SEATTLE SALSA CONGRESS

Yes, there is such thing as a SALSA CONGRESS!!!

There are salsa congresses all over the world, the next big one is in Acapulco. This year the Vancouver congress was cancelled, apparently the whole thing is a big mafia...surprise surprise, so they had it in Seattle, and my friend Irena and I went. Of course we had to go, we are addicts, you see??

It started on Thursday but we didn't go until Friday after work. We arrived to Seattle around 9:30, checked in, had showers and headed to watch the shows. During the four days there were performances from teams from NY, Puerto Rico, Mexico, several places in California, Vancouver and Washington. Some of the shows were simply outstanding and some were poor, but still I can appreciate the effort and the guts to stand there in front of an audience to dance. Some of the customs were soooooo pretty and sexy, and some well....let's say that there were some boobs coming out to say hellloooooo! HAHAHA, poor girls, but they should wear a bra or body tape.

We danced until 4 in the morning. I danced with several new guys, and well, struggled a bit but was able to follow most of the time, some of these guys were amazing leads and tons of fun. Saturday, at the perfomrances, I saw about 4 of them, performing!!! I'm so glad I danced with them before I knew that they were actual professionals, otherwise I would have been to self-conscious. I'm also glad that I didn't "correct" them....LOL, better to smile and look pretty.

It is so much fun to dance with the super advanced guys. That's the best way to improve, learn and loosen up. Unfortunately in Vancouver I don't dance w/those guys very often, they never ask...I guess I'm not good enough.... arggh, that is so sucky, but well, that's what it is. In a way I understand, it's more fun to dance w/people at your level or better, but at the end of the day nobody gets good unless you do it, right?? so I guess those stuck up advanced dancers that only dance w/advanced girls have forgotten that at some point they also sucked!!

Saturday we took workshops all day, about 6 hours of dancing, then we rested and danced again until 4 am. On Sunday, we went shopping and then danced until 2 am.

There were a lot of people from Vancouver, so I got to dance with some of my friends as well. Met a few people and mostly got inspired by some incredibly talented dancers. One couple in particular were simply amazing. I'll see if I can find some video clip of them and post it. Mexican guy, israely girl from California.

The workshops were tough, taught by dancers from NY, puerto rico, cuba, and california. Most of the classes were On2 (I have learnt salsa On1 - that is the count, on one the emphasis is on 1/3/5/7, on 2 on the even numbers, On2 is usually for Mambo). So learning routines on2 is confusing like hell, because all the steps are mirrored. So it was very challenging and also frustrating, but it's good to try new things.

We had some excellent styling classes. I want to focus more on that. I still suck, but I'm much better than a year ago for sure. I need dance shoes! nothing fits thought, my "tamal" feet are really problematic, though I am glad I have them, hihihi.

It was a very fun weekend, tiring, my feet are definite hamburgers, I'm in desperate need of a good foot massage.

I will start planning to look to the Italian Salsa Congress, rumor says that it is one of the best in the world....and well.....dancing salsa and bachata with the hot italian guys....mmhhh, I guess that alone will make it the best!