(Click on photos to enlarge)
Crown Plaza Hotel
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The Beach!
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Sanaa & Ron with Tito &
Tamara |
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With Jayson & Gaby
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The second
annual congress in Mexico was amazing. The venue was
right on the beautiful Acapulco bay, steps from the
ocean. The atmosphere at the congress was very down-to-earth
and friendly. Even though the level of the dancing was
very high, everyone was warm and welcoming. Kids were
present, too, themselves world-class dancers, and quite
a few locals from Acapulco.
Shows included our very
own Ron and Sanaa Martinez, dancing bachata. The performers
ranged in age from 8 to 72, including the cutest kids
who could shake their booty along with the best of them
and an elderly lady who only started dancing four years
ago. My favourite show was by Tito Ortos and Tamara
Livolsi—two hot and extremely talented dancers
from Puerto Rico, featured in the film Dirty Dancing:
Havana Nights. They are simply phenomenal. I made sure
to take their class “Old-style NY shines.”
All the classes were taught
by talented dancers with an incredible amount of energy.
The hidden surprise of the congress for me, however,
was the rueda class that I ended up in simply because
I wasn’t interested in the other classes offered
at the same time. I’d seen rueda before in Vancouver
but never tried it. I couldn’t believe how much
fun it was. The hour lesson went by much too quickly!
I will definitely be following that class up with more
here in Vancouver.
I also really enjoyed Haridian
and Nerea’s ladies’ styling class (from
the Canary Islands), and Al “Liquid Silver”
and Karla Espinoza’s musicality class (from LA),
the latter of which was taught in “Spanglish.”
Most of the congress was conducted in Spanish, so I
always found myself running after one of the organizers—Albert,
Victor, Gaby or Armando—for a translation, which
they happily provided. But in the classes, it was much
more of a watch and learn situation. By the end of the
congress, however, I was amazed at how much my language
skills related to dance vocabulary had improved, as
well as my ability to clap on cue to “un aplauso
por favor”.
The congress was a great
experience, and I want to thank Jennifer and Stephen
for parting with the tickets they won at the Vancouver
Salsa Congress so that Margaret Lamont and I could experience
the international salsa scene. |
