Dancing for me started when I was so high at home dancing infront of the TV to ‘Young Talent Time’ and singing along to music by ‘Madonna, Psuedo Echo’, not until my late teens did things get a little more serious I was introduced to ballroom dance at Jamm Dance Studio, Templestowe under of the instruction of Mark Wilson also a judge on 2007 ‘Dancing with stars’. I trained in New Vogue, along with Latin with Fabio Isak ‘Dance Connection’.

 

In 2000 I studied at Street Latin at ‘Back to Back’ dance studio with Fabio Robles. At this time Mr Robles has just returned from Cuba and was teaching these arm combinations and I refused to believe people were getting themselves into knots on the dance floor. If you dance Cuban Salsa you’ll get the gist of what I mean. So curiosity got the better of me and in 2001 I took off to Cuba for the first time under the guidance of Cuban Dance Academy, and only in Cuba did everything fall into place and my new life begin.

 

As a group of 11 students we studied dance with teachers from the Cuban National Ballet School . We were partnered up with local Cuban students studying at the school and learnt the ‘fundamentals, of ‘Son’ “Cha Cha Cha’ ‘Rumba’ ‘Salsa’ ‘Rueda or Casino’. In class each step was broken down and explained the folkloric connection, for example a particular step in ‘Pilon’ was danced by the ‘Slaves’ while grinding coffee beans, and the ‘Rumba’ was a mating dance the male the ‘rooster’ and for the woman to tease and protect. Certain songs we hear on the dance floor make reference to Afro Cuban religion so if you have an opportunity to learn more about this and the ‘Yorullas’ it can strike a cord with your own inner spirituality and that is a wow factor!

 

I learnt that the beautiful people in Cuba and many other countries across Latin America look to Latin Music and Dance as a salvation from their daily struggles. For Cubanos sharing a glass of local rum with friends and dancing a romantic ‘salsa’ or a ‘rumba’ recharges their tired spirits, bringing friends together and leaves hope for an easier day ahead.
In 2002, I travelled some to simply Salsa in as many countries as possible. New York City, to experience Salsa and the NY city bars, bands and clubs, Miami, Puerto Rico, the home of Ricky Martin & Jennifer Lopez, Dominican Republic, to dance ‘Bachata’ which has only just arrived into Australia, Cuba once more & Malta, which has its own little ‘Fuego’ club.

 

In 2006, I travelled to Rio De Janiero and took part in dance classes at a local school in ‘Forro’ ‘Zouk’ and ‘Axe’ under the instruction of Kadu.

 

YES I did I dance on the runway at the Carnaval 2006 Rio De Janiero and its as surreal as you can imagine. Crazy as it is was walking the along the canal alongside the Runway past poor people peanut vendor after peanut vendor for 20 minutes, it was like well why can’t you come to the party too it almost felt so wrong to be displaying opportunity while so many people begged. Then the Runway another 30minute waiting your turn behind you float then you were on.

 

Dancing to the Samba Gafiera remembering your routine and to sing because you loose point s for the team if your caught not singing for another 20 minutes under bright spot lights, crowds of happy faces and clicking camera lights everyone singing. Yes at the end it was to walking the street lined vendors again. My next carnival experience will have to been in Salvator de Bahia where locals and tourists all party together and money does not separate communities.

 

I still love the Melbourne Latin dance scene. I have seen it grow and change and come under a lot of scrutiny of it not being the same as overseas and that is because so many races making up the dance community all coming with their own social mix and we have different social standards on how we want things to be, we don’t have hardship enough to allow us to appreciate what we do have, I truelly believe we would feel more united if hardship was there as we concentrate on having a good time rather than a better time and this just opens up into another conversation.