Korea Carruseles

Casino Rueda 101 Resumes Tonight

Hope to see the regulars at the casino rueda class tonight at Candela Dance Studio, the Home of Korean Casino, in Yangjae.

No Casino Rueda 101 Class This Saturday

As I'm sure everybody knows, this weekend is a Korean national holiday.  Therefore there will be no Casino Rueda 101 class. 

Class will resume the following Saturday.......October 10, 2009.  Meanwhile, I hope everybody has a good time, enjoys their time off and perhaps I'll see you out dancing somewhere.

Matter of fact, last weekend I discussed meeting one of our casino rueda ladies, Belinda, at Bahia for Bachata Night this Friday.  If you'd like to come along or meet us there, let me know (010 5822 2277). 

I'll be going somewhere, maybe Gachi, Saturday night too.  Or maybe Caliente if Neon is going to be there.

Casino Rueda 101.....next class tomorrow!

Ola ......Lads and lassies.  Guess what's up tomorrow(Sept.26th)?

You got it!!  Tomorrow, September 26, is class number two as we delve further into the excitment of casino rueda.  Will you be there?

I hope so because last week we had a great time.  We had a great crowd and I'm we'll have another enthusiastic crowd tomorrow. 

We'll be  going further beyond the basics that we covered last week and learning a few nice little casino patterns that'll give you something to 'show off' the first time we actually do a rueda in public.

Korea Latin and Salsa has a social coming up very soon, on a Friday, at American Latina.  So, I'm thinking that'll be our first real performance.  Can't wait.

Anyway, hope to see you in class tomorrow.  If you wanted to make it but couldn't, well.......here's the deal:  If you already know your salsa basics (i.e. crossbody lead, right hand turn, and basic step) then come on down to the class.  If you're a total beginner then I'm going to ask you to wait til the next series of classes.

The reason for that is that these classes are progressive and I don't want to hold up or delay the people who were able to come last week by going over old stuff.  They're red hot and ready to go and I want to teach them as much as possible in this next 3 weeks.

Ok?

But you can start over in 3 weeks if you want too.  We'll probably have another bootcamp too.

P.S.  We'll be going out dancing after the class tomorrow too so...plan on that, OK?

Casino Rueda 101.....Fall Semester starts Saturday!!

 

Through the glass darkly..........?

Do you ever think about the future of dancing?  I mean....we know that art forms change and evolve and mutate, right.  But where will (for example) bachata be 4 years from now.  Particularly the latin dances we're familiar with?

I don't think anybody can tell for sure.  But it's fun to try to see.....through the glass darkly.

I do see a very real potential connection between bachata and kizomba and tango.  I'd really say that kizomba is where the two most intersect.

Point is, I found some very cool video clips tonight and a cool band called OtrosAires (www.otrosaires.com).  How I found it was through a 'friend' request through my Facebook account from a guy named VicTor Kizombafr.

I thought it was probably a fake name at first.  I still think it is but, after following through and clicking around I have a higher appreciation for the artist talent behind the name whether it's fake or not.  

He found me through a mutual Facebook 'friend' we have.....Jose N'dongala.  Jose, you'll remember, is one of my kizomba instructor friends.

Anyway, VicTor apparently has a band called OtrosAires.  They're Argentinians.  I haven't heard much of their music but the two songs I heard sound great.  It's the kind of progressive electronic stuff I like.

I haven't fully explored their site yet but I'll bet there lots more good stuff on it than what I saw.  Looks like it's a 'flash' based site too.  Here's three video I saw:

New pattern for next week Casino Reuda 101 Pt4

Here's a pattern we're going to learn next week at Casino Rueda 101 Wk4.  It's all just enchufla or a variation.  Also notice that it's 4 parts long.  So it'll fit into the music perfectly.  Later, we can add something else to it and make it real nice.

Coined a new term for Casino Rueda

From now on, to the extent that I have anything to do with it, 'clockwise' in our ruedas will be referred to as 'downstream' and 'counterclockwise' will be referred to as 'upstream'.

I thought this would be a good idea because frequently I find myself trying to make notes on rueda patterns and I've discovered that I couldn't think of anything logical for 'counterclockwise'.  Clockwise was logically 'cw' but 'counterclockwise', sounding more like it had three words in it.......I didn't want to use the abbreviation 'ccw' because it had 3 digits (i.e. vs the 2 digits of 'cw').

I realize now that I could use 'cw' and 'cc' but, somehow, the words downstream and upstream seem better to me.  That makes the abbreviations somewhat more uniform....e.g. 'u.s.' and 'd.s.'

Anybody got any opinions on that?

Casino Rueda 101 pt 3 !!

Yes friends and fun lovers in Seoul (and environs)......it's that time again.  Time for another fun and frolicing evening with Candela Dance Studio, Korea Carruselescom and Korea Latin and Salsa.com.

Join us for our third class of Casino Rueda 101.  Our classes are growing steadily, everybody's learning real fast and we're all having a great time in the process. 

