WanderingSalsero

Mark your calendars....Saturday, Sept. 12, 2009, 4-6pm.

Yes boys and girls and fun lovers of all ages..............!!  It's Casino Rueda Bootcamp 2, another exciting 2 full hours of fun and frolic as we learn all the basics of the funnest social dance on the planet......Casino Rueda.

Here's a video I created:

Starting the following Saturday, September 19 we will start another series of weekly lessons, Casino Rueda 101. Any individuals who either came to our previous bootcamp or who attended our recently completed first Casino Rueda 101 may attend this bootcamp at no charge.

This 2 Hour Casino Rueda Bootcamp will commence at 6pm on Saturday, September 12, 2009, at the beautiful Candela Dance Studio in Yangjae, Seoul.  Candela Dance Studio is just a 3 minute walk from exit #6 of the Yangjae subway station.  See the video elsewhere on this site.

This class will cover enough salsa basics to allow beginners to get started with salsa not only in a basic rueda format but also to dance salsa with one partner.  We believe that learning salsa in a rueda format is the best way to learn salsa because:

• You get two dances for the price of learning one...i.e. you'll learn to dance in the rueda circle with everybody and you'll learn to dance just with one partner.
• Everybody gets to dance with everybody else.  No more 'superstars'.
• All the patterns have names thus they're easier to learn and remember. 
• Later, you can create your own exciting patterns using variations of what you lean here.
• Dancing in the rueda is almost like a 'team sport'.  Everybody has to do their part in order to make thier connections and keep things going.

Starting the following Saturday, September 19, we will start another series of weekly lessons, Casino Rueda 101.   All the dancers who attended our first Casino Rueda 101 are wellcome to take the bootcamp at no charge.  They'll probably find it to be a good review and also a chance to meet new dancers. 

There is a small charge to attend this class but in order to try to have as many 'pro's as possible for the new dancers, we're allowing any dancers who attended our previous bootcamp are welcome to attend this new one at no charge.  Any individuals who either came to our previous bootcamp or who attended our recently completed first Casino Rueda 101 may attend this bootcamp at no charge too.

We would like to encourge as many experienced 'veterans' to attend this class as possible. 

Admission to the bootcamp is only 5,000 KW.  That get's you 2 hours of instruction, a basic foundation in casino rueda, some 'salsa suelta' footwork, free refreshments and a whole new circle (no pun intended :-) of friends to share your new dance skills with.  

We're also asking that all ladies bring a partner.   But, if you're a lady and you would like to learn 'lead', then it's OK to come 'solo'.  Guys can come solo.

We had a great time at our first full series of classes.  We now have a small but dedicated and proficient group of rueda dancers......a nucleus to grow around.  If you get in now you'll benifit from have some experienced dancers available to help you progress rapidly.

We learned over 35-50 patterns.  That's a great start in such a short period of time.  And we're doing something nobody else in Korea es doing.  If we continue in this direction I think we have a very good chance of performing somewhere in Korea eventually.  Who knows?  We might even take an international trip somewhere.

Casino Rueda 101 starts Saturday at Candela in Yangjae, Seoul

Boxing Salsa??!!

Those folks at Boogalu Productions (actually www.boogalu.com) have some pretty good stuff in their inventory for your listening, watching and learning pleasure.  Their stuff sometimes is a bit higher of esoteric than practical value but it's always at least entertaining and oftentimes there is a lot you can use in your own real-time dancing.

One of their newest products, Danza-Boxeo, by Geodanis Medina, looks like it might be worth some money.  Especially if you've ever envied that energetic Cuban style of dancing (which I have).

Geodanis is a gifted Cuban boxer who after years of thought, experimentation, and hard work, has integrated his two great passions, boxing and salsa.  Interesting premise, eh?

Here's one of the good videos from the sales page.  There's some other interesting information on it to.  Check it out!

A skydiving instructor was giving a class to a group of beginners and he took a few moments to their first-timer questions.

One fellow raised his hand and said, "Sir.....if our chute doesn't open, and the reserve doesn't open, how long do we have until we hit the ground?"

The instructor looked at him, and in perfect deadpan, answered, "The rest of your life."

I was thinking that's sorta like the answer to the question, 'When are you going to look into the opportunity to come to Korea to teach English?' 

Fact is, there's still a huge demand for native English speakers over here.  With the bad economy back in the US and Canada, lots more teachers are staying an extra year, but all the good jobs are not gone.  Perhaps it's time for you to give it some consideration.

Is it a perfect job?

