Tag: writing

Still About What Makes a Choreo Great

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LDA Pro Team training at the SSC 09

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:

  1. How much training they had;
  2. 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
  • Speed of movements
  • Connection between partners
  • A story
  • Concentrated or divided focus for the routine
  • Novelty, creativity, innovation

41 Orble Votes

Zouk Performances to Die for at the SSC 2009

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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

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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

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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

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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 

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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

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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

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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 and the Virus

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Photo: Jaime Jesus (LDA) & Tania C in Brisbane Brazilian Dance Congress 2008

When I say the word “Addiction” with a capital A, I’m pretty sure you think cocaine, pot, alcohol, smoking.

Well if you are reading this blog, maybe not.

Worse than all those vices there is one that is more than addiction, it is both an attitude and one unescapable fate… it’s a virus. Exactly: Latin dancing.
There is always a carrier. The calamity is huge, because in each school you can find at least one (carrier I mean) locally you can see lots of them on stage at the Sydney Salsa Congress.

It all starts innocently, you don’t know how much of your life is about to be turned upside down, and what is worst: by yourself! You choose the course that is closer to your end of work time, anywhere from 6 to 7:30pm, considering the transit time. Once a week, for no more than 10 weeks. You feel safe and secure that is all about having a bit of fun. It’s during the week; it is not going to disturb your precious weekends.

You start thinking the music is a bit strange but it feels nice, this Latin dancing thing. In 8 weeks, if you are not immune, you are doomed. By then, you would have gone to at least one dance party, you do a workshop and the party starts, you see… all those people, having so much fun, the spins, the movements, you don’t know but that is when the virus gets active in you blood stream.

You cannot precise what is happening to you, your pupils grow bigger, your breathing gets accelerated, you try to not look but simply can’t. The lights are bathing you, the rhythm is making your chest feel like a drum, it’s like you are spinning yourself and you are praying: please ask me to dance (if you are a girl) or, please ask her to dance (if you are a guy and you are talking to yourself).

And if you do… poor you…

Then you are back to the classes and they get started on this tracing thing, such a simple and subtle movement. Not everyone realizes the power behind it, but a proper tracing! The hands that don’t leave the other’s body when you break apart: even the simple ones, through the arms for a turn, can send shivers down anyone’s spine, it doesn’t need to be sexual, it’s simply sexy.

Did you realize how much power dance can give to someone? Most of the guys Latin dancers are not too tall, and yet they appear giants on stage and dance floor. And the girls, all ladies are absolutely wonderful when they dance feeling it from within. People that you wouldn’t notice on the street can make you find them incredible with one single spin ending with a body roll. Can you see it?

If I close my eyes I can see that and much more.


When you move to the second level you want to do two hours of dancing and retake the first level as a revision.

All that craving for some nice tracings and you discover the shines!

So you shine… the power grows in you (as does the virus) and you find out those precious moments where you can do whatever you want. If you find at least one partner that looks you in the eye as you do it, it feels like he or she is really dancing with you, and the world can end with the music, you will be forever hooked to this dancing.

When you go to the third level you forget all about getting home early, you start thinking that weekends are to be enjoyed in full and you browse the internet for the parties and regular venues. If you have kids the babysitter will be grinning for nothing with the hours she is getting.
You start spreading the virus yourself, bringing friends and working colleagues to the classes, and there you go doing the beginners one more time just to do it with this or that friend.
As it wasn’t enough, you discover the new styles, generally people start with Salsa (these dances all have at least one capital letter) and then the floor is opened under their feet when they find out about the others, the happy ones such as Merengue and Cha­Cha, and the sexy, closer ones, as Bachata and Lambada/Zouk.

The “Doomer” is usually a performance course. It is when things turn inescapable, incurable.

The virus is a happy thing in your body, eating away your food and giving you an unexpected burst of energy.

I’ve seen lots of people loosing 10, 12 kilos in some months, myself for example.

By the time the performance gets near, thinking patterns are completely screwed, starting to rehearse at 9:30pm (till 11:30 or more) feels normal by the second week, you see a bright sunny Sunday and instead of imagining a nice day on the beach you simply think: better go early to the beach, carry all my stuff, so I can be early at the rehearsals.

You start meeting partners for training at the most strange hours, lunch breaks are perfect, why would you need to eat? Your days get to be measured by how long you will have to endure before your next dancing.

Everyone at the dance school knows you by name and when you do your bookings they are done by the bunch: level 5, 6 & 7 of salsa, level 2 & 3 bachata, level 1 & 2 for zouk, performance course, that special workshop, its like a shopping list!


Ah (sight) the workshops… all the extra money you earn goes to a special account called: dance. And dance shoes!

When you look in your wardrobe you don’t find any passage to another enchanted witch-world, but you do find seven (SEVEN!!!) pairs of dance shoes! Then you have costumes hanging around the house, masks, ribbons, spears and all sort of funny things. Unexpectedly you have your chance of becoming famous.

We did this choreo where the choreographer decided to paint in gold some half naked guys (they were wearing proper trousers but had nothing on the torso), after that the girls would refer to some in particular as “the golden men”; they found their moment of glory! (So did the girls by the way!)

When you have been to the stage you don’t even blink anymore if your teacher says: let’s rehearse on the holiday Saturday at 7:30pm. You only think: Yey! We can go dancing after that!

You forget all about travelling, spending more than two days off dancing that would have been hell. All you can say is: don’t fight it, you cannot win! During the end of year holidays (fifteen excruciating and long days) all you can think about was: thanks heaven for the choreo training! I will survive!

If you have seen yourself while reading these words I will tell you one thing: good luck!

Or better: “Break a Leg! Merde! Merda!”

21 Orble Votes

The Good Bugs of Dancing 

On By taniacreationsIn Orble Post, The Dancing BugLeave a comment
Photo: Nikko & Tania - Bachata performance at Latin Dance Australia's Monthly Social Party, 2008

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!

35 Orble Votes