How 'bout you?  What have you been doing on Saturday nights? 

If you've been going salsa dancing but you haven't :-0 been doing any rueda......man!  I don't know how you've been surviving.  There's nothing more fun that dancing with your friends in a rueda. 

Talk about 'renewable energy'!!!  This is it, baby!

It's kinda lika being a member of a street gang that dances.  Except it's not on the street.  We're more civilized than that.  We do it in clubs.  And we do it with............EVERYBODY!!

Even if you've missed the first two classes, as long as you know your salsa basics it's probably not too late to get in and move along with us.

Candela Studio is easy to find.  Just get to the Yangjae subway station in Seoul.  Take Exit #6 and Candela Dance Studio is a short 3 minute walk from that.  You'll see direction on the video elsewhere on this site.  Or you can call me, Art, at 010 5822 2277 or call Pillhwan at 011-9046-6103

SSQQ and Jorge Elizando. Two great names.....in studios and bachata

This post isn't immediately relevant to anybody in Korea right now but I think it's nice for Korean dancers to know some of the more important events and people in the US dance scene right now.

Anybody who knows anything about latin dancing in Houston, Texas knows who SSQQ is.  SSQQ ("Slow-Slow-Quick-Quick").  SSQQ has probably introduced and trained more people in the various latin dances (i.e. salsa, bachata, merengue, cha-cha) than any three other studios in Houston.  In fact, that's actually where I first learned to dance.

And anybody who knows anything about bachata very possibly knows who Jorge Elizando is.  In fact, Jorge came to Korea last December and did a two day, 9 hour workshop over at YouCanDance studio in Itaewon that was very well received by over 30 people. 

Jorge is also a personal friend of mine and he's the guy who really opened up my mind to what bachata can be.  He's also the guy who, probably more than any other, has brought bachata 'out of the closet' and made it a joy to thousands of people in the US and Europe.  

No doubt about it.  Two great names in their respective niches of the dance business.  Now, for the first time ever, they're working together to bring two exciting days of bachata master-level training to the good people of Houston, Texas.

Class #1 was great.....will you make #2?

Here's the video I did for this coming Saturday's Casino Rueda 101 class.  You'll see our group picture after the class also some pictures from the KoreaLatinandSalsa group social we went to at Macondo later that night

We had a great first class.  A few people who I was looking forward to seeing didn't turn up but they had circumstances that prevented them from doing so and I eagerly anticipate seeing at least 2 or 3 of them this Saturday.  It should be another stellar class.

Regardless, we still had enough people to have a good class.  As you can see from this video, we had enough people for 4 couples plus one extra.  That's not unusual....i.e. to have some empty slots in the 'circle'.

I especially thought Pat and Natalie did very well and they certainly looked like they were having fun.

So.......... HEY!  GUYS!

This is your big chance.  Lots of you joined KoreaLatinandSalsa because (you said) you wanted to learn to dance.  Soooooooooo.........let's get on the stick.  You won't find a more fun way to learn to salsa.  Don't let life 'get in the way' like most people do.

Attend the class this Saturday and get in on the ground floor of this thing we're doing.  Then, when we start our next class, I can probably get Pillhwan to let you attend this class again for half price and you'll get to be the 'big dog' with all the new casineras!

Plus, of course, you'll move along with our FirstTeam to bigger and better things.

This is probably the last Saturday we'll let new people come into the class.  Remember that I said I wanted to build a small, hard-core group up to a reasonable level of proficiency so that we could have a demo group as quickly as possible.  It's going to happen.  Only question is......are you 'in' or will you miss it?

Remember, lots of people say they'd like to 'perform' but never have the chance.  With casino rueda you've got the best of two worlds.  You're a performer but you don't have to go through all the regimentation they do.  Plus, in my humble opinion, the performances are more fun both to do and to  watch. 

Every time you do a rueda, it's a 'performance'.  Anybody who's seen a group doing rueda remembers it.  If you'll take advantage of these classes, you can be one of those people they remember.

We're on our way to getting our FirstTeam off the ground and flying.  If you get in by this coming Saturday, you can still be a part of it.  We especially need guys so.....girls, if you want to come, please try to bring a guy.  Otherwise, expect to either have to dance lead or just have to wait your turn in the circle as we practice.

We still plan on going out dancing somewhere later Saturday evening.  If you want somewhere to go and somebody to go out with Saturday night, come out with us.

By the way, there will be a test at the end of this class.  Those who pass the test can move on to Casino Rueda 201.  Those who do not will have to repeat the 101 class.  I expect everybody will pass though.

Sometime in the near future we'll be starting a class designed for total dance beginners....i.e. people who've never done any salsa dancing before.  Keep that in mind........not for yourself but for any friends you have who you think would enjoy learning this very social kind of salsa.  I'm looking forward to that class because I've got some very specific ideas on what's beneficial for beginners.

So that's it.  I hope everybody is well and enjoying sassy, sizzling, Seoul.