Salsa-Challenge

Move of the Month - March 2010

Jenny — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:55:00 GMT

Check out Sam & Jenny's Move of the Month for March 2010
Try it, Love it, Let us know what you think!
Happy Dancing!

Move of the Month - February, 2010

Jenny — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:32:00 GMT

Check it out! A new Move of the Month for Feb, 2010 from Salsa Challenge!

Let us know what you think and Happy Dancing! Sam & Jenny

Valentines Salsa Dance & Romance Blog by Sam Gill

Jenny — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 18:06:00 GMT

Valentine’s Day is a day to celebrate, cultivate, and indulge our capacity for love and romance. Romance is an interesting word with a range of meanings. It can suggest a brief and intense love affair, intense and exciting physical love, a spirit or feeling of adventure, and an inexplicable fascination or enthusiasm for something. Remember that Romance also designates the Indo-European languages that include French, Italian, and Spanish all descended from Latin. During our salsa dancing during this season of romance, it is appropriate to recall romance, in all its various meanings, so that we will fully celebrate romance in our salsa dancing. A single salsa dance might appropriately be thought of as a brief and intense love affair. We meet and connect with another person to enact, through the movements and connections of salsa dancing, an ideal and passionate affair. It ends when the music stops. As an improvisational social dance every dance must involve a spirit or feeling of adventure. When we start dancing we really don’t know how it is going to turn out, yet we dance to achieve something special and memorable with our partner, the music, the occasion. Every dance ought to be a romance in the sense of an adventure. Most of us who dance salsa eventually are drawn into it by some inexplicable fascination or enthusiasm. We just love to dance salsa and we often can’t even say why. This too is the romance of the dance. And, of course, it is Latin derived and this too is Romance in another sense.

In this month of Valentine’s Day salsa dancing all salsa dancers should approach their dancing with a renewed devotion to the romance of the dance. In every dance we should seek to connect with our partner with such smoothness, subtlety, and presence that the dance creates the feelings of the most romantic love affair. Two people so connected in so many sensual ways as to feel united, to feel as one. (See our many blogs on the Salsa Connection Blogs, how to know you have it and how to develop it). All salsa dancers should focus on every dance being an adventure of improvisation and creativity. Attempt to break the patterns that so often form in our dancing that make everything all too predictable. Be present to the adventure of the dance, yet do so always keeping foremost the partner salsa connection.

Oh, one last suggestion. Make the month of Valentine’s Day a month of dancing where you complement something about every partner in every dance that you do. A smile, a turn, an element of style, a connection, a bit of sass, anything really is fine. A complement spreads the romance of the dance and will likely pay off by increasing your own feelings of romance about salsa dancing.

By Sam Gill Feb 2010

Check out the Valentines Day Move of the Month from 2009

Tip of the Month - October 2009

Jenny — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 18:05:00 GMT

Our Move of the Month (October 2009) is an adaptation of a rueda de casino move to partner salsa dancing. A great way to increase your repertoire of partner salsa moves is to learn rueda moves and then understand how to adapt them. And you can also enjoy dancing rueda when you get a chance.

Tip of the Month - August

Jenny — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:35:00 GMT

Research has shown that self-actuated movement is important for brain acuity. The improvisational and movement aspects of salsa dancing are good for your brain as well as your body. If you dance with your partner with a nice connection (see our many blogs and podcasts on the Salsa Connection), it is also great for your social and personal life. The ambidextrous movement of our new “Encore Dancing”™ provides further benefits. And salsa dancing is fun fun fun! By Sam Gill

Move of the Month - October, 2009

Jenny — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:18:00 GMT

We are BACK!

After a busy summer.... we are back in action and bringing you the Move of the Month, Tip of the Month and much more related to salsa dancing! Enjoy!

Tip of the Month - June

Jenny — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 21:31:00 GMT

Performance, Competition, and the Salsa Connection.

Recently I’ve seen several salsa competitions and performances and I’ve been in a few performances as well. One thing that I have been closely watching is the connectedness of dancers when they are doing planned or choreographed salsa dancing. I notice that even quite a few advanced dancers give up most of their connection when performing to simply do parallel movements. I think that the audience feels the results of this, sensing that the dancers are not connected or don’t have that desired partner chemistry. Those dancers that I love to watch are those who clearly have all that yummy connection stuff going. One doesn’t get the salsa connection quickly or easily; it requires high repetition with careful observation and attentiveness. Those who develop it will likely keep it when they do performances and competition. And dancers and their audiences will really feel the difference.

Sam Gill

Tip of the Month - May

Jenny — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:43:00 GMT

The Salsa-Challenge approach to learning salsa is based on our discovery that all salsa moves are comprised of just ten basic elements. To learn these ten elements, and the many basic variations for each, with solid technique, which is also excellent style, is key to establishing a strong foundation in salsa dancing.

The Salsa Connection, the art of partnering. Is the other fundamental to the Salsa-Challenge approach. Learning the many factors involved in creating the Salsa Connection and building the embodied skills required to connect with your partner is essential to smooth sensuous beautiful salsa dancing.

The Salsa-Challenge approach gives equal attention to leads and follows. It is useful for advanced dancers as well as dancers new to salsa. The Salsa-Challenge method helps leads remember moves and combinations with ease. Salsa-Challenge is a great tool for advanced dancers to “steal” moves they see on the dance floor.

By Sam Gill

Dan Pailas Winner of the Jack & Jill Contest in the Colorado Salsa Open

Jenny — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:25:00 GMT

Congratulations Dan Pailas for winning the "Jack and Jill" competition during the Colorado Salsa Open in Denver!

Dan has been a Salsa Challenge student with Sam Gill for quite a while now, he has worked hard and grown a ton as a dancer!
You make us proud Dan, fabulous dancing - great job!!!

Here is what Dan has to say about Salsa Challenge dance classes:

"Sam and Jenny, you both are great instructors! Your classes are packed with useful moves, styling, footwork and technique information and you both are always good natured and encouraging. Having taken your "Salsa Challenge" class every Monday night, back to back sessions, for over 1 year I went from utter beginner to where I'm today. I frequently recommend to other dancers of any level to study with you both! Many thanks."

SalsaTALK Podcast #11 Ten Basic Salsa Dance Elements

Jenny — Wed, 27 May 2009 15:33:00 GMT

Episode #11 features Sam Gill in the Salsa Spotlight! Hear about how Sam has broken almost all of salsa dancing down to 10 basic elements! Learn these elements and use them to learn salsa and to break down more complicated moves!

Learn more about Sam at his website www.Sam-Gill.com

Click on the Play button above to hear SalsaTALK Podcast #11!