Congratulations!!!

Yes, we do choreographies as long as an instructor is available.

As of this blog post we are focusing on Salsa and Bachata wedding choreographies.

If an instructor is not available, for whatever reason. Here’s some general advice about doing wedding choreos.

1.If you are a complete beginner, that means you don’t have much, maybe even zero experience in Latin dancing like Salsa and Bachata. I’d say don’t do a choreography more than a minute, minute and a half tops. In Salsa for example, average 1 full basic (8 counts) takes 2.5 seconds. So you can imagine if you just do one minute, that’s 60 seconds, that’s a lot of things to memorize. Keep it short if you don’t have much experience. If you do have the experience, then bring it up to two minutes, two minutes and 15 seconds. I wouldn’t encourage you to go over two and a half minutes. One is it’s just a lot of memorizing and you forget one thing and it could mess up the whole choreo. And two, you don’t want your guests just to sit around, watch you dance forever. You want them to get on the dance floor at some point and join you.

With all the planning you have to do just to get everybody into this one room, the flowers, the cake, the food, everything, all of that, you don’t want to overcomplicate things.

2. The second thing is, keep the choreo simple, but have a few tricks. Whether you’re working with one of our instructors or working with someone else, you want to have a few WOW moments. So if a song is a minute, have a wow moment at the beginning based on how you open up, how you make it look amazing. You have something in the middle that’s going to make people get up… You can have something in the middle that people will clap for. And then you have something at the end that people will just stand up and cheer. You want to have a few wow moments, but you don’t need everything to be wow. You want to have some basic stuff in it. Just the transitions.

3. One of the most important thing is to pick a song that you are passionate about and that you love. It’s way more fun for you and it’ll make it fun for the instructor to build something that expresses you, which makes you happy. Of course, the instructor can make suggestions for Salsa or Bachata on what song you should do or can do it to. But definitely, if you find something that you love, that lights you up. When you’re out that day, when you’re getting married, people will feel the brightness because that song really reflects who you and your partner are.

So, how do you get in touch with us? If you want to see if one of our instructors is available, please just email us at info@torontodancesalsa.ca. You’re going to connect with one of our instructors and we’re going to see if we’re available to be able to help you to make it a special night.

BUT always remember, whether or not you even do a wedding choreography, the most special thing is you’ve found someone that you want to spend the rest of your life with and that’s a beautiful thing.

If there is a question, dancing or school-related, you want me to answer, please leave it in the comments below. And if you want to take classes with us, click REGISTER NOW

Welcome to the family.

The post My wedding is coming up, do you do wedding choreography? appeared first on Toronto Dance Salsa.

We offer Salsa and Bachata for private classes. Those range from beginner lessons all the way to advanced, so we definitely can fit your needs.

The real question is do you actually need private lessons or could group lessons a better fit? If your schedule is really crazy, let’s say you do shift work and group classes just can’t fit regularly into your schedule once a week, private lessons are the best way to go. You hire one of our instructors to build the privates into your schedule.

Private lessons are also great if you want that one on one attention. Let’s say you’re traveling somewhere, and you need to learn quickly, then definitely private lessons are a great way to go. Let’s say you have a wedding coming up, or a special event and you want to hire one of the instructors for that event for them to come out or maybe for you to come to the studio. Again, a private class is a better fit for you.

What I’d say you’ll miss out though with group lessons is the energy, the fun, the team environment, the friendships you make. Group classes are great! You still learn a lot of great movements while having fun, while being loud, while coming in and just laughing and bonding.

For beginner students, I especially tend to push them into group lessons instead of private lessons. Private lessons can be sometimes very intense because all the instructor’s attention is on them. Private lessons are good if your schedule is complicated. Private lessons are good if you want to hire an instructor for a special event. Those are some of the reasons why you’d want to do a private lesson.

Group lessons are amazing to bond with people, to laugh and still learning all the dance skills you’re looking for.

You have to figure out what’s right for you, and I hope my suggestions will offer you sort of a guide for doing private lessons versus group. Also, private lessons are just more expensive. If you have the money and you’re looking for one on one attention, definitely do a private lesson. If you’re looking to have fun and you’re looking to maybe scale it in terms of cost, then definitely do group lessons.

I’m telling you right now, honestly pick group lessons, they’re so much more fun, so much more energy, and you still learn all the cool moves you would learn in a private lesson.

If there is a question, dancing or school-related, you want me to answer, please leave it in the comments below. And if you want to take classes with us, click REGISTER NOW

Welcome to the family.

The post I’m looking for a private class, do you offer it? appeared first on Toronto Dance Salsa.

While you may think that you’re too new to dancing to experience this amazing, once-a-year event; think again as there are a ton of experiences for you! So to make it easy for you, I’ve decided to list a few events for you to go check out (if you see me, say hello or ask for a dance!)

