Even though the 2010 San Diego Salsa Festival is not until September of this year, it is not too early to submit your entry to perform at the event. The organizers for the event are accepting video submissions via YouTube and Facebook for anyone that might be interested in performing.
To submit your entries simply email the links to info@sandiegosalsafestival.com.
For more information on the event keep checking Ritmo Bello and the official website for the 2010 San Diego Salsa Festival at www.sandiegosalsafestival.com.
The 3rd Annual San Diego Salsa Festival has come and gone but there remains the great memories of performances, dancing, and meeting new friends.
The videos that appear here give but a glimpse of some of the great dancers that performed during this year’s festival. If you want to see all the videos from the Festival check out the Ritmo Bello YouTube channel. Hope you enjoy the videos!
The San Diego Salsa Festival is upon us (starts Thursday September 17, 2009) and I have some more updates to the schedule of events. The most notable change is the addition of a special pool party that will take place Saturday September 19th.
The salsa pool party will include a fully stocked bar, SDSF D.J.’s playing the best salsa music poolside & contest giveaways. Don’t forget your swim suits if you are attending the San Diego Salsa Festival. For more information about the San Diego Salsa Festival Pool party make sure to check out the info page on the official San Diego Salsa Festival website.
See you all at the 3rd Annual San Diego Salsa Festival!
The San Diego Salsa Festival is coming up next week and I wanted to make sure you all had the updated schedule of events for the weekend. Don’t forget that everything starts with the Festival Pre-Party on Thursday September 17th. See you at the San Diego Salsa Festival!
As many of you know, the 3rd Annual San Diego Salsa Festival is coming up September 17th-20th and with it great opportunities to interact with the world of salsa dancing.
As a Festival Promotional Partner, Ritmo Bello has 1 Full Event pass (a $220 value) to give out to one lucky reader. The Full Evening/Day pass gives you access to shows, competitions, & social Dancing – including the Pre-Party. We are going to give away the Full Event pass to someone who can share their best “Salsa Dance Story” i.e. how salsa dancing has changed their life.
To enter into this competition we are simply asking for our readers to:
1. Share your salsa dance story in 600 -1000 words (What attracted you to salsa, your initial experiences learning salsa, funny stories about you learning salsa, etc.). If you want you can also include a YouTube video clip about yourself explaining your experiences as well (your article will get better consideration if you have it in writing and supplement it with a video).
2. Explain how salsa dancing has been an important part of your life.
3. and share with us why you should receive the Full Event pass.
Along with winning the Full Event pass, the winning article will appear in a special post on Ritmo Bello recognizing the winner.
Please submit entries to Ritmo Bello (bello_jf@ritmobello.com) before 3pm on August 28th, 2009 and use the header “My Salsa Dance Story – YOUR NAME HERE.” Also, please include your contact information at the end of your submission so we can contact you if you are the winner and the YouTube Video link you’ve created. The winner will be announced the first week of September on Ritmo Bello and the San Diego Salsa and Latin Dancing Meetup Group.
Good luck and we look forward to reading about your salsa dance experiences!
The San Diego Salsa Festival will be coming here in September and there are some important things to let you all know about NOW.
First, the organizers for the event are currently selling the full event passes for a reduced price. Prices are slated to go up next week. If you already know for sure that you will be attending you should purchase your full event pass now to lock in the current low price. I’ve already secured my own full event passes and if the event is anything like it has been the past this event may sell out!
Also, if you are part of a dance team or a dance director here locally in San Diego you should secure your team’s spot at the San Diego Salsa Festival today by emailing the organizers of the event. As most of you already know this event is one of the best ways to let local folks and those visiting San Diego learn more about your dance companies.
San Diego is known in the salsa world as a place where the dance is really expanding and constantly growing. Much of this expansion is due in large part because of the efforts of a local dance studio, A Time To Dance Studio. The owners of A Time To Dance Studio, Angel and Tulane, have been hard at work bringing great events like the San Diego Salsa Jam and the annual San Diego Salsa Festival here to San Diego. I had a great opportunity to talk with Angel and Tulane about their efforts to spread salsa dancing both locally and worldwide. I hope you all enjoy the interview!
Ritmo Bello: Angel and Tulane Rivera thank you both for taking time out of your schedules to address the Ritmo Bello audience. San Diego is a unique place for salsa dancing as seen by the different types of dance companies here locally. What makes A Time To Dance Studio unique in the San Diego salsa dance scene?
