TANGOCENTRIC presents one of the most novel presentations on Sunday August 24th at 2pm for the festival as the experimental dance company works with tango centered dramatic movements. The group has been expanding and fresh off their recent auditions they are ready to entertain and educate the community about tango through dramatic story related dance. I posted a video here of a recent performance they did.
The event will be a great reason to get the whole family together and to watch some great dance performances, all in the beautiful Balboa Park setting. Come out to this FREE event and support dance in San Diego!
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 used Wikipedia to find information online? For many people Wikipedia and other wiki style sites help facilitate sharing information in a format that is different from a traditional website.
Wiki’s are different from traditional websites in that nobody really “owns” the wiki. Instead, a wiki is a collection of web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content, using a simplified code language. This video explains with a little bit more detail how it all works.
Salsa dancers here in San Diego now have their own wiki called Salsa Nirvana . Salsa Nirvana is a wiki for salsa dancers by salsa dancers. I was contacted by Salsa Nirvana after they found Ritmo Bello online and with their help established a San Diego Salsa Dance Wiki that anyone can access today. Now that San Diego has a wiki specific for salsa dancing there are lots of ways for people in the community to help.
If you are a studio or salsa instructor, for example, you can post information about your lessons and where you teach. If you represent a salsa dance club here in San Diego you too can post information for the benefit of the San Diego community and those visiting San Diego. If you have videos of San Diego salsa dancing that you want to share, you can post them here as well. I already posted some basic information to start off the page and invite others to add to the page as well.
If anyone has any questions on how this works feel free to contact me, John at bello_jf@ritmobello.com
It’s getting close to that time of year again, time for the 2nd Annual San Diego Salsa Festival ! Hard to believe a whole year has gone by, but I’m glad this fun event is coming up soon. This year the event is taking place September 19th through the 21st .
For those of you planning to attend the San Diego Salsa Festival this year I’ll be writing a number of articles with some helpful information, especially for those coming from out of town.
If you are traveling to San Diego via air, most people will be able to easily find flights that arrive at Lindbergh Field . Lindbergh Field is San Diego’s main airport and offers domestic and international flight options to travelers. If you are on a budget and don’t mind putting in a little work to save a buck another option might be the Tijuana International Airport . I recently took a family member there for an international flight to Colombia, South America and he was able to save at least $600 on his ticket. The only catch is that you need to make your way from Tijuana into the US and this could add additional wait time due to border crossing.
Once you arrive, you’ll need to get to the venue where the San Diego Salsa Festival is being hosted. This year the San Diego Salsa Festival will be at the Four Points Sheraton once again, same place as last year. If you stay at this hotel the reservations for choice rooms could be pricey, but you can try finding good rates through hotelscombined.com , as this website will allow you to compare over 30 major reservation sites in one search. I did a specific search for the Four Points Hotel and found that the rates are pretty good. Check it out here:
Apart from getting here and finding your lodging, you’ll want to explore San Diego during your stay and there are plenty of rental car agencies available for car rentals. You could take advantage of public transportation to get to places like Downtown San Diego most notably taking the iconic San Diego Trolley to travel around.
I’ll keep you posted on more things to consider for your trip to San Diego as it gets closer to the 2nd Annual San Diego Salsa Festival.
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.
Dance San Diego Magazine and Mina Communications (DSD & M) are presenting San Diego’s first citywide August Dance Awareness Month initiative (ADAM) this August 2008. Over the last few months, Dance San Diego magazine (DSD) and Mina Communications (MC) have been preparing for San Diego’s first August Dance Awareness Month (ADAM) initiative. Since their announcement, many artists within the dance community have shown a sincere desire to help the cause including Tango Producer Susan Lake . There is even congressional support for this as seen in this letter from Susan Davis .
The concept of a dance awareness movement in San Diego was first initiated in 1996, when Eveoke Dance Theatre held their first Celebrate Dance Festival (CDF) . Today, the CDF is an annual tradition that has become Southern California’s largest dance event of its kind. The CDF has served as a valuable exposure outlet for hundreds of dancers over the years, and serves as the inspiration establishing the August Dance Awareness Month initiative. This year’s CDF from Aug. 22-24 will be the major event highlight of the inaugural 2008 dance awareness campaign.
An inauguration party will kick off the events this month on August 14th , 2008. All are invited. Apart from this party, there are dance film presentations, in-studio performances from various dance companies, free dance classes at various dance schools, and much more.
What would the world be like without salsa, tango, merengue or other types of Latin dancing? Indeed, what kind of world would this be without the arts and young people interested in them? Those concerns are the main focus of a local San Diego group that needs our help, Young Audiences of San Diego. Young Audiences of San Diego believes the world desperately needs workers and leaders who are creative, disciplined and visionary. The arts—music, dance, theater and the visual arts—foster those qualities in today’s students and tomorrow’s workforce.
