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mimambo@mimambo.com
mi.mambo@yahoo.com
The first Salsa Web and the number one
source for you and all Salsa Web in NM.
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Santa Fe Rueda Festival
Friday, July 3rd and Saturday, July 4th, 2009
Where: Moving People Dance,
1583 Pacheco Street, Santa Fe, NM
Time: 9:00am - 4:00pm
More info: http://santarueda.com/festival2009program.html
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2009
Salsa Under the Stars
Friday nights in the summer at The Albuquerque Museum Amphitheater, 2000 Mountain Road NW, Old Town Albuquerque; 7:00 to 10:00 p.m.; Doors open at 6:30 p.m. All concerts occur rain or shine. Admission (EXCEPT WHERE OTHERWISE NOTED): $13 Adults; $11 Seniors (60+) and Students w/ID; $10 New Mexico Jazz Workshop (NMJW) and Albuquerque Museum Members. Save nearly 11% by purchasing SMF Passes - a Full Pass for 24 concerts ($288) or a Half Pass for 12 concerts ($144) may be purchased. These Pass tickets may be used singly for each concert or in multiples up to the number of concerts purchased.
Families are welcome and Children Under 12 are Free. Summer Music Festival Passes and Group Discounts available. The Cooperage Restaurant offers a fine selection of grilled entrees, salads, desserts, and a full-service bar. A portion of the proceeds from their sales benefits The New Mexico Jazz Workshop Institute of Music.
The 2009 concert schedule begins on Friday, May 29 and runs through Friday, August 28 as follows: Go Calender
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2009
Jazz & Blues Under the Stars
Saturday nights during the summer at The Albuquerque Museum Amphitheater � 2000 Mountain Road NW, Old Town Albuquerque; 7:00 to 10:00 p.m.; Doors open at 6:30 p.m. All concerts occur rain or shine. Admission (EXCEPT WHERE OTHERWISE NOTED): $13 Adults; $11 Seniors (60+) and Students w/ID; $10 New Mexico Jazz Workshop (NMJW) and Albuquerque Museum Members. Save nearly 11% by purchasing SMF Passes - a Full Pass for 24 concerts ($288) or a Half Pass for 12 concerts ($144) may be purchased. These Pass tickets may be used singly for each concert or in multiples up to the number of concerts purchased.
Families are welcome and Children Under 12 are Free. Summer Music Festival Passes and Group Discounts available. The Cooperage Restaurant offers a fine selection of grilled entrees, salads, desserts, and a full-service bar. A portion of the proceeds from their sales benefits The New Mexico Jazz Workshop Institute of Music.
The 2009 concert schedule begins on Saturday, May 30 and runs through Saturday, August 22 as follows: Go Calender
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May 11, 2009
Music Review | Tribute to Ismael Miranda
A Salsa Star�s 40 Years and Counting
By JON PARELES
The arithmetic was iffy, but the lung power was unstoppable at the Tribute to Ismael Miranda on Saturday night at the United Palace Theater. Mr. Miranda, 59, is a Puerto Rican sonero (salsa singer) who grew up and made his career in New York City. Nicknamed El Ni�o Bonito � the pretty boy � of salsa, he was a mainstay of the Fania All-Stars from 1968 to 1986. His recording career never stopped.
The concert was billed as a celebration of 40 years in salsa for Mr. Miranda. While he actually had his first hit as a teenager in 1967 � �Rumb�n M�lon� with Joey Pastrana�s orchestra � no one quibbled. Mr. Miranda has a voice as bright and brassy as a lead trumpet, and he phrases aggressively, springing against the beat and then sustaining notes with an insouciant vibrato. He wrote some of his own most durable material, including songs about songs like �As� Se Compone Un Son,� offering advice on how to compose a son (a Latin American song form) suggesting, �You need a reason, a constructive subject, and also inspiration.� Although Mr. Miranda has sung numerous love songs, many of his hits take up other subjects, from �Las Cuarenta,� about life�s bitter lessons, to �Caretas� (�Masks�), about the dangers of drugs.
