SISF!!
I just attended the Singapore International Salsa Festival 2006 last weekend.
One word sums it all : AWESOME! :))
The SISF is organised by my salsa instructors, June & Jackson, from JJ SalsaRengue. I was unable to attend the workshops so I only went for the 3 nights. Every nite, there would be performances and then social dancing. I missed the first nite of perfomances since I had to go attend my little nephew's 3-yr-old bday party.. He's too adorable for me to miss his party :p
Anyway, I was just recovering from a sprained ankle.. only took off my bandage on Thu & I was off for 3 days of dancing. Thanks goodness it was only a slight sprain & I took care to go see the sinseh before that. Can't imagine having to miss such a great event!
The performances were fantastic. Various local salsa schools performed and there were many overseas teams too. Personally, I liked the performance put up by Salsaeros Indonesia the best. their costumes were beautiful and they managed to incorporate their traditional indonesian dance, salsa & rueda into their performance. It was a refreshing change from the traditional salsa performances. The other performance that I really liked was the team from my alma mater, JJ. Though their costumes were standard and their presentation traditional, they wowed the audience with their techniques and synchronisation of the entire team.
Of coz.. the international instructors put up brilliant performances too. I especially like the one done by Eddie the Salsa Freak and Brandon. Though it was a short performance, I was amazed at the skills and techniques.. Eddie is a world-renowned performer.. so nothing much needs to be said about her. But for Brandon, a cute guy who is only 21 years old, his techniques were fantastic. He hopped, flipped, turned and do everything that I never thought is possible.
I managed to dance with a few foreigners on Fri. On Sat, I danced with the big guys such as Milton (Cobo Brothers), Brandon, Gino, and a few others. However, I was not on top form and din really enjoy the dances. I was also trying to get a turn to dance with Super Mario but he was running away & screaming "can't a guy get a rest?" :p Guess the poor guy was really tired after an entire day of teaching at the workshops and endless requests from the ladies... LOL.. guys really can't be too popular..
Sun was the most fun of all 3 nites for me. First, I took part in the attempt to break Guinness World Record for the biggest Rueda.. & we succeeded!! It was nothing short of a miracle.. Initially, we had only 140 odd couples, short of 30 couples to break the Miami record of 173. However, with much efforts and encouragement, we managed to do it & with 10 calls instead of 3! A sense of exuberance swept through all the participants and we were all proud to be able to form part of this world record.
Besides the rueda record, I had the most fun on Sun as I was in good form and was able to dance to my utmost. I thought I had no chance to dance with Super Mario or Brandon anymore.. since all the gals were flocking to queue up to ask them. I needed to go off earlier as I was unable to get leave for Mon since my boss was already on leave. I saw the 2 of them dancing with 2 gals and the people were surrounding them in a circle to watch them. I walked in too & stood to admire their performance. Just then, Brandon came over and placed his hands on my shoulders... I was shocked.. and he led me out to the dance floor & we starting dancing.. An extremely playful guy who has an absolutely charming smile... & of coz.. superb dance techniques & great lead. Half way through the dance, both of them swopped partners & I fulfilled my wish of dancing with all the top dancers!! Super Mario's lead was fantastic... it was definitely an enjoyable experience dancing with him. Just when he started doing his tricks of entrapping both of my hands & yet askg for one, Brandon came to my rescue... It was such an excellent experience being able to dance with both tip-top dancers in a single song... If ever there is such a thing as a limit to happiness, mine would have shot right to the top & off the cap! It was such a sudden gesture on Brandon's part to pull me in to dance that I din even think about the entire crowd who were watching us... *phew... luckily not.. if not, I might have cold feet :p
Subsequently, I danced with Gino again.. this time round, I managed to get him to smile.. guess I must be tramatising him with my terrible dancing on Sat :p It was again, a superbly satisfying dance...
I even managed to dance with a salsa instructor from KL. He was this huge guy who was amazingly light on his feet... & coz of his sheer size, he literally swept me off my feet... a great dancer but a pity that I never got his name... :(
All in all, I managed to dance with all the best dancers on Sun... Thoroughly enjoyed myself so much that I almost din wanna go home even tho it was 12+. Even after I reached home, I was too pumped up with adrenalin & couldn't sleep till 4am! I also couldn't resist sending out an email to my instructors & one of the organisers, Webster, to thank them for organising SISF & gave me such a fantastic opportunity to dance with world renowned dancers...
Thought I would really die at work on Mon.. but surprisingly, even though I had to do OT till abt 8+, I was still in good shape..
