The stage is a piece of tear in the fabric of the world. It’s a different place than the others. People on stage gain magical powers that they wouldn’t have when walking in the mall. Dance is the instrument of this power. It is so amazing how the people’s perception change and get altered by this special power.
A great example is my mum. She is a small person and she is a physicist and a teacher. I remember one day to be talking to someone that had been her student and he said to me that he only realised she wasn’t tall months after she stopped teaching him, she was so imposing when teaching, so powerful, he thought she was much taller than reality. One day he passed her by at the Uni and realised she wasn’t big at all!
That is what happens to these big dancers we have around. Jaime Jesus, Nestor Manuelian, Johnny Vasquez, Tony Lara, Oliver Piñeda, are not very tall men but man! how huge do they look on stage!
I keep looking at them dance, with mouth open and cannot tear my eyes off of them, yet they are normal people in a normal surrounding, as am I.
Amazing Little Liz is another bright star on the dance stage and floor.
Other, not short, talents also come to my mind, some dancers that steal all the attention when on stage, Angelo Salgado and his smile, he burns brightly, this year he got the permanent Australian visa for Special Talent and such a right thing it was. He is a very special talent indeed. I looked to the people around me watching his show and we were all grinning like idiots.
And Fernando, the Suave man. I can’t precise what’s about him, a charm or something. He turns and step and smile and move, and you sigh…
Fernando Providel & Tania / Nestor Manuelian, Tania & Lidia MacMahon / Super Mario & Tania
These dancers are all so especial, they have personalities that leak out of them, that enfold the viewers making them believe the impossible.
Lastly I’ll talk about someone a bit larger, Super Mario, the one everyone in the salsa scene is in love with.
You don’t have another choice but to like him.
Last year I saw him dancing with four or five little girls from New Zealand’s team, it was in the party after the shows and he was leading them all so well, it was delightful to watch.
This year, with my broken arm I had a chance to talks with him these days before the congress, he was harbouring a hurt hand also so we exchanged a few tears, from the pain and I told him he should keep his hand in the protective gear he told me I should keep my arm imobile, funny dialogue.
Kim and Alex, Dave and Zoe joined forces and performed a show together. It was striking! A show with moves, tricks, dips and magic that kept the public in love with the routine from beginning to end.
On the other hand, technique and pure dance beauty, will enthral everyone in the same way,
I’m still sighting when I think of Jordan and Tatiana.
Some people don’t need theme, costumes, don’t need props, some don’t even need music, only their dance enthralls the viewer.
Especially for couple dancing two things will show clearly on stage:
How much training they had;
How many times they performed the choreo.
Remember that the longer partners have been dancing together, usually, the better the connection is. It’s better to avoid partnering people up last minute, or making changes in partners just before a big performance.
The best show moves are the ones you don’t see either coming or going. The transitions have to be smooth as… It is great to perform something new for the first time at a big event but the following performances on stage are usually much better than the first one. It’s sometimes worth performing at a small event before going to a large event. It’s about the confidence you get.
The amount of training taken before the big day will show in how clean the choreo is. The smaller the group on stage, the cleaner the choreo and movements have to be.
Cleanliness is more important that speed of movements. Some dancers think that if it fast, it is good, and everyone will only think about how fast the routine is. Wrong, the faster it is the cleaner it has to be, every movement has to be perfect, every arm has to stretch it fully, if they are to be stretched. Half movements ruin a routine.
The clean, fast, routine usually appears slower than it is, because good dancers make it look fast but easy.
I was once in a doctor near my ballet school straight after training and I was all flushed, sweaty, tired.
An old lady looked at me and asked what I was doing.
‘I just finished my Ballet class’ I answered.
‘How come? It looks so easy and light and soft?’ She asked me back.
That is the trick. Make it look easy, and light, even if it is fast.
One detail that has to be taken in consideration in a routine is a scenic technique: where do you want the public to focus,
Do you want the attention of the viewer to be divided or not?
For example, in Jaime & Liz’s choreo all I could see was Jaime’s spotted boxer. If they were not sooo good I would be able to focus on something else. I still laugh every time I think of those boxers.
If you want complete attention to a particular part of of the performance, remember to make everything else completely still. If you want people to be overwhelmed in their senses move all elements in different directions.
Novelty is the last thing I can think of as important in a choreo, but it’s one of the first the public will notice.
IUAC from Melbourne gave me the shivers with a start in slow motion they used. Not that it is something never used before but it was different from all else and gave such a great effect to the choreo.
That is how much they have trained: until they dropped!
Last year we performed a “zoukaton” routine at the congress, a fast zouk to reggaeton music.