For 45 years, Young Audiences of San Diego (YASD) has dedicated itself to integrating the arts into the education and lives of all children of our region through an extraordinary range of high quality performances, residencies and workshops to help our young people identify their cultural roots and discover their creative wings.
In celebration of its 45th season, Young Audiences of San Diego is hosting its fourth annual Summer Salsa fundraiser Aug 23, from 7 to 10 pm at NTC Promenade’s McMillin Event Center at Liberty Station in Point Loma.
The evening includes a 13-piece band, an expansive wood dance floor, and performances by Alma Latina and Mamboleo Pro of “A Time To Dance” Studio.
The price of admission also includes a catered dinner buffet, a no-host bar and unlimited water… Not to mention the satisfaction of knowing that you are supporting a great local non-profit!
This fundraiser typically sells tickets for $40, but they’ve agreed to a special price to encourage the salsa community to participate: ONLY $20.00 WITH AN RSVP IN ADVANCE!!!
Please visit The San Diego Salsa and Latin Dancing Meetup Group page for the event and follow the instructions to obtain the special pricing (ie you’ll need to email or call and mention “Ritmo Bello/Meetup” when you purchase.)
Do you teach zumba? That was the question I received last week at a private salsa lesson I was giving. Zumba? To be honest with you I wasn’t familiar with the fitness dance craze that has taken over the nation. I looked into it and found some pretty interesting things about Zumba.
Zumba is a fitness program inspired by Latin dance. Zumba uses a variety of styles in its routines, including cumbia, merengue, salsa, reggaeton, mambo, rumba, flamenco, and calypso. Music selections include both fast and slow rhythms to help tone and sculpt the body as part of the workout.
The actual word “Zumba” is derived from a combination of a Colombian word along with samba and rumba. Leave it up to us Colombians to come up with something novel like this!
Founded by Alberto “Beto” Perez (see the video I included in this post) the idea is to combine Latin rhythms with cardiovascular exercise to create an aerobic routine that is fun and enjoyable to perform.
I was shocked to find out that Zumba is big business too with DVD’s selling in excess of 3 million since its inception. The fitness program also has world-wide coverage, including 9,000 instructors worldwide ready to teach you Zumba. Many local YMCA’s, for example, have these lessons as part of their selection of classes and many people take advantage of them from Minneapolis to San Diego.
Although the movements are really nothing new for those of us familiar with Latin dance, I like how the program has been able to expand Latin dance to a segment of the population that otherwise might not be connected with it. As you see in the video here, soccer moms and anybody trying to lose weight have found great success with the fitness craze.
If any of you have experiences with Zumba, feel free to leave a comment and share it with the rest of the Ritmo Bello community.
If you’ve followed Ritmo Bello in the past you may remember a saying that I used to post on my old website that read “If you can walk, you can dance!” Well, I’m pleased to report that I’ve been wrong all this time. Let me explain.
Absolutely Dance Sport, a specialized dance studio catering to the disabled here in San Diego, opens its doors on August 5th , 2008. The focus of the new studio is to bring more attention to a growing movement called Wheelchair DanceSport . Wheelchair DanceSport is a partner dance competition where at least one dancer in the pair is in a wheelchair.
Wheelchair dancing is not actually new. Since 1977, international competitions in Wheelchair Dance Sport have been organized and supported by organizations like the International Paralympic Wheelchair Dance Sport Committee and International DanceSport Federation. There is even an American Dance Wheels logo similar to the NBA’s iconic sign as seen below:
Wheelchair dancers participate in combination style dancing with an able-bodied partner or duo dance with two wheelchairs. The dances that are performed with wheelchairs pretty much are the same ones that a non-disabled couple can perform. That means that a wheelchair dancer could dance salsa, samba, cha cha cha, rumba, paso doble, and other popular Latin dances.
I found this tango video especially captivating to watch:
My immediate reaction to all this is that I am very thankful that there are people in the community concerned with bringing dance to the disabled population. Indeed, if I were ever in a position where I needed to rely on a wheelchair I would most likely seek out this studio to be around empowered individuals passionate about salsa and latin dancing.
For a while now I’ve been following another independent writer and publisher passionate about salsa dancing, the WanderingSalsero. The WanderingSalsero , managaged by a gentleman named Art Williams, is an informative and highly visited website with all sorts of salsa dance related news, views and reviews.
Art recently posted an article about Ritmo Bello’s newly redesigned site that you can see on his website. One thing I wanted to clarify if you do see the article is that Ritmo Bello has no connection with Mike Bello from the Mambo Fellow . Ritmo Bello is managed by yours truly, John , and will continue to provide quality salsa and latin dance information for the San Diego, California area and beyond.
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!
