| 
|
 |
Super
Mario and the ABCs of Social Dancing
A candid tête
à tête with the Man of the Million Moves
By Laureano Ralon
Facchina* |
Super
Mario, also known as The Million Moves Man, rapidly made
a name for himself in salsa with his smooth style, endless
unique combinations and his amazing presence on the dance
floor. Born in India and an accountant by profession, he
has been dancing salsa since 1998 (with no prior dance background).
Mario's style is fast and smooth and it allows both men
and women the freedom to improvise. He prides himself that
none of his moves are choreographed and all his moves can
be used effectively with any follower, even if they have
never danced with him or his students before.
Super
Mario is based in London and specialises in cross body style,
dancing on the '1' or the '2', focusing mainly on moves
and combinations, with a lot of emphasis on leading techniques.
He has taught at a number of respected salsa festivals/congresses
and is constantly expanding his teaching skills through
successful workshops around the world.
For his contribution to salsa
as a dancer and instructor he was given an award at the
LA Congress 2004. For his contributions in promoting salsa
in the UK and Israel, he was given awards at the British
Salsa Congress 2003, and the Israel Salsa Congress 2004.
He has been voted Best UK Teacher 3 years in a row, voted
by students online, for the UK congress in 2004, 2005, and
2006.
For those of us in Vancouver
who might not know who you are, please introduce yourself
and if you don’t mind, tell us how long you’ve
been dancing and how you got into Salsa.
Hi everyone. My name is Mario
Hazarika and my salsa name is Super Mario. You have to see
me to understand, why it's Super (laughs). I have been dancing
for 8 years or so now. How I got into Salsa, now let me
think...
I have a small story here:
it all began after being dragged to a club for the first
time. I was talking to my friend about my relationship,
when this lady walked up to us and asked, “Are you
guys new?” Then she looked at me and said: “You've
got women problems? Don’t worry, Salsa will change
all that.” I was shocked!
She turned out to be the instructor
for my beginners class. During the class, I wasn’t
getting the steps at all (I'd never done any form of dance
before this), but she kept encouraging me saying it was
right and that all the guys in the class should do what
I was doing. I was embarrassed, but I liked it.
After the class, she came to
me and said that I never needed to pay again, but that one
day in the future I should teach for her. She saw something
in me and that was so touching and positive that I started
going there regularly. Eventually, I realized that in a
salsa club/class there is no ageism, racism, sexism, etc.
etc. etc. I loved the atmosphere and made so many friends
so quickly. It was a major attraction that kept me going
for more.
Who was your first Salsa
instructor and what was the most important lesson you learned
from him/her?
My first salsa instructor was
Elli Galvani, and she taught me many things: for someone
to become a good dancer, you have to have faith in him/her,
like she had in me. And as an instructor myself, there cannot
be a bigger lesson to learn than that.
Is teaching your full-time
occupation?
Yes sir, it is. And I love it.
I travel every weekend to a different country and teach
different people how to dance. How fullfilling is that?
I’m seeing more
and more of a tendency whereby anyone who’s a half
decent dancer feels almost automatically entitled to teach.
What makes a good instructor in your opinion?
Welcome to the salsa world.
Everyone and his mother is an instructor these days! There
are many attributes to being a good instructor. Mine personally
is taking up a challenge to see that someone becomes a good
dancer, rather than how much money you are going to earn
from that person.
My students in London know that
I cannot tolerate many things, i.e., if someone does not
belong in a group, I tell them to leave. Whereas the other
so-called-instructors don't want to lose out on a potential
money maker.
My biggest piece of advice to
all instructors out there is, be patient. Just because you
can move your feet, does not mean that everyone behind you
can. And most importantly, love what you do and the day
you get bored of teaching, quit.
Let’s change
the subject a little. Do you prefer to dance on1 or on2?
Why?
I have no preference at all.
If the lady wants to dance on1, I will, and if she wants
to change during the song to on2, I will. It's all up to
my follower. I like dancing, thats it... on1, on2, cuban,
cumbia, merengue, bachata, cha cha, whatever, I love it.
What does on1 salsa
have and on2 doesn’t and vice versa? Actually, let
me rephrase the questions slightly: what can you do in on2
that you can’t do in on1 and vice versa.
Nothing. Everything that is
done on1, can be done on2 and vice-versa. People are going
around and saying things that don't make sense!
All good leaders/followers would
know what I am talking about. You can quote me on this:
everything that is done on1, can be done on2. These on1-on2
are just beats of the same bar of music, so how can anything
change. It shouldn't.
I’ve seen you
dancing on1 on a couple of Youtube videos, and the first
thing I noticed is that you were doing a lot of on2 moves.