Well, that depends on what you're looking for.  But I'll bet that, for a lot of people, it's better than what you're doing right now. 

You won't make a gazillion bucks but, really, what's life all about anyway?  Life is about more than making money isnt' it?.  Everybody, especially in America, gives that phrase lip service but you'd never guess it from looking at the drudgery that most of their jobs wind up being. 

What about your situation right now? 

• Are you really getting anywhere? 
• Are you really doing anything that 'can't wait' a year or two while you see an exciting part of the world and take some time to enjoy yourself in a job with good benefits, guaranteed pay, and great 'off-the-clock' opportunities for fun?
•   Are you really having much fun doing what you're doing now? 
• Does your job own you or do you own your job?

Teaching English in Korea isn't hard work.  The biggest challenge is one of some slight but important adjustments in your own attitude.  It's a big world we live in and the US is, although still an important part, it's certainly not the only part, of it.  If you'll come over here and just make up your mind to do the best you can and let the chips fall where they may... then everything will be fine.

If you salsa dance, you'll absolutely love it.  There's lots of opportunity in and around Seoul.  Seoul is one of the top salsa towns in the world.  In Seoul you'll find over 11 great salsa clubs.  Do you know of any other cities like that? 

For dancing styles you'll find 'on1' and 'on2' and even (lately) some casino rueda.  In general, most Koreans are friendly to foreign salsa dancers.  Especially if you're good.  There's clubs all over the city (i.e. South, Central, Western Midtown and Southeast) and at least 11 of them are within easy walking distance from a subway station. (there's a few clubs that arent' but taxis are cheap).

And I'll tell ya too......if you're really good, you could possibly wind up making some good money giving lessons.  You're not actually supposed to have any kind of employment other than your job but.....it is done both in teaching and in other areas.

Remember.......you've got the rest of your life to have all the adventure you want.  How much do you want and.......how long is the rest of your life?  If you'd like some free and comprehensive information about the opportunity to teach English in S.Korea, you can get it here.

The Casino Rueda class was a success

Yesterday was the day of the 2 Hour Casino Rueda class that I did and I gotta believe there was some Godly direction in it because was a remarkable chain of events that even made it possible.

First of all, it couldn't have happened unless I somehow met Pill Hyun Hwan , the owner of Candela Dance Studio who most graciously (and wisely, I might add) contributed his contacts, staff and most excellent studio to the event.

I forget how I met Pillhwan.  I think it was from my blog.  We got to talking about interesting new things to do for dancers in Seoul and, of all those that we discussed, doing a free casino rueda class like this seemed to most logical right now.  So that's how it got started.

We had an excellent and very interesting mix of attendees at the class too.  Probably about 60/40% Korean to 'foreigner'.  I, for one, think it's a good thing to have events like this where the local nationals can meet and mix with foreigners because it's so hard to do otherwise.  In most cases, they're curious about us and we're curious about them.  Life is just so busy otherwise, ya know? 

We had about 7 couples.  We had an extra couple of ladies but luckily a couple of them, Suki and Michelle, were capable and willing to practice their leading so that made it perfect for pairing up.

To be honest, I thought I might cover a lot more than we actually did, but.......well, that's OK I guess, since everybody seemed to have had a good time.  We did:

son montunu, pa' el media, llevela abajo, exhibela, caminando, taro, taro y no le sugues, dile que no, enchufla, enchufla dos, enchufla que no, enchufla mentira,  vacila, and adios. 

Then we did that thing I used to do back in Houston called 'el corral' except here I'm calling it 'Hwaseong' (there's a big fortress here called "Hwaseong Fortress" that has a very long wall).  I've got some other ideas too for patterns that'll be fun.

Suki actually said something that I thought was very profound.  She was talking about the ethnic background of casino rueda and she said that in Cuba it started out like a 'game'.  I though to my, "Yeah......that makes sense!"

Actually, I would have used the word 'sport' but I think the implications are similar.  'Game' might actually be a better word in some respects because it has more of an implication of fun than sport does.

The class was two hours but I really think everybody would have gone another hour if we'd scheduled it.  I am reminded now, after all this, that it takes more time to teach those fundamentals than it does to just teach patterns.

As of the present we don't have have any specific plans for our next event but I'm sure there will be something.  I think we've got three general objectives now:

(1)  Wash, rinse and repeat this introductory crash course for rueda newbies.

(2)  Come up with a 'Pre-K' introductory class for complete salsa newbies

(3)  Move ahead to higher levels of proficiency with this first freshman group.