It was different, sexy and oh! so much fun, we then took it to Brisbane’s Brazilian Congress. Jaime’s creation may have influenced others a bit as we have seen a few other zouk routines to reggaeton this year.
I had a few people coming to me to say a lot of nice things about the choreo and how different it was.
This congress he came up with a routine that was exceptional again. This time it was for LDA Pro Team. Half zouk, half salsa shines. I simply loved it. The costume was beautiful, and things were happening everywhere, all the time, making the most of the divided attention thing. The zouk was heartfelt, using the music fully, with tricks and dips and changing partners, the shines was so clean and good I couldn’t take my eyes off them. I’m bias but who cares, I loved it!
That was in my opinion a great example of a work of art!
Summarizing, the elements to consider on a choreography are:
Show moves
Technique
Training
How many times the show was performed on stage
Transitions between moves
Cleanliness of movements
Cleanliness is more important that speed of movements
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.
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
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.
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 had so much fun performing with Tony Lara’s team at the Sydney International Bachata Festival 2009! The theme of the choreo and music is “Angels” and we looked very angelic indeed in our white costumes.
I was especially smiley because it was my “coming back” performance. After fracturing a bone (fell off a horse in January) I couldn’t do it at the Sydney Salsa Congress and I felt more than happy to have a chance to show months of training on stage.
Performing for me is a metaphysical experience, it’s a connection with major illuminating forces, with the Universe, with the mainstream Energy of life; Dressed as an Angel of all things, even more!
Although I have to tell you: those bachata angels are a bit naughty. My mom called and asked only one thing after seeing the video on Facebook:
‘Are Angels supposed to be sexy?’
To my fellow Angel Dancers: she thought we were very sexy, woohoo! After all, it is bachata!
So I was there smiling my teeth out to the public.
However, being there doesn’t give you the truth about of the whole group, you can only feel yourself and people right beside you.
I know my partner and I were ok, no mistakes, smiling to each other, he even remembered to look at me at the bachatango step, so all we were fine.
Then I saw the video, the whole group dancing, all six couples, and I went: WOW!
It is not a hard routine, it doesn’t have acrobatics and many hard‐funky steps. It was soft, and beautiful, and sexy, and lovely and we looked clean and oh so nice! It was such a surprise, because it was the first video I saw of the whole group and it impressed me, I was proud and happy to be part of it.
They say the world is going to end on 2012! According to the Mayan prophecies. Such good news! Now you have the perfect excuse to make all your dreams come true. Go crazy, risk, enjoy, change your life. Sure you have to be prepared in case the world doesn’t end, like leaving some reserves, keeping the properties and not going into debt. But other than that, you have to get at least a third of your dreams in life! Do all that you can for that, move, put the wheels of fortune in motion. You should steal a kiss from that gorgeous lady across the street, offer flowers to a stranger, make someone’s day, do something nuts, look someone different deeply into his or her eyes.
You could wear socks of different colours, create some funny little lies, belly dance on top of your work table… or howl to the moon. There are so many ways to transform a life into a daily adventure! If your day is too normal, do not take it! Life is to be enjoyed. An idea for the ladies is to go to the toilet and remove your underwear. If you are wearing skirts, even better. Go “al fresco” and feel that you have changed your life and no-one knows about it! You will laugh for nothing and feel very strange, but life got more adventurous and it didn’t cost you a thing.
Here is my advice for the New Year: one folly per day. I can think of so many!
Try black coffee, or one of those lollies only kids like, the ones that pop in your tongue or make it all purple.
Send a kiss to the ugliest man you see from the bus window.
Wave to a stranger and pretend you know the person.
Dress with strong coloured clothes that do not match at all and say you have a slight problem of colour-blindness.
Create new words and pretend they exist.
One of my friends who lived in Sydney as a student in one of the best English courses around used to mess what the locals thought of the Brazilian culture. When her homework was to talk about proverbs, she created completely new ones from her own mind some that no-one else would recognise.
I can’t remember exactly but it was something like this:
“Dead birds do not fly high” the explanation being that this was said to make people take risks.
Or “Lower than the table’s base there is only the floor” which would be used by mothers to teach the children that life needs structure…
She would spend the rest of the day laughing about her own creations and when she told us we laughed together.
In a Brazilian party here I found a friend teaching an Australian: “look, there is a really nice phrase you can use” and she would say in Portuguese, slowly, what actually meant “I am cra-zy”. My friend had this serious teacher’s face. I spoilt her fun when I started giggling and the guy realised there was something wrong…
So this is it, my advice for the New Year: daily doses of free adventure… take risks, use the pink shirt! Coral Pink for the guys, bright pink for the ladies… and add to your diary: laugh out loud at least once a day!
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