This Week in Salsa

This Week in Salsa

By TWiSSociety & Culture
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This Week in Salsa episodes

  • TWIS 11: Interview with Sonia Rivera of Diamond Dancers International

    This week's interview is with Sonia Rivera, Director of Diamond Dancers International based in Tampa, Florida. 
     
    Sonia is extremely passionate about salsa dancing, both the dancing and the culture. This passion exudes from her during our interview where we discuss topics like what makes a good teacher, dealing with salsa love and heartbreak and the education of younger dancers.
     
    My favorite part of the interview was discussing how to become a full-time dancer. Sonia is one of the few  salsa dancers who has achieved this and she shares some tips and mindsets to have if you want to make salsa your life, both personally and professionally. 
     
    For more information about Sonia, check out Diamond Dancers on their website and on Facebook. You can also connect with Sonia on 
    1 hr
  • TWIS 10: 10 Strategies for Becoming a Better Salsa Dancer
    We all want to get better and faster...and let's throw in better looking for good measure. While I can't help you with the 3rd, those first two are very achievable when it comes to salsa. 
     
    Today on the podcast, I talk about these 10 ways that you can speed up your rate of improvement. 
     
    1. Define actionable goals
    2. Video yourself
    3. Leverage your existing strengths/figure out how you learn best
    4. Expose yourself to salsa right after waking and before going to bed
      20 min
    5. TWIS 9: Interview with International Photographer Daniel Tarrosa of Salchata Media Bloc
      This week on the show we sit down international dance photographer Daniel Tarrosa of Jacksonville, Florida. 
       
      Daniel founded Daniel T. Photography and Salchata Media Bloc and now travels the world capturing the best moments of some of the biggest salsa and bachata congresses. 
       
      As a photographer, he has a unique perspective on the salsa community and also on the similarities and differences of dance communities in the U.S compared to abroad in Asia. We talk about these differences, some of his favorite congresses and much more on this episode. Enjoy!
      40 min
    6. TWIS 8: Improve your salsa lead in less than a minute with this story about turtles

      Before I get into the turtles, I want to introduce this post with some background.

       

      I'm wired to think in terms of metaphors and this is also the way I teach salsa. Most of them just come up in the spur of the moment. While they're often times ridiculous, I've found they are some of the best teaching tools for my students because the metaphor sticks. It gives a vivid image in their mind, the more ridiculous the better, that they can refer back to an important point I'm talking about.

       

       

      Onto Turtles

       

      Here in beautiful Gainesville, Florida, we have a ton of springs and summertime means tubing! One time I was out on the river with a group of salseros and as we passed through the jungle of trees, around the bend appeared a family of turtles. They were hanging out on the rocks to our left and we were quickly approaching them.

       

      As we got closer, one of my more rowdy friends jumps out of his tube and starts swimming quickly towards them, splashing and yelling "AHHHHHH!!!". The turtles freak out and dive into the water. That was the end of it, or so I thought....

       

      7 min
    7. TWIS 7: Interview with Anthony Kumo Tineo of Dolce Vita Dance Company
      This week on the show we had Anthony Kumo Tineo from Dolce Vita Dance Company in on the show. Starting at the age of 14, Kumo has honed and continues to perfect his dance skills. What started as a social pastime has exploded into an ever growing passion for the art of the Latin dance and quest for knowledge in body movement, teaching techniques and performance showmanship.
       
      I first met Kumo in 2009 at Flava Invasion and was amazed by his spinning technique. During the interview, we talk about his early days as a salsero, his experience competing and also about salsa technique and etiquette. 
       
      I definitely came away from this interview with a lot of knowledge, specifically I have a new training regimen for practicing my spin technique. Enjoy!
      51 min
    8. TWIS 6: An Introduction to Son Cubano and Son Montuno
      Salsa music is a beautiful example of human-engineered evolution. In fact, The Great Salsa Timeline attempts to document each step of this evolution going back to Christopher Columbus' discovery of Cuba in 1492. I won't go back that far in this post but I do want to highlight two of the most important musical innovations of the late 19th and early 20th century that led to the creation of salsa as an art form, Son Cubano and its sub-genre, Son Montuno.

       

      7 min
    9. TWIS 5: Interview with Cory Gray of the Oakland/SF Salsa Scene

      Cory Gray has been dancing hip hop and salsa for more than 20 years. She is now pursuing her MFA in dance at Mills College. During the interview we talk about her transition from hip hop to salsa dancing, dance techinque and the salsa community at large. This interview with jam packed with dance tips and tactics and much more. Enjoy!

      43 min
    10. TWIS 4: Are you learning salsa the wrong way?

      One of the beautiful things about salsa is that you cannot out-evolve your lifespan. That is, even if you spent every day of every hour learning how to dance, you can keep improving until the day you die.

       

      But before you start dedicating all of that time to improvement in dancing, it's important to figure out how you learn most effectively. This is akin to if I told you to read 10,000 books. The first book you should read is the one entitled "How to triple your reading speed and comprehension". This post will help you to identify your personal "speed reading" strategy for salsa dancing.

      7 min

    About This Week in Salsa

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    Your first podcast of the week is the last word in Latin dancing. Join the top salsa and bachata pundits in a roundtable discussion of the latest trends and news in Latin dancing. Publishes every…