The last couple of weeks I have had my first classes with about 400 students. They have been amazing - great natured, ready for a good time and focused on learning.

Many students want to get some extra practice so here are so places to go salsa dancing:

1) Toronto Dance Salsa Practice Session - every Monday beginning October 29th there will be an hour practice session at the Adelaide Club (Bay & Adelaide) where an instructor and several helpers will be around to dance, ask questions, catch up on a missed class, etc. Only $4 for the hour!

2) Toronto Dance Salsa Outings - every two weeks on different weekend evenings we take all our students out to local salsa clubs. We have a workshop for an hour where we teach you cool new turnpatterns and then everyone social dances. What is great is that the crowd is all students so you feel comfortable and not intimidated. Our first outing is this Sunday, Sept 30th at 7pm at Montana Lounge.

3) Toronto Salsa Practice Session - this is not a Toronto Dance Salsa event but we highly recommend it. On Saturdays at Trinity Church downtown there is a big practice session - it is cheap and fun and purely for practice and enjoyment: torontosalsapractice.com

4) At any of our great salsa clubs - my favourite club is Babaluus in Yorkville but don't go on Friday or Saturday as it is too packed. Sunday, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are a better option. Check out the list of clubs available by clicking here.

5) At home! You can grab one of our level 1 DVDs and practice at home on your own or with a friend.


Hope this helps...get out and dance!

Here is the 4th installment of Evan's series on preparing for private lessons...thanks Evan!

Preparing For Your Private Lesson

By: Evan Carmichael

In order to get the most from your private lesson it is important to prepare in advance what you are need help with.

Most students take a private lesson for one of two reasons – either to catch up on a lesson that they missed or clean up and work on a particular part of their dancing.

In either case, before coming to your instructor you should analyze your dancing and think about the areas you want to improve in. Here are some of the factors you might want to consider:

• Was there a move in class that you had a particularly hard time learning?
• Would you like to improve your styling skills?
• Do you need help with leading / following the different moves?
• Would you like to learn a new, more advanced turn pattern?
• Can you pick up the beats in the music and dance on time?

You should go in to your private lesson with at least one thing that you would like to improve on. You can also have your instructor dance with you at the beginning of the lesson and ask for his / her opinion about what you need to improve on. Getting this objective advice from an expert will only serve to make you a better dancer.

The more you prepare for your lesson the more likely you will get the specific help you need to take your dancing to the next level!

Good luck!

A lot of people ask me about the relevance of cardio salsa classes when being assessed for higher salsa levels or just in general as a way of learning salsa. Here is my opinion on Cardio Salsa classes.

I think cardio salsa classes are great. They are a great, fun workout that incorporate great merengue, salsa, cha cha and other latin rhythms. It introduces students to fast footwork, step choreography, musicality and body movement. For those looking to get healthy, lose weight, have fun, and dance it is a great step to take.

The thing that these classes don't teach is how to dance with a partner and that is the essence of salsa dancing. Leading and following turnpatterns is the key to dancing salsa. So what you get in a cardio class is a good workout and fun steps but it really doesn't have much to do with the partnerwork, turnpatterns and feel of the dance.

So if you have taken cardio classes like Zumba, it will help you learn footwork better in class but it won't help you skip levels because you have to learn how to lead or follow and that is the difficult part of dancing.

If you take cardio salsa in conjunction with regular salsa classes you will definitely see the benefit though as you can last longer, learn footsteps faster, have a sharper memory due to the choreography and speed of the class. So the moral of the story is everything helps but nothing can replace a good salsa partnerwork class!

Yesterday I discussed some tips that female students can use to become better followers and dancers. Here are a few more.

Back leading is not a good habit to allow yourself to indulge in. Many beginner female students back lead which means they try to control the dance - they assume a move is taking place and will lead themselves in it. Because they don't concentrate on it right from the beginning it becomes a difficult habit to break as they progress and they will find men will not enjoy dancing with them as much.

Remember that it is not your role to lead. Your role is to follow and look great doing it. A great tip to combat back leading is to close your eyes when you feel you are starting the habit. Let your partner tell you when you begin and as soon as you do, close your eyes and allow your partner to guide you. If you are back leading because your partner is not leading you properly, then verbally tell him what you need as opposed to moving his arms for him.

The other thing you could try to do to avoid back leading is to concentrate on your styling - the way you look, your posture, your arm movements, your body movement from knees, to hips, to rib cage to shoulders and your facial expression. Concentrating on your own areas will help avoid back leading.