A Time To Dance Studio: Thanks for taking the time to interview us and to your audience for their support and dedication to Latin music and dance. Lets see… What makes us different?… We actually never really thought about what makes us different from other studios and or companies. We make it a point to keep our focus geared on what we have to do and never look to see what others are doing or not doing. We think of new ideas, classes, and programs and if they work and make sense we implement them. We also have a combined 20 + years of experience and are the only studio that we know of in San Diego with 2 locations. We love what we do and our goal is to continue to offer the best instruction and service in San Diego. We go one day at a time and take great pride in customer service and training our instructors to the best of our ability. We try our best to ensure our classes are fun, exciting, and technique orientated. We also offer drop in courses as well as 6 week progressive courses in salsa to increase learning curves and consistency for students (The salsa courses have been amazing success for us). We also host studio parties, promote salsa clubs and special events to give our students a place to practice and socially interact with others in the salsa scene. Beyond salsa we offer Belly Dance, Burlesque Jazz, Samba, Afro-Cuban, and Fitness based classes taught by other highly trained dance instructors. Our studio is a friendly, relaxed, cozy but professional family atmosphere that can easily be felt the moment you walk in. We have great plans for the future and God willing we’ll be able to see them through… whether or not it’s in dance is up to HIM…
Ritmo Bello: I always like to learn how people first find and become involved in salsa dancing. Can you tell me each a little about how you each began dancing salsa?
A Time To Dance Studio:I began dancing salsa in 2001 (I was 20 at the time with absolutely no dance experience) and Tulane started dancing at the early age of 7 (She trained in International Ballroom) in London England. I started dancing to actually meet new people since I was new to San Diego (Navy for 4 years). Tulane started dancing as a creative outlet and to stay out of trouble : ) . She left London at 15 and I left Chicago when I was 18. At 20 I decided to take private dance lessons at a downtown dance studio, then named Dance With Me Academy (This is probably the place where everyone that’s a veteran now started – Good times). Thats when I met Tulane… She was assigned as my dance instructor… I wanted to learn salsa but somehow got temporarily converted to ballroom for about 3 months. Although it was great training we started to focus on Salsa more as time went on. Through the months I got better (Tulane has always been a phenomenal dancer and choreographer) and before I knew it we formed Salsa Suave Dance Company, then San Diego’s 2nd dance company. We danced together socially and I began to get approached by students asking me if I taught. I decided to drop out of an officer program through the navy to pursue a new life… Thats pretty much how we both started in a nutshell. 2 people from 2 different countries that left home at an early age seeking something new. Salsa dance brought us together and we haven’t stopped since : )
Ritmo Bello:That is a great story! What motivated you to create A Time To Dance Studio?
A Time To Dance Studio:As we got busier and busier we had to move from studio to studio to accommodate the demand of students. It was a headache at times… moving always meant losing clients no matter how good you were… That was one of the determining factors of why we started our own studio. However our main motivation came out of a dance ministry that Tulane started at our church. It was a fun hip hop / salsa youth ministry called “A Time To Dance. The name was inspired from the Bible… Ecclesiastes 3:4… our pastor had always encouraged us and instilled the vision that we would one day own our own studio. Long story short… an opportunity arose to open a dance studio and we followed our faith and dreams to what we have today. We decided to keep A Time To Dance since it was originally inspired through our ministry and our Faith. Owning a dance studio has always been one of Tulane’s goals & dreams… I’m grateful that I was able to be a part of it… I never really thought I’d be dancing, teaching, and an owner of dance studios, ( I always wanted to fly Fighter Jets ) but its been great! Owning studios has taught us so much… Great sacrifice, huge responsibilities and a lot of character building trials and tribulations… Well worth it.
Ritmo Bello: I understand that you have 15 professional dancers, choreographers, and teachers that work with you at A Time to Dance Studios? Do they all focus on salsa dance?
