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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. 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. |
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