The last thing to note is that men who learn with a partner who has back led them will end up suffering from this as they will not be able to lead another dancer assertively and quickly enough. So stick to your role, ladies, and after the first month or two you will see a noticeable difference in yourself and your partner!

We have recently written a couple of blog posts that offer gentlemen advice on dancing and someone commented that it would be useful to do the same for women so I thought I would add some tips for women who are learning how to dance.

Leading and following are both equally important roles. However, as a beginner a woman may feel that her role is easier than the leader's role which is true to some extent. Men have to think about themselves, the women, the music, their surroundings, what is happening next, how to execute the move, etc. So women, you have to always be sympathetic to men as they are learning how to dance. However, somewhere around level 3 women begin to fall behind and men begin to stabilize. I think this is because men almost never miss classes and they concentrate on their development. Women can sometimes take classes for granted and tend to miss a lot more classes then men. They don't practice at home as much also and so once the men start to get better around level 3 or 4 they find that they may be falling behind.

Ladies, my suggestion is to take classes and practice seriously right from the beginning because the lead gets so much harder to follow after level 2. So if you have done your homework, go out dancing and go to classes you will be much more successful once you reach the intermediate level. The foundational work is always the most important. If you get it right from the beginning you won't have to go back and undo bad habits like I had to when I learned how to dance without formal training.

Don't be afraid to ask your partners for suggestions on your follow. Men tend to receive more feedback then women and I think if we heard more about our dancing we would be more likely to make positive changes. So once in a while, ask your partner what you can do to improve.

If you can do it on your own, you can do it with a partner. I always say this in class. Can you do a cross body lead with a turn by yourself well? If so you will be able to follow it well even with someone who is not leading it properly. Practice at home on your own - it will assist with balance, rhythm and movement.

Keep tuned in for some more ladies tips in the future!

When I started salsa dancing about 8 years ago salsa competitions were in abundance. That was what you strived for - the idea that one day you would be good enough to compete. Now when I speak of competitions they were not the formal ballroom competitions you may have heard of or seen. Salsa competitions are usually held in clubs around the city and are quite "underground" when compared to ballroom or other types of dance competitions.

However informal the competitions were, there were lots of them. The big one was the Berlin competition but most salsa clubs had some sort of informal competition throughout the year. It really was a great way for amateurs, semi pros and pros to get together, show their stuff and battle it out for great salsa-related prizes. It gave salsa dancers a goal to strive for and beginners something to look forward to seeing and one day participating.

We held a great competition several months ago and I was very proud of the competitors and their improvement and progression. I hope to hold another one same time next year (Feb - May). Not sure if I will keep it the same structure in terms of having only Toronto Dance Salsa students or if I will open it up to all students (your feedback is always appreciated). I encourage other schools/clubs/organizations to renew this great competitive sport and put Toronto on the map for great salsa dancing!

After months of waiting, we are so exciting to launch our new level 1 Salsa for Beginners Instructional DVD. We really created this DVD due to the numrous requests from students who wanted to practice the moves they have learned in class as well as give the gift of salsa to friends and family in hopes of creating new salsa addicts.

So we created a 2 hour double DVD set that goes through everything we cover in level 1 salsa (no merengue and bachata though - that would take another hour!). From body movement exercises to basics to turns and turnpattern combination, the DVD covers it all. We also include drills and exercises after every new move so you can practice along side us as well as on your own to solidify the muscle memory.

The DVD is available for purchase on our website at a discounted rate for our students for $23 taxes included. We can bring it to class for you or you can have it shipped to your home for a nominal fee.

Thanks to Rob, Sara, Mark and Kimberly for their assistance on the DVD as well as Cache who provided us with Canadian salsa music. We hope you enjoy the DVD!

So Sunday was my first day of classes after a not-so-lazy month off. It really was a pleasure to be back teaching and my 3 groups were fantastic! I started off with a 40 person sold out level 1 class. Within no time the were Merengue dancing and having a ball and it was like I hadn't been off for the past few weeks. My second class was a sold out level 2 class and it was such a great surprise to see that they remembered almost all of the moves in level 1 which made the class much easier and it flew by. My last class was level 3 and again I was pleasantly surprised by the students' memory...catching them up was no problem.

Sometimes I do get returning classes that have forgotten all the moves of the prior level, especially after 2 months off in the summer. To combat this, make sure you go out and dance. We have outings every two weeks to practice at in addition to all the great clubs and practice sessions in Toronto.