I guess a lot of people take L.A. style to be the only form
of on1 salsa. Yet, I’ve also been watching the way
Tropical Gem and Utribe social dance, and they seem to have
moved away from L.A. style while still dancing on the 1.
It seems to me that there’s more to one style than
the beat you break on. I can actually dance on the 2 but
I’m far from looking like an on2 dancer… What
do you make of all this?
(Laughs) Nice question. But
let me ask you something: What is an on2 move?
I started learning salsa the
way I dance today. At that time (1999) no one said anything
about on1 or on2. People were dancing in LA and NY without
saying anything. I started watching videos of people social
dancing, and preferred what people in NY were doing (aka
dancing on2) rather than what people in LA (aka dancing
on1) were doing. In NY they were purely social dancing to
the music, whereas in LA they were doing a lot of show moves,
tricks, dips and lifts. That did not appeal to me, so I
started dancing like people from NY. Nothing to do with
the fact that they were dancing on1 or on2. I just liked
what I saw - that's it. I was never a fan of tricks and
stuff. Social dancing is what salsa is all about. People:
when you watch youtube, please go back to the '70s and take
a look at how people were feeling the music and dancing
while a live band was jamming for them. There is nothing
like watching those people having fun. They didn't care
about on1-on2; they just danced, which is what I do.
The word in the street
is that you have one of the best leads in the whole wide
world ;-) My questions to you is, what is a lead? How would
you define a lead? Is it something that “I”,
as a leader, impose on the follower – or is it something
else?
WOW, I have the best lead in
the whole wide world! I didnt know that. Thanks for letting
me know. ;) I have always focused on leading. Even in my
early days of learning, I was always careful when I did
things. At some point, the use of signals instead of power
became obvious to me. Whenever I spoke to the ladies, they
always seemed to complain about how much power the guys
would use when it was not necessary at all. I put all this
into perspective and started focusing more on that side
of leading.
Leading should be treated like
a skill: not everyone can understand it, but everyone can
learn it. I tell my students in London: think of flowers
when you lead a lady, and not a truck, meaning, why use
force when all she needs is a signal. And that's my answer
to your question, of what is a lead.
People mistake power to make
a woman follow an intricate move; but when I teach that
same move, I always make sure the guys understand that if
you were in the right place, doing the right thing, you
wouldn't need power at all. So, I would not use the word
'impose'. ;-)
What is social dancing
all about really? Is it about having fun, is it about enjoying
and interpreting the music, is it about connecting to your
partner, is it about looking good and showing it to the
world?
It's everything except the last
one (showing off to the world). In order of importance:
it's about having fun, making sure your partner is also
having fun, enjoying the music while intepreting it and
staying connected.
I always tell people to go out because they want to dance
and not because Tuesday night is good at so-and-so club.
I social dance a lot and love it. I want to be in the middle
of that beautiful atmosphere, but there are days when I
don't feel it, and so I will not be there when I feel that
way. So people need to understand that part of social dancing.
And guys: dance with as many advanced dancers as beginners;
your lead will get better that way. I live for challenges,
so dancing with beginners and intermediate students is more
fun for me when I go out social dancing.
As a social dancer,
what do you make of people that dance the same way on and
off the stage?
I think the stage should be
for shows and the dance floor should be for social dancing.
Mixing them up is not good. I 'hate' couples who come off
the stage and perform on the dance-floor. It intimidates
a lot of social dancers.
What type of music do
you listen to these days?
I like to listen to hip-hop
when I'm not listening to salsa. Outside a club/class, I
never listen to salsa. ;)
And if you're asking me what
salsa music I'm listening to at the moment, I have always
loved El Gran Combo and Hector Lavoe (Fania all stars).
What would you like
to accomplish with salsa in the next five years?
I never think like that. I feel
that what I've done so far has been a truly great accomplishment
– especially with your quote 'the best lead in the
whole wide world', and the great journeys into people's
countries and hearts. I feel truly blessed by that. But
saying that, it has always been a dream for me to teach
online, so that people from all over the world can take
classes with me from the comfort of their homes. I thought
my DVDs would have done that, but now I'm going one step
further and doing live online streaming classes from London.
So, now all of you can take those classes with me. It starts
on the 2nd week of June, so keep an eye out for it. The
website is www.salsaclass.tv.
I am excited about this project.
Have you ever been
to Vancouver ?
No. But every year, I go to
Toronto twice. Once for workshops and the other for the
Toronto Congress, which I love. ;)
When will you honor
us with your visit?
I will be there one day, I promise.
But now that you have me in your TVs, you probably wouldn't
want me anyway ;)
People: stay well and enjoy
your dancing, and look out for me on your dance floor; I
might be that guy next to you.
For more information
about Mario and his instructional DVDs, visit his website
millionmovesman.com
or his upcoming www.salsaclass.tv
site.
