October ... Fall into Kizomba

Its time for the changing seasons from summer's warm, sunny days to cool, crisp one's of the fall. The leaves are already starting to change and we're still experiencing a few Indian summers.

I had the pleasure of teaching kizomba at the Seattle Fusion Festival. It was great fun to show this dance to a different dance community and even hear some immediate feedback about how the groundedness of kizomba's walk can help to improve anyone's dance. If you're even remotely curious about what Fusion is - check out the Seattle Fusion Experiment and the dances they have at Om Culture Studio every Sunday evening. 

In the meantime - here's what's up in Seattle for the short term:

• Monday Practica's continue: make sure to check facebook and the event page for the latest information.
• Monday night at Cellar's with DJ Nick playing Salsa, Bachata, Kizomba
• Kizomba 2 series just concluded last week and we'll be starting a Kizomba Fundamentals Series on October 23 (Wednesday nights from 7:00pm - 8:00pm)
• Kizomba Body Movement (Individual exercises and partner work) will be taught on Thursday October 17, 2013 from 7pm to 8pm at the Century Ballroom. 

I'm excited to be going to Nicaragua in 4 days with a few of our crew to share Kizomba at their salsa congress (who-hoo!). There are also a few folks headed to the Tri-Cities this weekend as well as to San Francisco for their festival at the end of October.

November brings some exciting events as well:

• First Friday Kizomba Dance at the Century Ballroom to start the month. We have over 60 people attend last month, let's see if we can keep things going through the year into the next!
• Kizomba Seattle Exchange November 15-17, 2013: the first ever (and hopefully annual or more) event of this kind. Please spread the word and join in our effort to raise funds for the event through kickstarter.
• We will have a stronger presence at the Seattle Salsa Congress this year with a Bachata Kizomba room that will be playing bachata and kizomba all night long. 

I hope I haven't missed anything - if I have please let me know and I'll make the corrections.
In the meantime - HUGS! and happy dancing. 

Congratulations and Upcoming Events

Our Kizomba Community is still growing and one of the best things about that is the fact that because our numbers are smaller, we can get to know each other better.

I wanted to take a few minutes to celebrate the birth of Dennis' and Oriel's lovely little girl Suletu. She's a few days early and loved and welcomed all the same. Congrats!!

I'm excited to meet her in person - she's really going to be a spoiled kid in our community.


UPCOMING HAPPENINGS:
We just turned the corner on a new month and another well attended Kizomba Social on Friday Sept. 6,. 2013. What's next?

Monday Night Practice is building up its own momentum (hooray!) If you're interested in practicing with a small group, make sure that you check out the facebook event on the Kizomba Seattle facebook page.

Cellar's on Monday nights plays a mix of salsa, bachata and kizomba.

Kizomba 2 Class Series is starting at the Century Ballroom Thursdays 9/12/13 to 10/10/13. Check it out and register through www.centuryballroom.com. This series is on Thursdays 8:30 - 9:30 in West Hall at the Century Ballroom.

Kizomba Dance at the Century Ballroom on Sept. 21, 2013: We get another all night kizomba dance this month! For those of you that love to salsa too, this is the same weekend as the All Vinyl Salsa Night and its going to be a blast!! Our very own Isaias Chammoro will be providing the music and he'll be putting in a little bit of bachata to the mix.

Kizomba is also being taught at Salsa Con Todo Studios - please check out their website for more information. They also have a Friday Night social that plays kizomba in the mix with other music.

Jay Senior and Frances Tee will be teaching Kizomba at the Seattle Fusion Festival coming up from October 5 - 6, 2013. We're so excited. And on top of that, we'll be heading off to Nicaragua to teach kizomba at the Nicaragua Salsa Festival thanks to Isaias Chammoro for extending the invitation and giving us a chance to help spread the kizomba love outside the US.

SAVE THE DATE: The big event is our first ever Kizomba Seattle Exchange with 3 days of dancing. Oscar BA and DJ Guelas will be joining us along with other local DJ's at several local venues, Check out the page for the latest news. Registration will be up on the site by September.

Lots to look forward to ...
HUGS and Happy dancing as always !

Dance Musings: Listening and Following

I didn't want the blog to be just about events and activities so I'm starting to share some kizomba dance related musings based on what I've learned, what I've been asked, what people talk about, basically anything dance related.

FOLLOWING:
I'm often asked to teach follows how to be great follows and to define the skills that are needed in order to participate in this dance and contribute to its buttery, smooth silkiness.

There is no one set formula that I can give.

I believe that to dance well, independent of the role we take as a lead or follow,  we must each discover two key things. The first is how we move: what our own abilities are to make our body move and  how we express what we feel through movements. The second is how we listen and respond to music. For follows, this is tied to how well we listen and respond to the leads we dance with. For leads, the equivalent would be how to communicate movement to follows and then how to listen to their response and use it in the dance.

It is also important to embrace our individuality and how we are all different. I love this aspect of social dancing: that we each can express our individuality as part of a partnership. Whether you dance alone to music or with another dance partner, the possibilities and outcomes of a dance can be limitless. When you start to own your own dancing and expression, what you bring to every dance is a unique opportunity for a wonderful connection. The reason I love kizomba so much is that the barrier to experiencing that sweet spot in connection is relatively easy to overcome as a new dancer, as long as you're not afraid of getting close to someone.

So while I can give you things you can work on and suggest ways to improve your skills and listening as a follow, the bottom line is that you need to take responsibility for your own movements, then embrace your individuality and celebrate the partnership while you're dancing withe someone.

For those of you that like check lists, here goes:

• How do I move? Get to know your body and how it moves. What does it mean to stay balanced? Improve and get to know you range of motion: should, hips, chest, arms, legs, etc. What does it take to move with control and balance? Can I isolate my movements? Can I make them sharp, soft, etc.? Can I stop? What's my best pose? These are just a few questions to answer. 
• How do I Listen? Partner dancing as a follow involves understanding how to communicate with your lead in the context of the dance. What is my lead telling me withe movements I feel? What am I paying attention to? How do I use physical touch and what I feel when my partner moves to understand what I need to do: when to step and where? 
• How do I Translate? How do I take what my lead is telling me and translate that to movement? How can I tell him what I've heard?
• How do I Respond? I've heard what my lead has said and translated the movements, now how can I tell my lead that I've heard what he has to say and finish the movement with my own voice.

I'll elaborate on each point in future posts - else this post might become a little novelette.

When all is said and done, I recommend that you relax, breathe, enter every dance as an new opportunity to connect and then let go of the outcome. Assuming you know and are learning the basic language of the dance, then trust yourself and your partner and when you give in to the dance and listen and respond, the results will be beautiful (independent of being perfect). If not, the dance is only a few minutes long, there will always be another dance to make things better.

... and even if you don't know the basic language of the dance, if you want to enjoy your dance and are open to listening and responding that makes all the difference.