The other piece of advice is that we send out the syllabus after every semester. Print it out, make notes while you can still remember the moves and even record yourselves executing the moves so that it is not such a shock to come back to class.

More new classes this week - can't wait!

Friday evening we headed to Red Violin for dinner with friends. For anyone looking for a small intimate restaurant where you can hear live Latin music, eat in abundance and dance, this may be the place for you.

Red Violin is located at Danforth & Broadview. They are a Brazilian Steakhouse and offered a upscale buffet full of Brazilian meats. Servers with skewers of beef, chicken, pork and more approach your table and you get to cut the meat right off the skewer...very yummy! You definitely need to bring your appetite but the good news is their live band is Latin (Cuban I believe but don't quote me) and they play several sets throughout the evening so you can dance off all the food you eat. At 10pm there is s small show with a couple of female samba dancers which gets the crowd going.

The band wasn't a salsa band but we did hear salsa-like beats, Cha Cha and Rumba. They had a nice sound to them and they weren't too distracting if you came to have some great conversation like we had.

Prices are definitely on the high side but if you are looking for a fun special evening check out Red Violin!

Well last week a few of the TDS gals headed out for dinner in Yorkville. We were supposed to head to Remy's after for some salsa but we ended up talking for over 4 hours. I thought it was interesting that we didn't really speak of salsa for most of dinner. We so rarely get together outside of the salsa environment that it was natural to catch up on everyone's lives. I almost thought we would get through the whole evening without the mention of the "S" word but soon after dinner it came up and then of course we hung around for 2 hours discussing the always fascinating story.

Men, here are some girls night secrets that we discussed! The first discussion was mentioned by Kimberly in her guest post and focuses on how some men and women get better and better and better and all of a sudden start to get worse as dancers, not because they stop dancing but mainly because they start to care more about their styling and advanced moves then making their partner look good. It is great to take styling and advanced classes but slowly incorporate it into your dance smoothly and make sure it enhances the dance and works with your partner instead of taking away from the partnership.

We traded ideas about the qualities of good dancers and the main ones included being smooth, being fun, challenging us without overdoing it and having a varied dance. Smooth means easy to follow moves, smooth transitions, rhythm and musicality and eveness in resistance. Fun means eye contact, taking the dance lightly, joking about mistakes, really immersing yourself in the dance. Challenging us means moves and patterns that keep us interested and busy without overdoing the turnpatters or shines. Having a varied dance means using all the different aspects of the dance such as turn patterns, shines, styling...slow down, speed up, close dancing, open dancing...playful, serious...keep the dance changing and varying to keep it interesting and unique.

Hopefuly these tips will help...until the next girls night!

Here is the third segment of learning tips during private lessons from Evan...enjoy!

Private Lessons – Part 3: Bring a Camera

Guest writer: Evan Carmichael

When you are doing a private lesson I have said that you typically learn three times as quickly as in a regular class. In other words, in one hour of a private lesson you will know how to do what ordinarily takes you three hours to learn in group classes.

It can be hard to remember all the moves that you go over in a private lesson and if you don't practice you will forget it. It's also easy to forget the exact way a move is done. Because you are expected to practice at home, you don't get as much time with the instructor to practice during the private. Chances are you are going to forget some of the exact footwork and body work and end up practicing the moves incorrectly.

A great way to prevent this is to bring a camera to your private lesson. Ask your instructor if, at the end of the private lesson, you can record the moves that you learned over the hour long session. The best way to do it is to have the instructor call out the move and then proceed to demonstrate it in slow motion as well as in real time. This will give you a good understanding of exactly how the moves should look.

Most instructors will not have a problem if you record the summary session. It will help you absorb the information better and will make you a better dancer. They might ask you to keep it to yourself and not post it on YouTube and other video-sharing websites, which is a reasonable request.

By bringing a camera and recording the moves you have a way to practice the exact motions so you do not make a mistake and you can etch it into your muscle memory. Remember that practice makes perfect but you need to practice the correct way of doing the moves so remember to bring a camera to the next private you go to!

Unless we live under a rock most of us have viewed a You Tube Video. In the last month or so I have thought about the role of You Tube a lot, especially in relation to salsa. And then I read a blog post that made me laugh and think and I thought I would share it with you. Click here to read the article by Salsa Gigolo. Not sure who he is but he is here in Toronto and the posts are amusing and interesting.