Mr. Miranda was congratulated in song by mentors and peers: Cheo Feliciano, Jos� Alberto (El Canario), Tito Nieves and Andy Monta�ez, each in strong voice, flinging songs and improvisations above the drive of the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, the big band devoted to salsa repertory. That band�s leader is the pianist Oscar Hern�ndez, who was in Mr. Miranda�s own 1970s group, Orquesta Revelaci�n; Nicky Marrero, Orquesta Revelaci�n�s timbales player, sat in.
Two other bandleaders Mr. Miranda had worked with were also on the program: the pianist Larry Harlow, who �opened the door� for him, Mr. Miranda said, by featuring him as the lead singer for Orquesta Harlow from 1967 to 1973, and Willie Col�n, who collaborated with him in the 1980s. Mr. Colon sang and played robust solos on trumpet and trombone. Johnny Pacheco, the producer and bandleader behind Fania Records and the Fania All-Stars, looked frail when he came onstage � Mr. Miranda simply sang �Volver a Ver� (�Seeing You Again�), about a reunion, to him � but he belted his own verse in the concert�s round-robin finale.
Mr. Miranda was his own M.C., sometimes breaking into unaccompanied song. While he saved his richest plaudits, and most joyful a cappella singing, for his thanks to God, he introduced his guests graciously and traded verses with them in escalating exchanges. He smiled as they improvised rhymes to praise him and flaunted their own virtuosity, as Mr. Alberto did when he whistled an elaborate solo while playing air flute. Over the decades Mr. Miranda and his generation have become the elder statesmen of Latin music, but they�re still frisky.
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A New Venezuelan Cafe In Town
I discover a new Venezuelan Cafe " Cafe Choroni " , We real Cachapas y Arepas Venezolanas.
What is an Arepera? An eatery that makes and sells Arepas. What is an Arepa? Unlike breads, Arepas are made with corn instead of wheat, and molded into a flat patty which can be baked, grilled, or fried. The Arepa is split after cooking, and filled with your favorite ingredients like, cheese, beans, avocado, shredded beef or chicken, pork, and deli meats. Both Venezuelans and Colombians view the Arepa as a traditional national food, and has a long tradition of local recipes. The predecessor of the Arepa was a staple of Amerindian tribes that lived in the northern Andes. After the Spanish colonization, the sensation that would become the Arepa flooded into the region we know today as Venezuela and Colombia. 3120 San Mateo Blvd NE Albuquerque, NM 505.554.3311 STORE HOURS:Mon-Sat 7:00 AM - 3:00 PM Closed on Sundays. www.cafechoroni.com
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By Marcus Crowder
Latin jazz and a dip of hot salsa
Published: Sunday, Mar. 8, 2009
The Spanish Harlem Orchestra maintains an unparalleled reputation as one of the world's great salsa dance bands.
The musicians don't have a problem with that, but they want everyone to know that it's OK to just sit and listen.
The 13-piece band comes to the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium on Thursday as part of Capital Public Radio's 30-year anniversary celebration. The show will be a dance and a concert.
SHO pianist and musical director Oscar Hern�ndez promotes the idea of people listening to the band as well as moving to its relentless grooves. The group features three singers, a five-piece horn section, three percussionists, a piano and a bass.
Hern�ndez spoke from his home in New York where the orchestra was playing a week of gigs at the Blue Note nightclub.
"It's a great venue here, not dance-oriented, so we get to just showcase the band at a very artistic listening level," Hern�ndez says.
The Spanish Harlem Orchestra has been playing performing arts centers and jazz festivals around the world, but at sit-down concerts, there is a recurring problem.
"People complain they can't dance, and the Spanish Harlem Orchestra is a great dance band," the pianist says.
And there should be plenty of room for dancing at Memorial Auditorium.
Such is the duality and conflict for a band of great instrumentalists who are known for playing old-school salsa which at its core remains dance music. The group also has a Latin jazz element which Hern�ndez likes to explain.
"Latin jazz for me is basically instrumental music � usually not vocals. Salsa is songs, and ultimately the focus is dance. There is a distinction," Hern�ndez says.
He adds that Latin jazz is jazz improvisation over Latin rhythms, and his players can do both salsa and Latin jazz.
"Sometimes the dance aspect trivializes what we do. We do have instrumentals where we showcase the band in that light � songs where the singers walk off the stage and just the band plays," Hern�ndez says.
