Its been two days since Ivo and Shani left and I'm still feeling the love from a long weekend of dancing, making new friends and spending time with familiar faces. Now, if only my feet would fall in line and stop aching!
It never ceases to amaze or surprise me how much warmth and welcome kizomba brings. I get to work with wonderful instructors who care about their craft, love what they do and share their passion so generously with the workshops attendees. On the flip side, the folks that come; new and old, are just as eager to dance, learn and share. One of the best things about weekends like this are all the new friends I make and learning about the things that tie us all together.
We just got done with three nights of dancing and two days of workshops. FANTASTIC! Ivo and Shani had such great energy together when they taught, it was so much fun to be in class and spend time getting to know them. What a wonderful way to start the year. We danced in three different venues: Century Ballroom, Limelight and the Salsa Con Todo studio and shared many laughs and dances in the process:
"Boom ba da boom"
"Don't do this all night... only three times"
"pop!"
I'm in awe: this time last year, we were just getting started with our once a month dance on the first Friday of the month at Century Ballroom, Jay and I were teaching our fourth Kizomba class series at the Century Ballroom and kizomba was frequently mixed up with zumba (oh, you know who you are...). Now, there are at least three different venues playing kizomba music on a regular basis, kizomba classes have been taught at the Seattle Salsa congress, artists like Joao Rocha, Amafalda Amado, Ocar BA, Eddy Vents, Sara Lopez, Albir Rojas and Kwenda Lima have some to Seattle to share their knowledge and passion for the dance and kizomba class series have been running through the Century Ballroom for over a year. Just last week there was a song requests for kizomba at the Bachata Dance and a kizomba or two have been played at salsa dances. We've come a long way from our small beginnings and I'm looking forward to what lies ahead.
There are thanks a plenty to go around and I've made them many times. This time I'd like to share what I've had the pleasure to hear every time artists/instructors have come to visit Seattle. Every one of them has expressed how much they love our community here: how welcoming it is, how open and eager people are to learn and how much like a family it feels like. Our family includes the people from Vancouver B.C., Victoria and now Portland (OR) who have fallen in love with this dance and music and have been coming to Seattle to be a part of our kizomba family.
To each and everyone I say: Thank you.
I love dance - in all forms. For me, kizomba represents partner dancing at its purest and I wanted to share it with as many people as possible so I could dance as often as possible. Bringing instructors and artists here to Seattle to share their knowledge and experience was a means to an end: I just wanted to dance and have more people to dance with. I had no idea what to expect and didn't know what kind of community would rise up around kizomba. What a beautiful thing to have all our visiting instructors feel so welcomed when they come. They have all had a great time with us and many of them are returning to be with us again.
Here's to you guys for being you :D
NEXT UP:
Feb 8-10
Kenny Davis N'tolla Weekend
Sometime in the end of Feb we may be welcoming back someone who was with us last year.
Mar 22 - 24
Seattle Kizomba Semba Camp
Sometime in the spring we'll be doing a Kizomba Flash Mob!!!
Apr 20-21
Iris DeBrito Weekend
Apr 27-28 (Tentative)
Cyméone Mopao Kizomba Compte-Plein
May 6-9 (Tentative) Another returning artist
I'm not really sure how thins got so busy but its all good, HUGS and see you out on the dance floor.