What is interesting is the stages of salsa. I was once at the completely addicted, couldn't function without dancing 7 days a week, can't think about anything else but salsa, stage. That stage can't possibly last forever. First of all, I was sick all the time. I couldn't understand why such a young, healthy girl who exercises all the time by dancing 30 hours a week would be sick all the time. I am quite sure I underestimated the value of sleep :) Averaging 3-4hrs per night for the first year of dancing had me struggling with pneumonia, bronchitis, and every imaginable cold. And still I would dance every night!

Now if I had You Tube back then, I may have stayed home a little more surfing the video clips looking for great salsa dancing and instructional clips. I was so hungry for salsa info back then and if there was less than a tenth as much videos, blogs, websites and information online back then as there is now, I would be in salsa online heaven!

I know many of my students are religious You Tube viewers. On the show "The View" last week the young host talked about having You Tube dates with her husband where they sat together on a Friday night and surfed through videos, sharing the best ones with each other.

It is interesting to see this movement recently. I am pleased that my students have so much more info available to them and hopefully we can have even more salsa info online soon!

Here is a great article written by Kimberly Robinson after a girls night out last week. Thanks Kimberly!

Guest Write: Kimberly Robison

Article: What Women Want


Put a bunch of salsa affictionadas at the same table, and you're bound to get an energetic conversation full of opinions. The conversation last night lead to a discussion about leading and following. Our conclusion was the more the leaders learn and advance, the more the followers can't keep up.

Let me back up.

As the salsa bug takes over the leader's heart, he starts taking private lessons, salsa workshops and goes to all the salsa congresses, picking up amazing turn patterns and awesome checks. Of course he can't wait to try them out on the dance floor. Like a skilled orchestra conductor he masterfully waves his hands to lead triple turns, contortionist arm movements and coca-colas that are anything but vanilla. It's all supposed to look beautiful, just like the instructor showed. The leader looks expectantly at the girl, with a twinkle in his eye thinking she should be impressed, but in reality she looks like she's either about to trip over her own feet or pass out from dizziness and exhaustion.

A music composer may be able to write brilliant musical melodies and harmonies on paper, but unless he actually plays an instrument, he can't be certain that the music will be playable. There are only so many fingers on a hand and keys on a piano. Hands can only stretch so far and fingers can only move so fast. There are limits. The same thing goes with dancing. While in theory, these fantastic dance moves should work, they don't necessarily work in a salsa club. Salsa is all about timing. This goes for the music and it goes for the dance as a whole. Though a follower may appreciate a high-intensity dance, there are times when she would like some smoothness and playfulness and variation.

Sometimes both leaders and followers forget that salsa is a partner dance. It's not about showing off what skills YOU have, it's about working together to make both of you shine. The only way to truly understand just what a leader or follower goes through is to swap roles. You may feel like you're starting from scratch as you go back to the basics, but at least you will fully understand and even learn to appreciate the other half of salsa.

Even with greatness, it's always better to eat humble pie than take a turn down arrogance lane. Once you've mastered leading, try to master following and you're guaranteed to not only learn how to lead better, you'll become a well rounded salsero and make the dance enjoyable for all!

Obviously by now if you have read my posts you know I review a lot of salsa blogs. There actually aren't that many out there but there are a few good ones. I came across an interesting topic today. The blog is by GoGo Earl, a Salsa-holic from Washington. DC Earl is the creator of www.stuckonsalsa.com which is DC's up to the minute salsa news network. Click here for his interesting blog post about "The Perfect Dance".

I am not sure if I have considered in the past if I have had a "Perfect Dance" and I agree with DC Earl that there really can't be a perfect dance. I have thought a great deal about who have been my all time favourite dancers and I also have a top list of my favs. I am sure my list will constantly change with every year and every new dancer I meet.

Here are a couple of my favourite male congress dancers that I have had the pleasure of dancing with:

Super Mario: By far one of the most fun dancers on the scene, Super Mario is just plain fun. He doesn't take himself too seriously and every time I dance with him he has amazing fun new turn patterns that keep you on your toes, but at the same time, flow well together. Every congress we laugh at the crazy line up that starts as soon as he walks into the room. He may be underrated as he doesn't quite look like the typical salsa pro but looks can be deceiving. Ladies, ask him to dance at the next congress and you will have a blast!

Milton Cobo: Now I only had the pleasure once to dance with him but I have never seen him turn down a dance and Milton Cobo always looks at you like you are the only dancer in the whole world. He doesn't notice the crowds around him - he just loses himself in the dance. Amazing body movement, very sexy styling...I definitely am wowed by his smoothness and skill.

Have you had a perfect dance? Any favourite dancers on your list? Share!