The night will focus on Colombian culture including an examination of its multicultural society - including connections with Mexican, Caribbean, African, European, Middle Eastern, and Native American influences. It will also highlight the strong influence of the indigenous people to the region including the Muisca , Tariano, and Quimbaya peoples. Of course, the night will also focus on the great musical influence Colombia has made on the world. Many modern day Colombian songs and instruments are linked to this early influence. There will be live Colombian music, Colombian dance, and Colombian cuisine during the event.
Come dance the day away to help fundraise $10,000 to benefit the Southern California Wildfires Recovery Program presented by Rebuild, the San Diego chapter of Architecture for Humanity . Rebuild is a non-profit organization promoting architectural and design solutions to global, social, and humanitarian crisis. Friends, relatives and companies will sponsor dancing participants to fundraise for this event. Pass the word, get involved, make a difference.
This is going to be a great event and there are a number of ways you all can help.
There will be dance instructors, DJ’s from Cafe Sevilla, lottery prizes, and potential live TV coverage covering this event and more. Help recruit friends, colleagues and co-workers to come out and dance for a social purpose.
Sandra Plaza from Rebuild indicated that they need more participants to dance in the event. Fundraising $100 for yourself is as easy as asking 5 people to donate $20 each and you are in! People can sign up on the day of the event and Rebuild is asking for a friendly donation to meet their goal of $10,000.
If for some reason you are unable to make it to the event but would like to sponsor a dancing participant, please let Cecilia Nerey, cnerey1002@aol.com, know for how much total or per hour you would like to donate. Please spread the word! For further information, please contact Angie Zerna at 619 794 3054 or zangel56@hotmail.com, or visit www.afhsd-rebuild.org on how you can volunteer to make a difference.
Hope to see you there!
________________________________ The Salsa Marathon sponsors include but are not limited to:
* Ritmo Bello – San Diego’s Online Guide to Salsa and Latin Dancing * Zuri’s Banquet & Hall * Staples * "A Time to Dance" Owned by the best DANCING DUO in San Diego - Angel and Tulane Rivera! * Cafe Sevilla with Valerie "SD’s 1st Lady of Salsa" * DJ’s Rick "La Voz" Chriss & David "New Yo Rican" * and many more!
For those of you in San Diego this weekend, I have a new event that Sarah, a Meetup member , asked that I post on Ritmo Bello. Below is the information:
Come experience Brazilian culture and support a good cause at
the same time by attending "Keeping the Beat" on Saturday, July
12. Keeping the Beat is a fundraiser for the non-profit
organization Rhythm of Hope . Rhythm of Hope is a global
network dedicated to improving the quality of life for people
in marginalized communities in Brazil. The goal of Keeping the
Beat is to raise $10,000 for Rhythm of Hope. The evening will
commence at 7:00 pm with a three-course, Brazilian theme
gourmet dinner. At 9:00 pm a silent auction and raffle will
begin, featuring top-quality artwork, items and services
donated by local artists, businesses and restaurants. At 11:00
pm the fun really gets started with a DJ spinning Brazilian
music including Samba, Bossa Nova, Brazilian Funk, Forro, and a
taste of Hip Hop.
You must purchase tickets in advance for this at the Rhythm of Hope Website . You can purchase tickets for the whole evening, or just a portion of the night (just the dinner, or
just the dance party for example). All proceeds go directly to
Rhythm of Hope to support social projects in Brazil such as
providing clean water and sanitation in rural communities,
helping impoverished favela (slum) youth and providing
education in poor communities.
Event: "Keeping the Beat" a fundraiser for Rhythm of Hope
Date: Saturday, July 12, 2008
Time: Dinner at 7 pm; Silent Auction and Raffle at 9 pm; Dance
Party beginning at 11 pm
Event details and tickets at: www.keepingthebeatsd.com
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.
Rebuild is a non-profit organization promoting architectural and design solutions to global, social, and humanitarian problems.
The idea is to have have your friends, relatives, and companies sponsor the dancing participants for the fundraiser. Of course, you yourself can be a dance participant in the event. Space is limited though for those who want to dance to only the first 100 dance participants.
The event will take place on July 19th, 2008 from 1pm to 11pm at 220 University Avenue, San Diego CA 92104. There is an application that you’ll need to fill out, just email the contact below to have one sent to you.
To participate or help sponsor a dancer please contact Angie Zerna at 619-794-3054 (email: zangel56@hotmail.com) or visit the Rebuild website for more information.
Please come out and dance to help your community!!!
Believe it or not, there is another new salsa dance company here in San Diego! This time around, though, the focus is 100% on training women for salsa competitions. Say hello to Salsa Divas Dance Company!
Their website describes their association as a dance company "created by best friends, teaching women to dance with style and confidence" and all their instructors are women. Boasting representation both on the West coast and East Coast, this unique dance company adds yet another flavor of salsa dance experience to the expanding San Diego salsa scene.