"People understand we are musicians who are tapped into the tradition and essence of this music which was forgotten. There's a certain audience who knows what we're about and the importance of what we're doing," Hern�ndez says.
However, the band is coming to town because KXJZ musical director Gary Vercelli sees it as a great party band. Vercelli should know, since he's been programming jazz for the various incarnations of Capital Public Radio since nearly the beginning.
Vercelli has been with the station for the past 29 years, starting out in converted studios on the second floor of the Theater and Arts Department at Sacramento State. It has moved twice since then and now has its own dedicated building on campus.
"In all my years of promoting jazz (concerts), I noticed whenever we presented Latin jazz, the park was more full than when we did straight-ahead," Vercelli says.
Vercelli has promoted jazz shows all over Sacramento during his tenure with the radio station.
"I've had promotional bones in my body which started when I brought Lou Rawls to my high school in Glendale, Calif., of all places," Vercelli says.
Vercelli and the station have sponsored artists with local and international reputations including McCoy Tyner, Art Blakey and Joe Williams. The concerts have been in the courtyard at the Pavilions, in Old Sacramento, at the zoo and at the Crest Theatre.
"I've always thought of KXJZ and Capital Public Radio as more than a radio station. I felt we could be an agent for positive change in the community," Vercelli says.
Certainly the station's growth and expansion from a late-night, music-only stop at 90.9 on the FM dial into a 24-hour National Public Radio affiliate has become an essential local cultural element.
For Vercelli, the focus has always been the music, and his early show "Jazz International" on what was then KXPR remains influential to a grateful generation of music lovers in Sacramento whose horizons were broadened by Vercelli's expansive playlists.
Now Vercelli has Arbitron ratings to deal with as he programs music for an increasingly varied and demanding audience. He hopes a band like the Spanish Harlem Orchestra can bring people together in a celebration of Capital Public Radio's legacy.
Hern�ndez sure feels it's the right group.
"I think the Spanish Harlem Orchestra is one of the finest music ensembles you'll hear playing any kind of music," he says.
"We have great musicians and we feel great about what we're doing and how we're doing it."
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Nearing 60, salsa singer is a study in contrasts
By Agustin Gurza
Los Angeles Times
HOLLYWOOD - The publicity photos for the new album by Alonso Brito have that air of Havana hipness that has cloaked many contemporary artists coming from the island of Cuba. It's a mystique derived from that incongruous juxtaposition of stylish fashion against drab communist gray. There's Brito, sporting a leather jacket with a dashing red scarf and thick, horn-rimmed glasses, gazing out a window onto a Havana street frozen in time. The image, however, is a digital illusion. Brito left Havana in 1960 when he was 10, a year after Fidel Castro took power, and he has never gone back. But while the photo was faked, the sense of sorrow and nostalgia it projects is very real for this artist-in-exile who, approaching his 60th birthday, has reconnected with his roots and released the debut album that has eluded him his entire career.
"A lot of people ask me, 'Why did it take you so long to make it to Hollywood?' " he says, his flyaway silver bangs hanging over his eyebrows. "It's natural, because society for a long time has been telling us, 'Oye, at 60 - whoosh - retire!' At 40, start waving goodbye. And it's like, no, no, no! You know how we talk about reinventing life nowadays, and staying with it, and persevering and doing what you want. I think people of my generation, the baby boomers, need to hear that story, because it's almost like a philosophy for us to continue living."
Still, it's late in the game for Brito to be reinventing himself. He was virtually unknown in Los Angeles until a few months ago and remains a bit of an enigma. He suddenly appeared in town with those publicity photos and the grand vision of galvanizing the local salsa music scene, which has a flourishing club circuit. The push is to brand Brito the recognizable face of LA salsa, which unlike New York and Miami has produced no big-name stars. He and his producers envision him as that urbane persona representing the multicultural salsa set.
Yet, like the picture of the artist who wasn't there, it's hard to know who Alonso Brito is. In Miami, he was always known as Dennis Britt, an eclectic musician, charmed nightclub manager, and all-around bohemian who rubbed shoulders with the likes of Barry Gibb and Donald Fagen. He's also a respected songwriter, who moved to Nashville in the mid-'90s to help write songs for Raul Malo and the now-defunct Mavericks, including the country band's heartbreaking "Things I Cannot Change."