What's really significant about this event though, in my opinion and as far as I know, was that this was the first every such event to ever happen in Korea.  From what I've heard this was the

• First ever A-Z Introductory class on casino rueda in Korea
• First ever such class for foreigners and Koreans
• First ever class sponsored by a real dance studio

I think that's pretty cool.  And it's all because Salsa Eddy told me about the class that Sandro Moro Sleeper was having in Austin one Saturday, way back around 2000 or 2001 where Rene Guiets, (www.salsalovers.com) was coming to Austin, Tx. to do a big workshop.

One thing led to another and now I find myself in Korea, or more specifically...Seoul, S.Korea.  Seoul in an incredible salsa town with over a ten excellent salsa clubs.  But like lots of places that have the 'potential', casino rueda hasn't taken off here.

Maybe I can do my part to get it started.  Yesterday seemed like a stepn in the right direction.  If you're reading this and you're in the Seoul area and you have any interest in casio rueda, let me know and I'll make sure you're kept up to date of what's going on regarding the reuda community in Seoul.

Casino Rueda Crash Course today in Seoul, S.Korea

ON a happier note, today is the big day me and a couple other people (but mostly me) do a two hour crash course in casino rueda.  I met a nice fellow who has a salsa studio in Seoul called Candela Dance.  He's very open minded about other forms of dance and offered to provide some studio space so I could do this workshop.

There was a lot of work went into putting it togather but it's finally going to happen today.  I'm expecting around a dozen people probably.  The idea is to try to put togather some kind of core group. 

So far it seems to be going the right way.  I'll know in a few hours.

Free 2 Hour Casino Rueda Crash Course

Here's a video showing the directions to the Free 2 Hour Casino Rueda Crashcourse I'm doing Saturday July 25, 2009 at Candela Dance Studio in Yangjae, Seoul, S.Korea.  Workshop starts promptly at 4 pm and goes til 6 pm. 

The only requirement to attend is that you already know basic salsa.  That's all.  The object of this 2 hours is to show you the basics of casino rueda and as many patterns as possible. 

This crash course will be great for salsa dancers who've had an interest in casino rueda but never had an opportunity to learn.  After you're finished, you'll be able to  enjoy basic Level 1 casino rueda at the clubs and parties.

Candela Dance Studio is an excellent learning venue.  It's well air conditiooned, there's change rooms, nice restrooms, and plenty of cold water.  Free refreshments and light snacks will be served too.  The studio space for this first-of-it's-kind event is provided compliments of Pill Hyun Hwan, Proprietor and Primary Instructor of the studio.  He'll be in the class too!

I hope to see you there!

Art Williams

010 5822 2277

www.cubamusic.com

It finally worked for me.

I doubt that any of you will remember but a few years ago (at an earlier point in this blog) I told you about a site called www.cubamusic.com .  I had found them and liked the idea that they seemed to have lots of very current and authentic Cuban music available for purchase and download online.

They did have lots of good music but for some reason I wasn't able to get the download process to work.  So, that's as far as I got with them and I was never able to recommend them further.

In the process of dealing with them though I did discover that they're out of someplace in Itay.  Imagine that!  But again, maybe that's not so surprising because I/we know that salsa is very popular in Italy, right?

Anyway.........I finally got their payment and download system to work fine for me.  I just bought about 10 songs and they're downloading now.  I'm going to use them for the casino rueda workshop I'm doing on the 25th.

You might want to check them out... www.cubamusic.com .

P.S.  also notice that I've added a lot of new pictures to my Dropshots site lately.  And videos too.

This is a trend.......yet?

This articles implies there's a trend toward parties with less salsa and more of other dances.  Is that right?

I don't know, but I definatley am all for more bachata, rueda and kizomba.

The New Cuban Direction

Two articles I found today portend the future for salsa in the US.

US to Cuba travel on the rise.

The US state department is loosening travel restriction to Cuba so now, rather than people having to do it 'under-the-table', they're able to do it 'legit'.  I assume the same loosening applies to Cubans coming the the US sooooooooo.........look for a growing number of Cuban dancers and musicians coming the the US, right?  That's great.

I wonder if they'll be hiring 'native English speakers' for the ESL industry there?!!

Arabs investing in the new, booming, Cuban tourism industry.

The Arabs know their oil won't last forever so they're trying to invest their money as wisely as possible.  Tourism has always been a good industry.  It requires only moderate capital in comparison to heavy industry and in most cases all the labor except for upper management is locally available.  In this case, these Arabs are the first to start building hotels in Cuba.  Look for some big salsa events there in the future, right?