Here is part two of Evan's tips for private lessons!

Private Lessons – Part 2: Practice Makes Perfect

Guest writer: Evan Carmichael

"They say that for every group class that you take you should practice three hours during the week. You need the time to develop the muscle memory so that by the time you get to the next class your body remembers how to do the lesson from the previous week.

When you take a private lesson you generally learn three times faster than in a group class. The challenge that most people face is that they learn too quickly and they don't practice. Because you are learning so much in a private lesson you need to practice that much more during the week. If you don't practice, you won't improve.

Take a pad of paper and write down what you need to work on. Have you instructor lay out a plan for you on what you should practice and what you need to improve on. You should be able to together create a plan for what you can do for practice sessions between your privates. Then make sure you set a time aside during the day so that you can put on some music and practice your salsa!

Good luck!"

I read an interesting blog post about injuries on the dance floor. Click here for the full story.

The basic gist of the post was that some people get extremely upset about being injured by others on the dance floor, to the point where it is uncomfortable or disruptive. Here is my advice about avoiding injuries and what to do if you do injure or are injured on the dance floor.

Ladies, if you are wearing heals, please try to not put all your weight on the heel when you step. For balance, speed and safety it is much better to step back with your weight on the toe. That way your weight doesn't shift back too much which will avoid you losing balance, following too slowly and, most importantly, grinding your heel into someone's foot. I think this is the most common injury and it rarely comes from men stepping on women. It is always women with crazy painful dance shoes stepping very heavily on your foot...ouch!

Ladies, spot where you are heading towards when being led and take small controlled steps. This will avoid your partner leading you into another couple on the dance floor. When bringing your arms up be very careful of your elbow - it can be a serious weapon.

Gentlemen, consider yourselves the driver of a very expensive car (porshe, ferrari, whatever you like :). You wouldn't drive this car without carefully seeing where you are heading and what is in front of you. You would look over your shoulder when changing lanes and look carefully around you when parking. Dancing is no different! Look carefully to see where you are taking your partner and divert her if someone dances into the space. Be aware of you surroundings and remember that it is better to be safe than sorry.

Even with care, injuries are inevitable. Should you injure someone on the dance floor, please make eye contact with that person and mouth an apology. If it is a serious injury that has made the person stop dancing, stop yourself and ask if they are ok and apologize.

If you were injured by someone, remember that it was not intentional. I have gotten upset many times over very painful injuries and I had to remind myself that it happens and that I have done the same to others.

Hopefully we can all reduce incidents and keep the dance floor a positive haven!

If you are looking for a movie rental, consider Mad Hot Ballroom. Here is a great review for you from Reshma Ramjattan who viewed it this weekend...

"I rented the movie Mad Hot Ballroom this past weekend and it’s definitely something I think all of you should see.

It’s a 2005 documentary about three New York City public schools learning how to ballroom dance. The film focuses mostly on the fifth graders at P.S. 115 in Washington Heights. The school has a 97% poverty rate. The ballroom dance program is free to the students and at the end of the school sessions, the kids get a chance to compete in the American Ballroom Theater Manhattan dance competition. It’s a huge deal to the kids and one even said “I like dance because everyone is nice regardless of what country they are from”.

The film starts eight weeks before the competition and shows the joys and struggles that the kids face as they make their way to the finals. The kids learn how to dance merengue, foxtrot, swing, tango and the rumba and I was amazed at how well they danced and how much drive and passion they had. It was nice to see under-privileged kids get the opportunity to participate in something as wonderful as dance. One kid said that dancing brought relationships and friendships closer. I think that’s true…I myself found that I’ve made some great friends in my class.

In the film, the male instructor was a positive influence on the students and he himself had said that he wanted the kids to see that men could be dancers too and there was nothing wrong with that. I liked that there were many positive messages in the film…hard work pays off, you can do anything you put your mind to and men and women can be good at the same things. But most of all, the film showcased that dance can be a great distraction…dance can make you happy. No matter what bad things are going on in your life, once you hit the dance floor, your worries tend to fade away. One teacher said that dance isn’t just about physical education, it’s about etiquette, other cultures and life. I couldn’t agree more.

I won’t tell you who won the competition in the end…but I will tell you that there were tears and cheers. Some of the kids who won silver in the quarterfinals didn’t make it to the semis and seeing the kids cry made me so sad. But seeing them persevere and believe in themselves made this movie worth watching. I really think you will all benefit from seeing Mad Hot Ballroom."

Written by Reshma Ramjattan