Thursday Oct 6th: The Annual Canadian Salsa Dance Championships
If you love to see amazing dancers compete (ala SYTYCD or Dancing with the Stars) you gotta check out this show! You’ll see the best of the best Canadian dancers burn the floor in some of the most compelling dancing you’ve ever seen. Trust me, it’s really fun. Oh, and there’s dancing after!

Friday Oct 7th
Check out Friday night for a great night of performances and great social dancing that goes really, really late!

Sat Oct 8th Beginner Bootcamp, Workshops, Performances and Dancing!
Feel like you need a few more lessons before going dancing? Take the extremely popular Beginner Bootcamp! From 10:30am – 5pm you can go from not knowing how to dance to impressing that cute salsera from your level 1 class!

Know a little bit of salsa and want to expand your knowledge? There are a ton of great workshops for the beginner/intermediate from Rhythm and Body Movement, The Anti-Styling, Styling Workshop and even beginner Bachata, Zouk and Latin Hustle classes.

Now if you don’t want to hit up any workshops, you HAVE TO, HAVE TO go to the Saturday night performances. Why? You are guaranteed to see some of the best dancing that you’ve ever seen. I’ve been each year since I’ve started and this is the night of all nights to go! Afterwards, stick around for some serious dancing to Ray de la Paz from New York City with guests Luisito Orbegoso & Moda Eterna! An amazing band that you just have to check out live.

Sunday Oct 9th
Sunday features more great workshops and then more performances, from seeing many local student teams, more competition and then dancing till dawn!

Trust me, if you can slip away from Thanksgiving celebrations, you’ll want to spend your weekend checking out the Congress! It’s an amazing experience and a great way to amp up your dancing (and maybe even get a new pair of shoes!)

For more information, check out the official site: http://www.canadasalsacongress.com

Till Then,
Stay Shining Salseros!

The post Congress 2011 is Almost in Session! appeared first on Toronto Dance Salsa.

I remember how I felt about my first time, but seriously, once you try it, you’ll love it and never want to go back! Performing can seem so scary, but there are so many pros that you should really just sign up…

Performing will make you a better dancer
I will guarantee that being on a team will help so many aspects to your dancing. Unlock your inner salsa diva by working on your styling, body movement and having some sexy salsa spicy attitude. I remember my first performance team partner, who could barely do a coca-cola when we began, went on to win the TDS competition only a few months later.

Performing is really, really fun
While being in front of a crowd dancing can seem really, really scary… it’s actually not that bad when you have a solid team dancing with you. Not only that, your dance partners are just awesome as they’re going through the same thing that you are. I can only say great things about my two performance teams as both groups just made it all super fun.

Nothing beats having a salsa wing-girl
Quick, name three other girls from your salsa classes… what? you can’t? Oh yeah, it’s because ladies usually don’t meet the other girls from their classes. What’s so great about dancing with another girl is that a) you will make a really awesome new salsa lady-friend as well as b) become a way better follower because you need to dance with your lead and sync up with another girl!

One of the most common comments I hear from lady-helpers is that they really enjoy getting to know the other girls. Not only will you be a sassy lady social butterfly, but you’ll have the best lady entourage group in all of Acrobat!

Hair Done, Nails Done, Everything Big!
Another great aspect to performing is justifying getting all dolled up to perform! You can totally justify getting that new dress, getting your hair did and put on some body glitter guilt-free! Trust me, the Salsa guys will be lining up to dance with you once they see you all done up.

Threesomes are just awesome
No, seriously… it’s going to be pure shenanigans and a performance that people will be talking about for a long time! From taking your dancing to the next level, to bonding with great people and getting all dressed up; the salsa performance team is just for you! There are only a handful of spots for the ladies left, so take a deep breathe, you know you can do it… and you won’t feel guilty for doing it!!!

Till then,
Stay Shining Salseras!

The post Sexy Salsa Ladies Needed for a Threesome! appeared first on Toronto Dance Salsa.

From beautiful costumes to amazing performances, I was really proud to say that some of the more memorable showcases were home-grown! From United Salseros’ amazing Studio 54 routine to an excellent shines routine from ifreestyle; it was really inspiring to know that Toronto has amazing talent who can shine with the internationals!

With the performances complete, it was time to fulfill my ‘salsa ambassador’ duties! Sporting glow sticks, a group of volunteers from various schools went out and danced with anyone who asked or looked like they were a bit shy to ask. The dance floor filled up quickly, and with it came many amazing dances and an all-in-all great time!

An eye-opening night, filled with great music and the chance to dance with many fun dancers; Friday night kicked the weekend into high gear!

The post Congress Report: Night 2 appeared first on Toronto Dance Salsa.

The post Helper Only Performance Choreography appeared first on Toronto Dance Salsa.