A Time To Dance Studio:Not all… We hire instructors that are professionals at their genre of dance. We try to focus on what we are good at and offer classes that help inspire health, fitness & a good time. We do however train our in house dancers in salsa, cha cha, and ballroom for our different array of clients and invite guest instructors/coaches to give their expertise and advice on specific dances at times. We are also a certified ISTD dance studio and assist our instructors to certify once a year as well. We offer hip hop, belly dance, afro cuban, samba, and fitness class such as Zumba, Dance Fitness, and some pilates classes. We do our best to offer great, energetic, & fun classes throughout the week and offer competitive prices to keep people coming back for more… We also started our own student salsa dance team… Doing very well… They should be ready to perform again in a couple of months.
Ritmo Bello:I’ve heard from your students that you employ a unique teaching method called “inter-related system” instruction. What is that all about and how does this impact your student’s learning of the dance?
A Time To Dance Studio: It allows our students to learn dances that relate to one another. Our goal is to interchangeably relate dances which in turn allows the student to remember the mechanics easier. This system has allowed our students to advance much quicker, learn various dances faster, and retain the material more effectively. It’s a style that we have incorporated over the years that has worked wonders when applied. We’re still working on some other teaching methods and will be instituted once we decide to open more studios in the future.
Ritmo Bello:As Assistant Organizers of the San Diego Salsa and Latin Dancing Meetup Group I know that you help organize many great events here in San Diego such as your studio parties and the San Diego Salsa Jam. What do these events offer to somebody brand new to salsa dancing?
A Time To Dance Studio: Ya… Our desire to organize events started to happen after 2005. This was the year Tulane and I traveled to 4 different countries performing, teaching, and choreographing. Although it was fun traveling, teaching abroad, and seeing different countries, it really didn’t stick with us. We didn’t really see the benefit of traveling all the time and from a business standpoint at the time it didn’t make sense for us. Tulane and I like business… Running, creating, and being behind the scenes. My analogy is like an actor becoming a director… Why act forever when you can direct… A lot harder work, more sacrifice, extremely high risk both financially and physically but the benefits are far greater in the long run. It’s not for everyone but it was for us… Being in the drivers seat allows us to offer events, workshops, and festivals with our vision in mind. Our goal is to continue to offer excellent events for the new dancer and the veteran alike… Many venues come and go so we’re always on the look out… Our goal with events that we produce is to offer fun, exciting, and professional atmospheres with the best latin music and dancing around… Local clubs and events also give new dancers a chance to see what they potentially can obtain… Gives them a visual goal and motivates students to get better. Check us out online… www.sandiegosalsajam.com- www.atimetodance.com - www.sandiegosalsafestival.com to join us at our next class and or event.
Ritmo Bello:The San Diego Salsa Festival is coming up again in September of this year and I know that you are hard at work preparing for this great event with Albert Torres. Can you explain who Albert Torres is and what the San Diego Salsa Festival is all about to those new to salsa dancing?
A Time To Dance Studio:Albert Torres is the world’s most successful and foremost recognized promoter of Latin Music and Dance. He also promotes and produces the WORLD SALSA CONGRESS in Los Angeles, coming up in May. The San Diego Salsa Festival/Congress is an event that brings talent from across the country and abroad to San Diego, Ca. The goal is to give the San Diego community a taste of the talented instructors and performers outside of the San Diego salsa community. Its now in its 3rd year and getting better. This year’s event is going to showcase great dancers and Live Music ( Something we’ve been trying to emphasize at our Salsa Jams) like never before. The event will consist of Workshops all day Saturday and Sunday, Live Professional Dance Shows each night, and social dancing Thursday thru Sunday til 3-4 in the morning. Pretty much a salsa dancer and latin music lovers dream. We’ll have vendors selling shoes, and dance apparel as well as live music on Friday and Saturday night. Check us out online www.sandiegosalsafestival.com- you can purchase your tickets and make hotel reservations online today!
Ritmo Bello: In your opinions, what makes salsa dancing such a great activity to pursue?
A Time To Dance Studio: It’s the only form of dance in our experience that we’ve found in every city and country we’ve visited. It’s a great way to meet new people, get into shape, and has no cultural or racial barriers. Everyone dances salsa even if they can’t understand the words… The music just pulsates through the dancers and moves us… It’s a great way to pursue a healthy social life and have fun. Who knows… You may even find your life partner as I did : ) …. Maybe not…
Ritmo Bello:The San Diego salsa scene has seen many changes over the years. What trends do you see taking hold for the future of salsa dancing in San Diego?