Hmmm... the power of salsa :pp
One word sums it all : AWESOME! :))
The SISF is organised by my salsa instructors, June & Jackson, from JJ SalsaRengue. I was unable to attend the workshops so I only went for the 3 nights. Every nite, there would be performances and then social dancing. I missed the first nite of perfomances since I had to go attend my little nephew's 3-yr-old bday party.. He's too adorable for me to miss his party :p
Anyway, I was just recovering from a sprained ankle.. only took off my bandage on Thu & I was off for 3 days of dancing. Thanks goodness it was only a slight sprain & I took care to go see the sinseh before that. Can't imagine having to miss such a great event!
The performances were fantastic. Various local salsa schools performed and there were many overseas teams too. Personally, I liked the performance put up by Salsaeros Indonesia the best. their costumes were beautiful and they managed to incorporate their traditional indonesian dance, salsa & rueda into their performance. It was a refreshing change from the traditional salsa performances. The other performance that I really liked was the team from my alma mater, JJ. Though their costumes were standard and their presentation traditional, they wowed the audience with their techniques and synchronisation of the entire team.
Of coz.. the international instructors put up brilliant performances too. I especially like the one done by Eddie the Salsa Freak and Brandon. Though it was a short performance, I was amazed at the skills and techniques.. Eddie is a world-renowned performer.. so nothing much needs to be said about her. But for Brandon, a cute guy who is only 21 years old, his techniques were fantastic. He hopped, flipped, turned and do everything that I never thought is possible.
I managed to dance with a few foreigners on Fri. On Sat, I danced with the big guys such as Milton (Cobo Brothers), Brandon, Gino, and a few others. However, I was not on top form and din really enjoy the dances. I was also trying to get a turn to dance with Super Mario but he was running away & screaming "can't a guy get a rest?" :p Guess the poor guy was really tired after an entire day of teaching at the workshops and endless requests from the ladies... LOL.. guys really can't be too popular..
Sun was the most fun of all 3 nites for me. First, I took part in the attempt to break Guinness World Record for the biggest Rueda.. & we succeeded!! It was nothing short of a miracle.. Initially, we had only 140 odd couples, short of 30 couples to break the Miami record of 173. However, with much efforts and encouragement, we managed to do it & with 10 calls instead of 3! A sense of exuberance swept through all the participants and we were all proud to be able to form part of this world record.
Besides the rueda record, I had the most fun on Sun as I was in good form and was able to dance to my utmost. I thought I had no chance to dance with Super Mario or Brandon anymore.. since all the gals were flocking to queue up to ask them. I needed to go off earlier as I was unable to get leave for Mon since my boss was already on leave. I saw the 2 of them dancing with 2 gals and the people were surrounding them in a circle to watch them. I walked in too & stood to admire their performance. Just then, Brandon came over and placed his hands on my shoulders... I was shocked.. and he led me out to the dance floor & we starting dancing.. An extremely playful guy who has an absolutely charming smile... & of coz.. superb dance techniques & great lead. Half way through the dance, both of them swopped partners & I fulfilled my wish of dancing with all the top dancers!! Super Mario's lead was fantastic... it was definitely an enjoyable experience dancing with him. Just when he started doing his tricks of entrapping both of my hands & yet askg for one, Brandon came to my rescue... It was such an excellent experience being able to dance with both tip-top dancers in a single song... If ever there is such a thing as a limit to happiness, mine would have shot right to the top & off the cap! It was such a sudden gesture on Brandon's part to pull me in to dance that I din even think about the entire crowd who were watching us... *phew... luckily not.. if not, I might have cold feet :p
Subsequently, I danced with Gino again.. this time round, I managed to get him to smile.. guess I must be tramatising him with my terrible dancing on Sat :p It was again, a superbly satisfying dance...
I even managed to dance with a salsa instructor from KL. He was this huge guy who was amazingly light on his feet... & coz of his sheer size, he literally swept me off my feet... a great dancer but a pity that I never got his name... :(
All in all, I managed to dance with all the best dancers on Sun... Thoroughly enjoyed myself so much that I almost din wanna go home even tho it was 12+. Even after I reached home, I was too pumped up with adrenalin & couldn't sleep till 4am! I also couldn't resist sending out an email to my instructors & one of the organisers, Webster, to thank them for organising SISF & gave me such a fantastic opportunity to dance with world renowned dancers...
Thought I would really die at work on Mon.. but surprisingly, even though I had to do OT till abt 8+, I was still in good shape..
Hmmm... the power of salsa :pp
posted by The Rose Box @ 2:40 AM
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