WanderingSalsero

This guy can 'get down'.....!

Edie says, "It's the temperature, man!"

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I've always referred to Edie the Salsa Freak as 'America's Salsa Teacher' because she really probably 'gets around' and has done more to spread the love of 'good' salsa more than any other single person.  I don't know her personally although I did meet and dance with her a few times back in Houston.  She's, of course, a lot of fun to dance with.

Sometimes her website(s) are a bit hard to navigate because she's got so many of them and there's so much 'product' on them.  But her content is all good, as are her products too, so I'm sure there's a lot of less well known dancers and instructors that would love to have such a problem.

The point of this email is something I just read in her email.newsletters that I get (I'm one one of her lists).  I wanted to just give you a link or something but, just as an example of the comment I made above, I couldn't find where to do it.  So........I'll just paraphrase what she said.

She said that salsera fashion is different in various parts of the world primarily based on the kind of climate they have there.  For example, it would probably be different in someplace like Seoul or St.Petersburg vs. in Cali, Colombia or Ibeza (in the Meditteranean). 

Yeah....I'd have to assume that's probably true.  I haven't been all the places around the world that she has but it all seems logical.

She also says that there's an element of 'style' and feminenity that goes beyond clothes.  Yeah....I agree with that too.  I've seen lots of gals that were 'well packaged' but totally failed to turn me on for the simple reason that they didn't smile.  They acted more like female salsa Gestapo than salseras.

On the other hand, I've seen gals dressed almost poor as church mice that turned me on big-time because not only did they conduct themselves like 'ladies' to be appreciated and enjoyed but they also turned into finely tuned expression-engines on the dance floor.

So...that's pretty much my comment.  If you're not on Edie's mailing list, try to get on it.  Somewhere :-)

Merengue Dog?

This dog dances Merengue pretty good.  Personally, I think that's just about all Merengue is good for.....drunks and dogs.  Nevertheless.....this area where they're dancing.  It reminds me a lot of that shopping center over on the SE corner of S.Gessner and Harwin in Houston.....where Amnesia Salsa Club used to be. 

It can't be the same place........can it?

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Swing lives.......

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I somehow got to looking at some swing videos tonight.  Swing 'dancing' I mean.

You know....I really think there's a lot of this feel that could be put into salsa dancing.  I'm speaking of 'Lindy Hop'......because according to what I see and hear on the instructional videos on YouTube, Lindy Hop has a symmetrical step.  Just like salsa.  So it would fit into the over all rhythmic structure.

There's lots of really cool videos on YouTube.  Just look under 'swing dancing' and/or 'lindy hop'.  Apparently Lindy Hop preceded the Swing Dancing of the 40's.

 

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Couple of quick ideas from growing a studio's business

First......PLR(AKA: Private Label Rights).

Did you know that you can buy pre-written products of all kinds which you can then resell or even give away on your site?

That's right.  When you buy these kinds of products they come with different rights for you....i.e. sometimes you can even put your name on them as the author.  And sometimes you can't. 

You can also buy products (I'm speaking of 'ebook' type products) and then break them into their component parts and 'drip' them out to your subscribers over a period of time.  That's just one idea.

The bigger point here though is...'why would you want to do this?'

Well,....

• It makes your site different from your competition
• It brings people back to your site more oftten
• If you choose the products wisely it enhances your stature
• If chosen wisely, some of these products could fit in with your primary business
• It can potentially make you a lot of money

And here's my second point (which I won't go into much but I still wanted to mention it because I've been looking a lot at it lately):

Did you know that you can geotarget and demographically target potential customers on Twitter and/or mobile phones?

Yeah......you can.

Let's just say you've got a 'social' coming up on Firiday night.  Friday afternoon arrives and you're wondering if you'll have as large a crowd as you want.  Further, it just so happens that you've got one of your new instructors there and you really would like to expose them to as many people as possiible.

So what do you do?

Answer:

You do a targetd Twitter-blast or a Mobi-blast to get people in your local area who could realistically be potential attendees to your sociial.

Considering the marketing implications, it's not that expensive.

 

Oops!

Image via Wikipedia

Darnnit!

I just did a post about Jorge Elizando's interesting and ground-breaking new DVD, "Sensual Touch, An Exploration inn Sensuality Through Lap Dance, Vol 1," featuring Summer Sando.  But I pushed the wrong button and lost it.

I'll do it again.  Meanwhile..........

It was interesting to me to see this article saying that in a recent readers poll, Travel + Leisure Magazine named Bangkok, Thailand their "Top City" award of places to visit.  And Chieng Mai, Thailand's second largest city up in the northwest part of the country, was named #2.

I thought it was interesting because Thailand is one place I probably could go if and when I leave S.Korea.

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Busan tonight!

Well, since I've opted 'out' of the Daegu Casino Rueda scene for the time being, I've got every other Saturday evening free now.  And I've decided it's finally time for me to do something I've been wanting to do for a long time.....check out the Busan (AKA: Pusan) salsa scene.

I can't say for sure yet but based on my very preliminary research, it looks like it's a healthy community.....salsa-wise, I mean.

I'll be leaving school here in just a few minutes, then going home to get my overnight bag, then heading to the nearest train station (Waegon) to catch the train south to Busan.  I think I'll not take the KTX this time since I've got plenty of time.