In a single sentence, he can switch from Spanish with a strong Cuban accent to colloquial English peppered with "dude" and "champ" and "baby." He was raised Catholic but dabbled in Buddhism as well as Afro-Cuban Santeria. But perhaps most improbable for someone being groomed as a salsa star, he had to take lessons from a local dance teacher to learn that authentic Cuban sway instead of those skittish, helter-skelter steps that seem to suddenly possess his skinny legs like a trance, frenetic but on beat. In the end, he dumped the teacher and kept the crazy feet, which reminded a bandmate of moves by old Afro-Cuban "rumberos" back home.
Brito is like no other contemporary salsa singer - part Mick Jagger, part Caetano Veloso, and part Desi Arnaz on acid. His recent performances at King King in Hollywood, a well-attended four-week stand, showcased the magnetism of his quirky stage presence and the powerhouse talent of his backing band with its piercing horns, edgy rock guitars, and dense percussion. The thunderous live versions, however, tend to drown out Brito's hoarse, tremulous baritone, which comes through more clearly on the album, "Santo Bueno" (Good Saint), available for download on music sites by Sept. 4.
You believe him when he says that writing these songs helped him overcome the heartache of broken dreams, a failed marriage, and near financial ruin. And that he had to learn to trust again to get back on stage in a city that he had once left in failure.
"I've got a score to settle with this town," he says, a glow in his green eyes that change color with the light. "You didn't let me give you the love I wanted to give you, so I'm going to give it to you now."
Dennis Alonso Brito has been haunted by a fear of failure since his childhood in Cuba, where his father was an executive for Colgate with a degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The demands of orthodox Catholicism and corporate capitalism wreaked havoc on the psyche of a boy who secretly harbored dreams of being a musician.
"If you walk up to some of these Cubans and say you want to be a piano player, you're going to get smacked across the face," says Brito with that tobacco-smoked voice that makes his singing sound at times so dissolute.
Brito's first instrument was the drum, which he played in psychedelic rock bands while attending an all-boys Catholic prep school in Miami. But soon he would abandon what he called "the hippie thing" for a job in local television and the chance "to be normal." He started selling local TV ads, using his charm to open accounts with car dealers and mom-and-pop bakeries.
By 21, Brito had married his childhood sweetheart and become a full-fledged yuppie. He had a four-bedroom house in Coral Gables, Fla., with a Porsche in the driveway, but he also had ulcers. "You know what, man, all these accouterments, the 18-karat Cartier, was just not going to do it," he recalls. "I wanted to create."
He exchanged the suburbs for a bohemian life, living in hotels, "me and my guitar," and working at menial jobs. During the '80s and '90s, he became a fixture of the Miami music scene. He fronted hard-working bands such as Watchdog and Beat Poets, dabbling in styles from smooth jazz, reggae, and British pop to a Latin-tinged style dubbed "troparock." He was so good at writing in so many styles that he was hard to pigeonhole - and to market. Despite accolades from peers, the backing of wealthy supporters, and interest from the industry, he never got a record deal with a major label.
His collaboration with Malo of the Mavericks ended with a dispute over publishing rights to the title song, "Today," used in Disney's 2002 film "Snow Dogs." Brito says he was tricked out of his share, a charge Malo emphatically disputes, claiming Brito still owes him money from those years in Nashville.
Right or wrong, Brito's financial problems had started undermining his second marriage. He says his ex-wife, a fashion designer like his mother, persuaded him to move from Nashville to Los Angeles so she could pursue her career. They arrived on the eve of Sept. 11, 2001, he recalls, and awoke to watch the twin towers falling, along with their hopes for a new life. The couple split, and Brito returned to Miami in 2003. He had just turned 54. He was broke, alone, and suffering from writer's block. Within a year, he was working at his old haunts again, singing and playing guitar, "trying to enjoy that little village life in South Beach." He started thinking he would die there, in some nightclub with his guitar in hand.
Then, the songs started coming again. He tapped into his roots and that capacity of Cuban music to find joy in expressing - and releasing - sorrow and heartache.
"I was able to start giving thanks for something I had lost, instead of being angry for the loss when all you can see is remorse and rancor and bitterness," says Brito, who returned to Los Angeles in 2006. In the weeks ahead he plans to promote the record while making more local club appearances.
