Teaching Dance - What's in a name?

I have struggled for a while to find a name last year, when trying to come up with a name for my Latin dance/music business. It isn't as easy as one may think. The one I liked most was "Joy in Motion" as that is what I believe. That in moving to music one finds joy in motion. Unfortunately, already taken and nothing to indicate latin dance. Then I thought of "Joy of Motion", and this one was taken by someone in the local area. So, I finally decided on "Alegria Dance" Alegria, the Spanish for Joyful, and dance. My motto, "Putting the Rhythm into Your Motion" or "Experience the Joy of Salsa".

Brightest moon tonight!

Brightest moon tonight,
Highlighting the white frosting on the road with its light.
Growling engine,
Whiff of skunk,
then nothing but wicb rap occupying the night.

The Binghamton rueda gang practica!

Noventa, Setenta,
Dame Tulsa, Juana Cubana...
Big Circle, Big Smiles,
Lots of Laughs and...
Always Great to be part of the Fun!

Earlier today...

Pitter patter of raindrops
Outside gray and wet
Glow of the bedside lamp
...Blanket cover cozy
Freezing feet floor?!?!

Heat turned off! Darn it - Forgot to turn it back on after the 70+ degree weather we had. :( Cold, cold go away, make the weather warm up permanently right away.

Rueda combinations that work

One can call a lot of moves in rueda but there are certain combinations that work well. When talking of working well I mean in terms of the feeling that people get when doing the sequence of moves. They fit together. This only comes through trial or error, or from getting these from someone else. Blending moves is one way this can be achieved (see my post on January 9 on keeping the flow in casino) , or calling a complicated combination such as bebe. However, this does not need to be the case as a good caller can use simple moves sequenced together in the right combination can achieve the same effect.

Combos that work well when called:
1. adios - dame arriba, another almost as good variation is enchufe arriba-dame
2. hecho/hecho des hecho /dedo /evelyn - puente or por atras/paseala - vacilala/vacilala dame una/ siete con coca cola / siete moderno
3. treinti treis - ocho - para adelante, from guapea one can call cero and then start combo after that
4.cadaneta - cubanito (is a blended combo)
5.enchufe y no llegas - abajo - exhibela - dile que no/dame

Choosing a song to demo casino rueda

So what goes into a song choice:

1. Does it appeal to dancers/choreographer/audience?

2. What are the dynamics of song like and what are we looking for?
- tempo variations and average tempo?
- rhythms played - salsa/reggaeton/merengue/son montuno, guajira, charanga, timba....
- breaks in the song, what is the intro like, the ending
- are there natural places in the song where we can change orientation and/or types of moves being done
- does the song match the level of the dancers - eg Agua by the group Los Van Van is a high energy fast paced song without much variation in tempo. It requires people who can match that energy, and not everyone can do so.

3. Are the lyrics relevant?

I spent a lot of time on this recently and finally tonight our group - Ithakeros - danced to several song suggestions and chose Los Compeones de la Salsa by Willy Chirino.

Dance is trust. Without trust there is no dance.