A Time To Dance Studio: Like anything else… it takes many years to cultivate the ground for longevity… San Diego has come a long way and is still growing… Still has a lot of room to grow and develop which is great & exciting. Our last Salsa Jam is an example of that growth… Not a lot of veteran dancers or instructors out… but wow… There were a lot of new faces that I have never seen before… So many newbies to the salsa scene that love salsa and especially live music. This is what we see as being the next trend… A new wave of dancers and live music. Live music is something that has room for tremendous growth… I’m talking about live concerts with big names – Cheo Feliciano, Spanish Harlem, El Gran Combo, etc… I just hope San Diego and the scene can support these events no matter who promotes them… Without the music and supporting the musicians we wouldn’t have the music we love today!
Ritmo Bello: Is there anything else you’d like to share with dance community?
A Time To Dance Studio:Try to support as many venues as possible… Whoever promotes them… It’s hard work and high risk promoting live events, clubs, and festivals. Keep dancing and always have fun doing it…
Ritmo Bello:The Ritmo Bello audience may want to contact you regarding some of the topics discussed here. How can members reach you for further information?
Ritmo Bello:Angel and Tulane, on behalf of Ritmo Bello and the San Diego salsa community thank you for all you do to promote salsa here in San Diego and around the world. A Time To Dance Studio:It was our pleasure… And thank you for interviewing us… You do an outstanding job keeping the latin music and dance scene informed and going strong…
That’s the question that crossed my mind when I recently heard about The San Diego Tango Festival coming here in January. (The picture of the two killer whales tango dancing is the logo for the festival). Although tango and salsa dancing are intrinsically different in a number of ways, the idea of having a festival here serves the same local interests.
First, as we saw in the San Diego Salsa Festival here recently these events help promote the dance in a way that is different from your everyday exposure to the dance. This is so because these events help foster intense immersion into each dance in a way that is not possible unless you live, breathe, and work in the dance world. With tons of workshops and classes to be a part of, salsa and tango festivals are great ways to jump into the dance.
Secondly, these festivals are great for San Diego in that they bring great exposure to our local dance scene. With the recent San Diego Salsa Festival, people from all over the world traveled to participate in the event and helped to bring more visibility to our growing salsa dance community. Although I have yet to attend the San Diego Tango Festival, I imagine that it will work in a similar way to bring great exposure to the tango dancing that San Diego has to offer.
I’ll write more about this event as it approaches. In the meantime, I invite any readers out there familiar with the event to post comments or contact me with more information. For now, I leave you with a video taken from the 2007 San Diego Tango Festival. Enjoy!
It was a busy weekend for San Diego dancers and music lovers as both the San Diego Salsa Festival and Street Scene took place this last weekend. Both events had tons of performers and it would be great to hear from reader’s out there that attended both about your experiences.
If you’ve been following Ritmo Bello for some time now you know that I’ve written about the upcoming San Diego Salsa Festival covering topics ranging from San Diego Salsa Festival travel deals to tips for first time attendees. I thought it would be fitting to complete my review of the upcoming festival by including the full schedule and performance line up for the whole weekend.
Along with the original schedule of salsa dance workshops, this updated schedule below of salsa performers has the additions of Richardo and Michelle (Pretty Boys & Girls Dance Co.), Jo and Jo (Afeenix Dance Company), and Edwin Rivera and Ashley Dawson (From “So You Think You Can Dance?”). Most if not all of the performers are in competition to receive a coveted spot for the World Salsa Championships.
Don’t forget to RSVP for the San Diego Salsa Festival if you haven’t done so already to find out more information about the event that starts Friday night.
The San Diego Salsa Festival is almost here! Day one of the salsa festival begins this Friday night and I know many of you are excited to attend. I wanted to give you all a sneak preview of the salsa band that will be playing at the event on Saturday night. Salsa band Lucky 7, shown here in this video, is a multi-ethnic fusion of 1950’s and 1960’s Spanish Harlem. The band is known for bringing the high energy sounds of the classic mambo to those ready to dance.
San Diego has a new dance team under the direction of Susie Nguyen and Juan Garcia.Renamed as Ooh La La Dance, the duo help direct a number of dance teams including the Cosabellas and Hot Tamales.
In 2007, Juan and Susie participated in the 3rd Annual World Salsa Championships as the first San Diego couple to represent America’s Finest City.The video here in this post showcases their performances at the Championships.