If you want to check out who these lovely divas are in person the perfect opportunity is coming up this weekend. Salsa Divas is hosting a carwash in Point Loma at the Walgreens located at 3005 Midway Drive (corner of Rosecrans and Midway) from 9am to 2pm on Saturday June 21st. They are accepting donations to help them raise funds to attend and perform at the New York Salsa Congress .
For those of you unfamiliar with dance competitions, raising the necessary funds for traveling and performing can be a daunting task. Come out and support your local salsa talent…hey you can get a nice car wash too!
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.
Many people new to salsa dancing inevitably ask the question “so what salsa music should I listen to and buy?” The question surfaces quickly in the early stages of learning to dance as more emphasis is focused on different types of salsa that are out there. This can be especially confusing when people say they are dancing on different beats of that music like ON1 or ON2 style.
In the hopes of bringing some clarity to the situation I performed some research into the matter and found a number of websites. These websites are listed below with a short description:
A source for a wide variety of Latin music genres ranging from popular to Norteño/Banda/Corridos, to Cubanísimo. The site, of course, also has channels for listening to streaming salsa music of different persuasions. Contents include interviews, reviews, videoclips, and links to radio broadcasts. Available in both English and Spanish.
Available in both English and Spanish. "The most current in salsa news and information, …interactive chats and message boards, links to fan clubs, direct music and video downloads."
Available in both English and Spanish, this site explores the Latin genres salsa and merengue through music and dance. Histories of both genres are included as well as a glossary of terms. The nice thing about this site is that gives an explanation of those terms in understandable language.
As you are using these resources you’ll notice that there are a number of different schools of salsa thought in terms of style of music. Colombian style salsa, for example, will differ from Puerto Rican style salsa music due to the historical and cultural influences of those locales on the music’s development.
Another thing to keep in mind is that salsa, like other genres of music, is still developing as we speak. As more up and coming artist join the scene , the music will take on new directions than what was expected before.
If any of you have any recommendations on good salsa music for beginners please share your comments on this post.
Specifically, the site is undergoing a redesign that will improve the functionality of the site and the accessing of local San Diego salsa and Latin dance information. Explaining the major changes in this Meetup.com Simplicity Demo , it is clear that the organization is trying hard to make a great site even better.
I recently visited The Wandering Salsero’s Blog and found this cool video about Salsa Rueda . The original video itself touts it as being the Guinness record but I’m not 100% they still hold the title.
There is more to salsa than just the dance. Salsa, of course, is also about the music itself and the salsa recording artists that allow for all of us to continue dancing. Many of these salsa recording artists would never be known without any of the salsa recording labels waiting to discover them. I recently had an opportunity to sit down with salsa recording label Dimelo! Records to discuss this and the efforts they are putting forth to support new salsa recording talent.
_____________________________
Ritmo Bello : What is the mission and focus of your organization as it pertains to the San Diego Salsa community?
Dimelo! Records: We would like to perform more live gigs in San Diego. We have recently purchased a "Dimelo! Records Van" that will allow all our bands to travel to and from the area more conveniently. We have recently launched a Social networking sitewww.dimelolife.com which will allow us to interact with more Salseros. We hope to better understand the communities outside of Los Angeles through this medium.
Ritmo Bello: What are the origins of your organization?
Dimelo! Records: Dimelo! Records was founded in 1998 in Los Angeles. It is a subsidiary of Latin Music Entertainment, Inc. a full service music company, which produces, licenses, manufactures, markets and distributes all its own product independently since 1994.
Ritmo Bello : Are there any artists you are currently promoting that you’d like the public to know more about?
Dimelo! Records: Dimelo! Records currently has 3 artists on their roster….Our 1st release was "Salsa De Verda" as performed by Orquesta Tabaco y Ron in 1998, since their first release, "OTR" has released 6 albums on the Dimelo! imprint, including one remix album, and a live recording. Our second addition to the Dimelo! line up, and of Costa Rican decent, was Chino Espinoza y Los Dueńos Del Son. Extremely popular, Chino Espinoza is the most booked band in Los Angeles. His discography includes, "Pura Vida", "Maria", a Salsa Christmas album. Our most recent and third artist is, La Charanga Cubana. Their 2007 freshman release on Dimelo! Records was immediately, nominated for a Latin Grammy for Best Traditional Tropical Album of The Year. They are currently, in the studio vigorously wrapping up their follow up recording.
Ritmo Bello: How does an up and coming Salsa artist sign on with your label?
Dimelo! Records: We are a boutique niche label. We seek bands with a heavy commitment to live gigs. We are always looking for a great opportunity to include a fresh and unique piece to our arsenal of artists. We always welcome new material for review. Please send any information to:
at bello_jf@ritmobello.com