"In Cuban music, I found like an illusion at the end of the road. There was a moral. There was a vindication. . . .
"I discovered I don't need 30,000 people applauding every day to get an identity. I know what I'm about. And I'm not doubting my stuff anymore."
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Let's zumba
High-energy fitness class moves to a Latin beat Latin dance exercises really deliver with fun workouts
By Jennifer Rundell | Daily Herald Correspondent
Published: 9/1/2008 12:03 AM
Whether you dance for fun or exercise, it's rare that you won't feel a hard-core sweat when you are done shaking your hips.
So what do you get when you put Latin, dancing and aerobics together? You get Zumba, which is one workout that is sure to leave you gasping for breath when you are finished.
Zumba is a Latin-infused exercise program that combines international music and easy-to-follow dance steps with interval training. How many people out there have wanted to get into Latin dancing, but have always felt that they needed a partner? Not with Zumba, this current Latin phenomenon.
Not only do you get to experience all the sultry and sexy moves of a Latin dance, but you are also burning 180 calories every 20 minutes. That means at the end of a one-hour class you will have burned over 500 calories. Just think of the possibilities if you Zumba three to four times a week.
As an added motivation, Julie Russell, owner of Latin Flair Fitness, dresses up in colorful clothing and stands on a high stage when she teaches her classes.
"Each class is an hour long and we start with a warm-up of basic moves," Russell said. "Then for the cool down we work with soft music."
In between, the heart of the workout is what will keep you coming back w more. Each Latin dance - cumbia, regaetone and salsa, just to name a few - gets your body pumping in different, unique ways while still giving you a sweat-infused workout. Cumbia focuses mainly on one side of your hips, and regaetone is a high-intensity cardio workout, while salsa dancing works your stamina and leg strength. The rhythm for each routine changes from slow to fast depending on the song and dance.
Although it's your hips that are getting the constant workout, Zumba ultimately focuses on the core muscles, especially the abdomen as well as the arms and legs. At the same time, each muscle group is being used with each routine, while giving you a looser, more relaxed kind of training.
Participants are always being challenged due to the multitude of movements. A Latin dance instructor took Russell's class to help build his endurance before a dance competition.
"You don't need a partner while doing Zumba because its focused for fitness," Russell says. "You are in a fitness format, but still feel like you are dancing. People who don't know how to dance, but are somewhat familiar with a high-low aerobic class will do just fine."
Zumba got started by Columbian aerobics instructor Alberto Perez. He forgot to bring his regular music to his aerobics class one day so he ran out to his car, grabbed all of his favorite music and improvised.
The rest is history and a new fitness craze. It first hit big in Florida's South Beach, where Russell got the opportunity to take two training courses with the legendary Perez.
The Columbian slang for Zumba pretty much says it all: "To move fast and have fun."
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Newsday.com
'Tito Puente: The Complete 78s is a complete treat
ED MORALES
E-mail Ed Morales at sonidoslatinos@edmorales.net.
August 10, 2008
Back in the late 1940s, big-band jazz was all the rage in New York, and people danced late into the night to the great orchestras that played the many dancehalls around town.
But at home and on the radio they listened to big, heavy 10-inch pressed wax records that spun around at 78 revolutions per minute, maybe the only thing that moved faster than the dancers themselves. They danced to Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman, and when they wanted a Latin beat, they put on some Tito Puente.
Puente was in his mid-20s then, and between 1949 and 1955, he recorded 156 two-sided 78-rpm records.
This week, Emusica's revived Fania Records will be releasing "Tito Puente: The Complete 78s," the first two-CD volume of these rare recordings, which have the ability to transport you back to another era. Featuring appearances by such legends as Mario Bauz�, Graciela, Mongo Santamar�a, Vicentico Vald�s and Manny Oquendo, the recordings document Puente's early evolution as a bandleader.
Undiscovered gems such as "Mambo Macoco," - the A-side of the more widely available classic "Abaniquito," - were first released by Tico Records, a company that original Fania Records impresario Jerry Masucci bought in the 1970s.
The CDs do reproduce the scratchy "surface noise" of the records since there were no masters available for digital transfer. But the "Glenn Miller sound" of clarinet and sax on the boleros, the electricity of the percussion jams and the cool ethereality of rare Puente vibe solos are all worth the adventure.
