halfway to his knees.

All the mood was ruined in one instant and the public started laughing so hard that it got really difficult to continue crawling on the floor! You can’t have a good dense mood of a choreo without some people’s parts crawling from under the smoke that the smoke machine is producing – not when you can hear them laughing maniacaly and from under the smoke and no parts coming up.

But as the people say: the show must go on!

Around dancers that had stopped dancing because they had fallen to the floor laughing got under control and continued the dancing, eventually. Around the sounds of HA HA HA from the public, the Jesus sneaked out of stage, around the painful face of the choreographer watching from inside the curtains and the sound of the assistant choreographer banging their head on the wall.

Those can be said to be the longest minutes of your dancing life. You get to the end of the choreo and the applause is the biggest one you ever got. You keep thinking “oh! I’m good!” and you only know the truth when everyone is talking about it later.

The Lesson, from each and all these stories is the same: keep dancing, the show must go on.

23 Orble Votes

The Good Bugs of Dancing

On November 11, 2008March 30, 2023 By taniacreationsIn Orble Post, The Dancing BugLeave a comment

Photo: Nikko & Tania – Bachata performance at Latin Dance Australia‘s Monthly Social Party, 2008

Some people think that once they’ve learnt how to dance to an advanced level of any style they will be safe, there won’t be any more bad dances.
You have but to start, to realize how mistaken you are. Bad dances are around the corner, no matter how good you or your partner are, so are the exceptionally good ones. They can appear in an advanced level or the good ones can surprise ones from the complete beginners level. Dancing is a mystical thing; it’s influenced by simply everything, the moon, the stars, the cockroach under the table next to a phobic girl.

Obviously it’s influenced by the music, how you are dressed and the smells. Ah the smells! (Sigh.) There was once a party I was at that I could swear I smelled like pheromones.

The moon? If someone is walking to a party and there is a full moon he or she can get especially inspired. Chemistry, always, the search for a perfect dance is about the right partner… at that moment.

It happened to me more than once, that you have this amazing dance with that one guy yet and all the times you dance with him later on, it never feels the same. You keep thinking he must have howled to the full moon on that one night. What? You never howled using all the air in your lungs as a werewolf to the full moon? I want to do it every full moon.

The same way the stars can dictate the bliss we search, at every first accords of a dancing song, they can dictate the complete disaster, or maybe even a half-calamity, the best idea is to laugh about it.
I’m pretty confident with some dance styles — my favourites are bachata and zouk/lambada — but my salsa, is still … getting there: punched in the nose.

I was dancing with this guy, really good, all about show moves — even got carried around a few times while my mouth emitted these high pitched noises one can’t control when someone does something unexpected. The first thing I learned in my recent career as a social dancer is “don’t get intimidated” the worst that can happen is that he won’t dance with you again. That is what I used to think; now I have changed my “worst”. The worst that can happen is you getting punched in the nose… by his head.

No big deal, the said nose didn’t break, while he asked: are you all right? I put on my bravest face and found my missing voice: I’m… alll… rite (try to say “right” with your nose blocked and tell me if you have any success!) While two lonely tears ran rebelliously from my eyes.

Another thing is that I thought I might start considering, was wearing a helmet with wig, now an essential item for zouk courses, especially beginners, for the girls. I know it is always the guys fault, but when I banged my head into another lady’s it wasn’t their heads that went spinning. So I thought: “if they knew all about dancing and how to control the lady they would not need to be in a class, therefore the ideal is for us to wear helmets” and the teacher added: “but we will need a wig on top of it because zouk has to have hair flicking all over the place!”. After all a man that dances zouk without eating hair is not dancing zouk.

What I consider bad dances are simply about the hands, as I’m still half way to the moon with my salsa, my following abilities can be comprised as missing hands. Don’t you hate when you are half way to a turn and you see his hand just hanging there, and your spinning and dizzy neurones realize: oh! That was for me! I’m turning the wrong way! But its too late, by the end of the turn he is wearing his “you’ve turned the wrong way” face which is a half-smile, usually with half the mouth and eyebrows a bit upper than they should be; and the hand is gone.

Exactly at the moment you’ve decided to offer him your hand. And it then feels like a kid’s game where one hand goes forth when the other’s is being retracted and vice versa.

But when you are thinking “I’m crap” you have this dance with this special partner, he can be an intermediate level, but so are you, and you just have so much fun dancing together, and he is such a good leader, that there are no missed hands, no wrong turns, the movements are simple but creative, and you see him smiling at you, and even if something is not perfect, it’s still all right, sometimes you even get away from each other because of the layer of sweat, the hands couldn’t hold. When you are finished you keep thinking: What a dance!

As the Master always says: the Good will always surpass the Bad. So one good dance will keep you going through thousands of average ones and quite a few bad as well. The message is clear: keep dancing!

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