We've got an online presence now. My friend Brent has a website called SalsaFire. I believe it's a .com site. It's fairly new though and there's not much content on it yet.
Myself, I have a blog over on Typepad but I don't have it's URL (which is sorta long) redirected to the domain name I bought at GoDaddy (www.koreacarruseles.com).
The long Typepad URL is
http://wanderingsalsero.typepad.com/korea_carruseles/ All I've got there so far is a welcoming message but later today I'll be be posting the first item of content on it...the first of what will be many and often.
I'm picking up some cards on Tuesday and Brent already has his. None of you know Brent yet but he's also a teacher (and recently married!) and apparently he was thinking sorta along the same lines I was when we met through this board. Both he and I were thinking that we wanted to have a card to give people if/when somebody expressed an iterest in going our social group.
Having cards will make it easier for us to publicize the group....i.e. sometimes you don't have time to go into all the details about something when you meet people in spontaneous social situations. But, having cards will mean that we'll have better odds of bringing you (a potential member yourself, right?) more members to intermix with.
Which brings up another observation:
There's lots of good salsa clubs in Seoul but I've observed that Korean dancers don't go out of their way to talk to or mix with us foreigners. I suspect a lot of that is just due to the language barrier but whatever the reason is it also means that we foreigners are going to have to 'bring our own' (i.e. dance partners) to the club if we expect to have somebody to dance with.
That's one of the advantages I see to having this group up and growing. We have the potential of creating our own social dance community.
If we can build a dynamic, excited group on our own, then I think the Koreans will be wanting to take part in what we're doing......which I'm all in favor of. And if, at some point in the future the rueda style starts to grow in Seoul.....then it'll be a more open social situation too by the very nature of rueda. But I think we've got to take the initiative in creating a situation where we're 'making it happen'.
I'm going into Seoul this afternoon to attend the evening lesson over at Macondo (in Hongdae). And I plan on going to the Tuesday lesson also. I'm not sure what the difference is but they both are billed as 'casino' or 'rueda'.
Based on what I've seen myself (last week) and what I heard from Brent, I don't have much hope of those lessons being very good over there.
I say that mostly because of the language situation.
It's a mixed nationality class and I just think it's difficult to move forward very fast when the person who's teaching has limited command of English and the 'local nationals' (i.e. the Koreans) probably don't understand it very well either. But, on the off chance that it might succeed and prosper, I'd want to be a part of it. No need for me to reinvent the wheel if something else is working.
Supposedly that gal at Macondo has been to Cuba. But I do know she can't speak Spanish and I'm not sure how much rueda she really knows nor am I sure how good a teacher she is. I've only been to one of her classes.
When 'we' eventually start our own get-togethers, it'll take me about 90-120 minutes probably to teach you all the basics of casino rueda. That's really about all you need me (or any other teacher) for. From that point on you'll really be able to learn at your own pace in as far as there are several good instructional DVDs on the market.
Once you learn your basics, the value of being part of a group will be that you'll have somebody to practice your rueda techniques with....and maybe to learn 'calling' if you want to. If we decide to continue our meetings for the purpose of some coordinated learning of patterns..and practice.....that's fine with me. Personally I'm hoping to find a regular practice partner for myself and a small group to hang out with.
Probably what'll happen is that there'll be a group of, say.....8-16 of us who like it....and on any particular evening at least 2-4 couples will be able rendezvous somewhere. I have a friend in Austin, Texas who has a up-and-running rueda club called www.streetsalsa.com . And that's the way it happens in Austin.
Just for your understanding of 'the bigger picture'.....the next element of the rueda puzzle to fall into place is for these lessons at the studio in Itaewon to start. I've seen that studio. It's a nice one. And although I think they're a bit overpriced, at least they appear to be somewhat professional.
Supposedly they've got somebody scheduled to be a teacher who knows what they're doing. Time will tell.
I told the person at the desk there that I didn't want to pay the kind of money they were talking about for a beginner class but I would like to audit and perhaps 'help'. I don't know if they'r going to be agreeable to that or not. My suspicion is that they won't. Often times people in the dance busines tend to be very secretive and possisive.
On the subject of Itaewon however, Caliente is the salsa club in Itaewon (if you didn't already know) and it's been my observation that people don't get there til fairly late in the evening. I think Caliente might be a club where we'd be able to dance at once we get going.
One problem we're going to have is finding clubs where we'll have room to dance. 4 couples makes a nice sized rueda but larger ruedas, 6-12 couples are even more fun. But if you've seen Seoul salsa clubs you know there just isn't that kind of room there.
That means that we're going to have to learn to dance in small ruedas (i.e. 2-5 couples). That's really a good thing. People tend to assume that rueda circles have to be BIG. But they don't.
Another thing that we might be able to do in the not-to-distant future too is take a trip to Busan or even Japan to do some rueda there. Whatever little group we're able to form might really be able to build a reputation locally.....but I'm just thinking forward. We gotta get to square one first.
I'm going to go over to post on the Korea Carruseles blog now. Don't hesitate to call me if you have any questions. Actually I'd prefer a call rather than email. My number is 010 9122 8095
Keep those feet moving!
Art
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