On a completely unrelated subject, I think I've discerned an important difference between Kizomba and Zouk:

 The people who seem to be really pushing Zouk now seem, based on the YouTube videos I've seen so far and just now, to be doing the same shit that so many salsa 'pro's' do......i.e. doing stuff that that 99% of social dancers are never going to be able to do and probably even want to do.

I'm referring specifically to that styling stuff where the girl bends her head back and lets her hair sweep around like an actor in a shampoo commercial.....only more extreme.  I think it looks stupid.

That kind of stuff is also totally unfair to the majority of dancers because it sets a goal for them that they're never going to be able to attain and serves only to insure the student's continuation of (paid) classes.

Yeah.......I know some people like it.  I know that.  I even heard that Zouk was all the rage on a salsa cruise a friend of mine went to.  But I'm firm in my opinion.  Hardly anybody but me, it seems, stands up for the simple 'social dancer' who just wants something they can to to 'get into' the music and meet some people.  A large segment of the 'teachers' won't just let dancers be happy and do simple stuff.

I don't think the issue has been decided yet as to which dance, Kizomba or Zouk, is going to be the most popular in the US market.  I'll put my money of Kizomba.  For the simple reason that it's easier to do right and still look pretty.

And I can tell you for a fact that all of the handful of dancers I've taught Kizomba to over these last few weeks have ALL told me how easy Kizomba was to learn and how un-strenuous it was.

Anyway......I'm off to Busan.

Dance Notation........something that's needed?

I just read an article about 'dance notation'.  Did you know there was such a thing?

Dance notation is based on the same notion as music notation.  Whereas music notation is designed and intended to insure that a piece of music is played the same way by different players, the idea behind dance notation is the same.....i.e...that a dance work is subsequently performed by other performers the way that was intended by the original writer/choreographer.

Do you think it would be a good thing if we had such a system in salsa?

I do.

Actually there is such a system.  Or was.....

I remember back in my early salsa days and days on the internet.  In the late 90's.  I subscribed to a site from up in New Jersey or Brooklyn somewhere.  It had over 100 video clips of salsa dance patterns and a similar collection of clips for cha-cha and, I think, one other dance.

The couple that did it was a big tall guy who was supposedly an engineer who had turned dance instructor.  His partner was a cute little lady named 'Maria' who was much shorter than him.  Their patterns, I think, were 'on2' but I think I didn't even realize it at the time.  I could be wrong on that.

But what I remember about it relative to this subject is that he had written a book about a way of notating salsa pattern.  I saw some samples of it and it was basically little stick/cartoon figures drawn in such a way as to shoe directions of movement, turns and hand connections.  I never bought it but I'll bet he's still got it if somebody could find out who he is/was.

anyway......according to the article I read, there are multiple such systems in existence already.  They were intended originally for professional, classical dance companies of course.  But there's no reason why they wouldn't work for salsa. 

The only problem with these systems, according to the author of the article, is that they're too hard to learn.  And the fact that since there's more than one system all claiming to do the same thing...people are reluctant to learn any of them.

But I still think it's an interesting idea.  You've already got notation systems for music.  And sub systems for special types of instruments like percussion.  So, I don't know what a dance notation system for salsa would look like but I still think it's an interesting idea.

And I don't think it would inhibit artistic interpretation........any more than standard music notation inhibits artistic interpretation of the works of the great musical composers.

Online Meet 'n Greet for Nelson Campos in 45 minutes!

TONIGHT!

You're invited to an online Meet 'n Greet for Nelson Campos in just a few minutes.  It'll be on the www.tokbox.com platform.  It's totally free.  It will not be record (because we can't....but we'd like to :-).

Actually, you know I've been trying to perfect the use of these kinds of tools.  I've been satisfied with TokBox so far except for the fact that it doesn't record.  So.......this'll be just for fun.

I'm going to put this post up here now....to give you a heads up.  And then in about 30 minutes I'm going to open up the TokBox session and I'll have the actual URL you need to click on to get into it.  

Also, if you want to try to get ahead of the curve, you can go to www.tokbox.com and open your own free account and look for me as a 'friend'.  I don't know how that works but you can probably figure it out.  My ID there is the same as most places I use.... 'wanderingsalsero'.

Or this eventing....depending on where you are :-)

Here it is:

http://www.tokbox.com/conf/hyo6nw4yzyq6izmx

Message from Nelson Campos

Well, if nothing else........Nelson is getting a lot of back links from my postings :-)  That's OK though.  I'm supportive of anybody teaching Kizomba.

I sent Nelson a video chat request while I was on TokBox a couple of nights ago.  Not surprisingly, he missed it.  He's very busy and he's on the other side of the word from where I am, so.........I wasn't surprised.

But the other project that interests me right now.....i.e. examining the relative merits and uses of www.wetoku.com , www.tokbox.com and www.oovoo.com .......it continues.  Nelson sent me a return video message that actually sounds and looks pretty good.

I've thus far only tried TokBox with myself and one other person.  But that other person was on a dailup connection yet it still looked and sounded pretty good.  I'm eager to try it with multiple people. 

The only limitation I see with TokBox is that it doesn't record the session.  I think an embedable video chat has scores of marketing, branding, and public relations applications.  I'm still surprised nobody in the salsa community seems to see it. But.......whatever.

Here's the message I got from Nelson.  As you can tell, a lot of people are eager to see him and learn more about Kizomba.

TokBox - Free video chat and video messaging