If you are looking for the perfect gift for the salsa and Latin dancers in your life here are some suggestions that may help.  You can always go with a traditional salsa gift such as giving new salsa shoes or salsa dance clothing to that special someone.  EK Clothing provides a great array of latin dance wear (including options for men!) that are contemporary and affordable.

EK Clothing also offers other options like their new 2011 Latin Calendar which can make for a great gift as well.  The 2 pictures below are taken from their new calendar which will be available soon.  You can find these and other great gifts on the EK Clothing online store (click here).

For the more tech oriented, we recommend the new salsa dance App from our friends over at Addicted2Salsa.com.  Anthony and Julie just released their Android version of their popular salsa iPhone app, Pocket Salsa.  The video below gives a basic overview of how it works and you can download it by scanning the QR code that follows below.

We wish you luck in your gift giving for your salsa and Latin dancer this holiday season.

Merry Christmas!

John ;-)

@RitmoBello

If you are like me I’m sure that when you travel you have one thing on your mind, salsa dancing.  Okay, maybe not but in all reality it is probably something that may cross your mind and you might want to take advantage of in another city.

Over the last couple of months I’ve been using Twitter (see the video above for a short overview)  to learn about the salsa dance scene in different places ranging from New York to Croatia.  Some of the folks I’ve met through Twitter that are into salsa dancing like me include Becoming a Salsero (Walter De Rooij), Dena from VidaSalsera, and DimeloRecords. Through my use of Twitter I now have a better sense of what to expect when I travel to different cities in terms of salsa dancing.   I also have people to meet up with when I visit.

Here in San Diego there are lots of people in the salsa dance scene who are using Twitter as well.  Some of them include Addicted2Salsa’s Anthony Persaud, Cafe Sevilla, A Time to Dance Studio, and Manny Cepeda.

Try using Twitter and Twitter Search to find others interested in salsa dancing.  Don’t forget to add Ritmo Bello to your follow list on Twitter!

Since launching Ritmo Bello last year here locally in San Diego, California I’ve been able to meet and interact with numerous salsa based organizations around the world .   The love that I have for the music and dance we all know as salsa has the great effect of inspiring people to do novel things to promote the genre.

Here in my hometown of San Diego another local group, Addicted2Salsa , has done some really great things to promote salsa dancing.  Primarily using their great video capabilities , Anthony Persaud and Addicted2Salsa have launched countless videos online covering everything from salsa basics to advanced salsa combination moves.

The video here caught my attention because I really think that salsa is something that can be integrated into our everyday lives.  What better way to integrate salsa into your life than with a tool that most of us already have, an iPhone.  The video tutorial covers resources you can access online using an iPhone that include Pandora , Midomi , Shazam and of course AOL radio .  In past Ritmo Bello articles I’ve written about similar services online that allow you to fully integrate salsa music into your daily experience and Anthony’s video is a great visual explanation of how you can access these resources.

Thanks to Anthony Persaud and Addicted2Salsa for providing a great resource!