This new dance company, along with many other local favorites like Majesty in Motion and A Time to Dance Studio, will also be participating in the upcoming San Diego Salsa Festival later this month. Make sure to check them all out if you attend!
As the San Diego Salsa Festival approaches, I’ve received numerous emails from people that are attending the event. For many of these folks it will be their very first salsa festival or congress that they will be attending. Many of these dancers are unsure about how someone can maximize their time at a salsa festival given that there will be so much to experience.
Apart from taking advantage of the salsa workshops that I mentioned in a previous Ritmo Bello article , I think it’s vital for new attendees to the salsa festival to fully integrate into the event by simply dancing and interacting with other attendees. I know from my own experience that it can be a little intimidating to arrive at a salsa event of this magnitude and be overwhelmed by the big names in attendance when you are just starting out. The Unlikely Salsero (aka Don Baarns , a friend of Ritmo Bello and online salsa dance resource, recently wrote about the upcoming San Diego Salsa Festival and addressed some of these issues. In particular, he’s written a 2 part series with tips and recommendations for those attending a salsa festival or congress.
Check them out and feel free to offer up any comments here to help out those attending the San Diego Salsa Festival for the first time.
For everyone that attended the San Diego Salsa Festival last year you’ll remember that a major focus of the Festival was the salsa competition. Indeed, the majority of salsa festivals or congresses are great opportunities for salsa dance teams, both local and from afar, to showcase the hard work they put into their dancing.
The San Diego Salsa Festival has the added benefit of being an official qualifying location for the World Salsa Championships . This major salsa dance competition is being held on December 3-6, 2008 in Florida and brings together the best in what salsa dancers have to offer.
The objective of the World Salsa Championships is to see which couple or teams in each division can best interpret salsa music and dance regardless of the repertoire of tricks that are employed. What this means is that the competitions are looking for those who truly feel the music and can express what they feel in the dance for the benefit of the salsa community.
The World Salsa Championships is a collaboration of salsa dancers around the world united under Albert Torres and The Salsa Seven, Inc , the producer of the event and pictured below. The hope of this major event is to bring more visibility to salsa dancing as a whole to the general public and to create what he describes as “unity through salsa.”
So what can we expect at the San Diego Salsa Festival for competitions? There will be 4 categories of competition with only 1 couple and only 1 team moving on to the competitions in Florida . The areas of competition include On1 salsa couple dancing, On2 salsa couple dancing, Team dancing, and a Cabaret couple division. An example of Cabaret style might look something like what is seen in this video included in this post below. (A Time to Dance Studio, the major supporters of the San Diego Salsa Festival, appear here during a recent performance at Aubergine.)
The judges will determine who moves on to the World Salsa Championships based on timing, overall technique, difficulty, connection/partnering skills, choreography/originality, appearance, and showmanship.
The winning couple and teams not only secure a spot at the World Salsa Championships, but they also get compensated for their hard work. This compensation comes in the form of paid flights to Florida courtesy of the San Diego Salsa Festival along with all meals and hotel accommodations provided by Salsa Seven, Inc. Not a bad deal if you ask me.
As it gets closer to the 2nd Annual San Diego Salsa Festival here in San Diego this September, there may be many of you wondering what happens at a event like this. Indeed, before I attended my first festival (aka salsa congress) for salsa years ago I really had no concept of what went on during an event like this.
If you are a beginner and just learning to dance salsa, the festival will present to you a massive assortment of options to dance, watch performances, and most importantly learn a great deal about salsa dancing. One aspect of the San Diego Salsa Festival that will be of particular help to new dancers are the numerous workshops scheduled throughout the weekend.
A salsa workshop is a little different from a traditional salsa dance lesson in that salsa workshops allow the instructor to really concentrate on certain aspects of the dance. This is helpful because let’s say you already know how to salsa dance but want to learn some new styling moves without going through the basics once again. A specific salsa workshop like the one Iran Castillo is hosting at the San Diego Salsa Festival might interest you as it will focus on “cool moves” and “On2” dancing.
The workshops during the San Diego Salsa Festival start on Friday night with a beginner’s boot camp workshop that will consist of 3 hours of focused dance instruction for those new to the dance. The rest of the weekend will have workshops hosted by local dance studios like A Time to Dance, Salsa Inferno, and Majesty in Motion. There are also workshops hosted by visiting studios and instructors from as far as Cali, Colombia.