Joe Conzo, Puente's confidant since the mid-1960s, produced the entire series, which will feature three more volumes.
"I got [Fania] to see the light, because people are only going to buy so much '70s salsa," he said in an interview. "You gotta do what jazz companies do, which is bring out stuff that's never been heard before."
Conzo, a self-described "frustrated conga player," grew up in Puente's Spanish Harlem, listening to everything from folkloric Puerto Rican music to mambo to Glenn Miller to doo-wop.
"Tito's argument, and mine, was that you can't play salsa," he said. "I mean, what is salsa? It's just a term that makes it easier for people to identify the music."
If you listen to Vald�s, perhaps the most beloved Puente vocalist ever, improvise over the syncopated drive of the orchestra on "Mi Guaguanc� (New Guaguanc�)," you will hear the roots of the salsa music that Masucci and Fania so successfully repackaged 20 or so years later.
"Tito Puente: The Complete 78s" helps you imagine a time when the East Village's Webster Hall was a recording studio, and the stars of Latin music were part of the thread that bound communities together.
"Machito lived on 111th Street and said hello to you like he was everybody's uncle," Conzo said. "If you saw him on the street, or in a club, Tito was just as approachable. There were no entourages then."
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Bad Dancers?
There aren't any BAD Dancers!!
Often times, I listen to people make comments such as, "he has no rhythm .... or she can't follow". Sometimes the comments are even more harmful, "what do they think they're trying to do - that looks simply awful", or "he can't dance at all, he's just bopping - maybe he should take some lessons"!!
Have you ever thought this? Ever voiced this to your friends? What's really important about dancing anyway?
I've attended many social dances and many competitions and must admit there is one dancer that I always enjoy watching on the floor. Have you ever seen the dancers that dance every dance (even if they can't Dance?) but they're always smiling - always having fun. I watch these dancers in fascination, they are actually having a great time.
When I watch people on the dance floor, I often wonder, Why are they dancing - they look like they're in pain? I am truly amazed that anyone would go out for an evening of torment and painstaking work - there is a time and place for everything in life.
Social dancing is people moving together on the dance floor and enjoying themselves. We don't all have to dance the same way. Even if you just get up and sway to the music, that's your way of expressing pleasure in dancing. Did you ever think to yourself, "They're not bad dancers - JUST DIFFERENT".
A dance floor will always have people with different styles and knowledge levels about dancing: which doesn't mean they are good or bad dancers, just people enjoying themselves for an evening. Maybe if you take dancing so seriously that you're losing your ability to laugh at yourself over a mistake it's time to take a lesson or two from a social dancer that doesn't perform ballroom steps but actually moves to music for FUN!
By: Karen Kiefer
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Getting the Most from Your Dance Lessons
Dance students naturally want to get the most they can from their lessons, but often lack a clear understanding of how to do so. In fact, any student's progress depends mostly upon how they approach and use their lessons. Fast, complete and efficient progress will result only from a logical and structured approach to learning.
1: Set a Goal - Quite simply, unless both the instructor and the student have a clear understanding of the skills and abilities that are to be developed, then progress suffers. A frank discussion of goals and the formation of a solid teaching plan are essential.
2: Correct Frame of Mind - The student-teacher relationship is one of both physical and mental participation. Knowledge can only be gained through focused attention and a willingness to learn. Students should take care to apply themselves to the task at hand, and to do their best to perform the new elements according to their instructor's direction.
3: Concentration and Focus - Sometimes students, in a desire to "do everything right", will focus on one facet of dancing while the instructor is attempting to work on another. The experienced instructor will not expect their students to correctly perform all of their old skills while learning something new. The student should direct their attention only to the topic which the instructor has chosen, and the instructor will later amalgamate the new knowledge with the old.
4: Allow the Instructor to Teach - The student is wasting their instructor's skills if they do not allow the instructor to exercise their own judgment and abilities. Many students, who would not dream of telling their doctor what medicine to prescribe or their mechanic how to repair their car, will not hesitate to tell their instructor which part of their dancing most needs attention, and how they should be taught. Instead, the instructor should be given rein to teach as they see fit, so long as they are working to the best of their abilities towards the student's goals. If this path does not yield the desired results, then another instructor should be found.
