Many of us know the health benefits from dancing tango, salsa , samba, merengue, and other forms of Latin dance. But did you know that simply listening to these types of music can improve your health?
Recent studies show that listening to music of all types has the great effects of lowering your blood pressure, improving your concentration, and overall stimulating your brain. Many studies also show that listening to music can improve performance on standardized tests. For most salsa, tango, and other Latin dancers, the music can simply put you in a different state of mind and allow you to restart your day on a fresh note.
Tango Alma , a local San Diego tango group and friends of Ritmo Bello , was recently highlighted in a short documentary regarding the health benefits of music. I posted that video here for you to watch and you’ll see both Todd and Marizabel of Tango Alma explaining how tango dance and listening to music is good for your health. Enjoy!
Ever wish you learned to dance as a kid? I recently saw a documentary about dancing in Argentina and noticed that very early on kids there are taught Argentine Tango along with their regular studies. Although I’m not sure how prevalent this really is in Argentine society, it’s safe to say Argentina has produced some very good Argentine Tango dancers as a result.
What if we could start having our kids learn to dance early on as well here in San Diego? Well, its already happening.
Dancing After School (DAS) , a 501c3 non-profit organization, is dedicated to providing comprehensive life changing dance programs to youth in under-served areas throughout San Diego County. Dancing After School has been able to make tremendous strides in educating and inspiring youth to learn dance. Based locally here in San Diego and founded by Walter Meneses, the organization serves all of San Diego including the border regions teaching dance to thousands of elementary school children.
Why teach kids to dance? There are lots of reasons I can think of including giving kids a positive role model to follow in terms of instructors, giving them something to master in their free time, and getting kids up and moving around. Indeed, with obesity rates rising every year with our youth I think it’s paramount to give kids another outlet for meeting their needs.
The video I’ve posted here is from an Argentine Tango dance class taught by DAS instructors. They also teach other types of Latin dance including salsa, merengue, bachata, mambo, Cha Cha Cha, and Jazz. After the students are taught the dance for a term they are given an opportunity to showcase their work. This next video shows a performance by a group of kids who’ve gone through the classes.
Recently I wrote an article about Jorge Elizondo and what he is doing for bachata dancing around the world. Well, Jorge is now coming to San Diego!!! The World Bachata Bootcamp Tour will be here in mid July to host bachata workshops on everything ranging from Footwork Fundamentals to isolating & controlling body movements in bachata dance.
For those of you interested in attending the bachata workshop, Ritmo Bello & San Diego Salsa and Latin Dancing Meetup Group will be there to support Jorge’s mission to spread Bachata dancing in San Diego. To find out more information (including venue and registration information) please go to the San Diego Salsa and Latin Dancing Meetup Group website page for the event.
To get a glimpse of what you’ll see at the workshop check out the video in this post.
What this means is that the current feed will expire and you will need to subscribe to this new feed for Ritmo Bello.
(For those of you not familiar with subscribing or RSS feeds I found this useful Google Reader tutorial created by Andy Wibbels that will help.)
Along with the new feed, you’ll also notice that the new address for the site will be www.ritmobello.com . (Note: The old site address of www.sandiegosalsadancing.com will still get you to the new site as well once the changes take effect.) This is in line with my efforts to start adding in more Latin dance information covering samba, tango, cha cha, merengue, and bachata along with the same San Diego salsa dancing information you’ve come to enjoy reading on my website.
If anybody has any questions feel free to contact me direct at bello_jf@ritmobello.com . You can still find me on on my Twitter page for Ritmo Bello as well.
doing well. Well, the Monchy and Alexandra Bachata concert is coming up here this Saturday in San Diego and for all those wanting to learn or brush up on their bachata dancing I found the perfect resource for you.
Bachata Fusion , managed by Jorge Elizando, is an online resource for all things bachata. As he puts in his own words his mission is to "spread the love of bachata all over the world and encourage people to live a healthier, more active lifestyle." In keeping with this mission, Bachata Fusion has many resources geared towards making bachata dance that much more accessible to the general public. Most notably, Jorge has produced a number of bachata instructional videos and written a number of articles helpful to the learning of bachata dance. Other online salsa resources, like the Wandering Salsero , point out that Jorge is well traveled in spreading bachata dance around the world.
Now when you show up for the concert Saturday there is no excuse for you all not to go out and dance bachata.
The Blue Agave nightclub is presenting direct from the Dominican Republic Monchy and Alexandra performing live at the Spreckels Theatre on June 28th .
The show will be an all ages event with tickets available via Ticket Master .
Monchy and Alexandra are credited with creating a resurgence of interest in bachata music. The video accompanying this post shows a short glimpse of why their music is heard over Spanish language radio stations worldwide.
Since I’ve taken over management of the site as the Main Organizer , I’ve learned a great deal about many new people to the Salsa and Latin Dance scene here in San Diego, California.
Although people hail from all over the world to come dance here, one thing that is universal is the love of the dance and the enthusiasm to continue that dancing here in San Diego.