Remember also that learning to dance is different from learning pure mental skills - sometimes understanding comes only after correct performance, instead of the other way around. The student should always try to allow the instructor to complete a presentation, since quite often full understanding dawns only when the presentation is complete and a "feel" for the action is obtained. If at that point the student does not understand, then they should ask for clarification. Otherwise, they should try to allow the instructor to exercise their professional skills - after all, that is what they were hired to do in the first place.
5: Practice - Practice is probably the most under-rated aspect of a student's learning. Those students who apply themselves to their practice invariably show more consistent progress than those who do not. Students of tennis, skiing, martial arts, music, golf, or most other physical pursuits consider practice an integral part of their learning, but all too often students of social dance do not. The human mind can consciously demand only so much of the body at one time, and is not capable of simultaneously monitoring or directing more than one or two aspects of the body's movement. In order to correctly perform several different dance elements, the body must be able to function independently of concentration - in other words, good dancing skills must be habitual. Habits can only be formed through repetition. This can also be a pitfall, since a repeated action will become habit whether that action is desirable or not! Care must be taken to ensure that CORRECT performance is practiced AT LEAST 50% OF THE TIME, since the body will "remember" those actions which it has performed MOST OFTEN.
6: Regularity - Regularity also has a bearing on progress, since too much time between lessons breaks up the continuity of the learning progress, allows the student to forget too much of any lesson's instruction, and forces the instructor to unnecessarily repeat topics.
7: Variety:
A - Instructors - Just as a single sculpture may be described in different ways by observers with different points of view, so may many dancing elements be described or approached in many different ways, serving to develop a more complete and thorough understanding. However, one instructor should be chosen to be the main guide to a student's progress, serving as a "manager" for that student's overall learning. (Beware of instructors who advise you only to take lessons from themselves!)
B - Lesson Types - Smart students also participate in different types of lessons; private lessons, group classes, practice sessions, coaching lessons and workshops all serve to strengthen, reinforce, and diversify the student's learning.
C - Partners - A variety of partners serves to broaden dancing skills. Dependence upon a single partner can lead to the formation of weaknesses, since when a certain aspect of dancing is not challenged or used, it atrophies. A variety of partners tend to challenge a student's skills in a larger number of situations than most single partners can provide.
By: Dan Pittman
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The Beat
Most dance music is based on 2/4, 3/4, or 4/4 music time. In 2/4 and 3/4 time the first beat of a bar is emphasized and can be clearly heard in the bass = drum, bass or bass guitar. This is the beginning beat of the music and is the beginning step of the dance.
In 4/4 time the most emphasized beat is the first beat and there is then less emphasis on the 3rd beat. Again this can be clearly heard in the bass instruments. As always, the first beat is the beginning step of the dance. In some music the bass instruments will play every beat in the bar. Listen to the music - you can hear and feel the beginning beat of the bar and go from there.
The most important thing to remember is to move to the beat - listen for the bass instruments and they will show you the way. Remember there is nothing worse when dancing than to be "off the beat" - so listen and enjoy!
By: Eldene Heikkila
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July 3 & 4
Santa Fe Rueda Festival @ 1583 Pacheco Street, Santa Fe, NM
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www.realtimesites.com
Go,go,Go Calendar go
"Escuche Salsa Sabrosa como de costumbre en KUNM 89.9 FM todos los Viernes.Every Friday Salsa Sabrosa Show 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM (MT)
www.KUNM.org (live)
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Recuerda Mi Mambo es tu Mambo
E-mail you events to; mimambo@mimambo.com ,
mi.mambo@yahoo.com
Nobody Knows Salsa
Like Mi Mambo in Albuquerque,
New Mexico. Simple.
Salsa Elevation: 5,220 feet And Hot..
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Wellington Guzman
MI MAMBO
EMAIL TO:
Email your comment, information or events to
mimambo@mimambo.com
mi.mambo@yahoo.com
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Salsa Elevation: 5,225 feet
Nobody Knows Salsa Like Mi Mambo.
Last update 7/02/2009
Copyright (c) 2008 Mi Mambo Latin Music Entertainment,
Albuquerque, NM From August 15 2003
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