Learn To Salsa Dance

If you’ve already started your salsa lessons and are looking for more ways to find some new Salsa dancing partners, and you already took a look at Meetup, you should consider taking a look at Myspace. There are actually quite a few Salsa enthusiasts just waiting to be your friend, such as the fine people at the FemmeFinesse Dance Co.

If you want to find some groups just do a search in the Groups section for “Salsa dancing“. My search came back with about 95 results, so there are obviously plenty for you to look through. The Learn to Dance Salsa group looked really popular, although that group seemed to cater more to the people of Los Angeles.

Not ready to meet other salsa dancers? Sign up to get free lessons emailed to you so you can work on your salsa skills.

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If you enjoy Salsa dancing only on a casual basis you might not realize this, but you can seriously injure yourself if you don’t buy the proper gear. If you plan on doing a lot of dancing, you should consider purchasing a pair of some real dance shoes.

Professional dance shoes are hand crafted and designed to protect your ankles and legs from injury. They aren’t ugly either, if that’s what you’re thinking. If you do a search for dance shoes on Google, you’ll find plenty of sites that sell dance shoes in a wide range of styles. I actually found a couple of good ones on Amazon. Here are some sexy ladies heels and also some salsa sneakers for guys and girls.

Some new salsa shoes will go great with some free video lessons, don’t you think?

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From the 1930’s to the 1950’s, Cuban music was constantly evolving into new styles of music. At the same time, Puerto Ricans were creating their own styles influenced by African American music and hints of tango and jazz among several others. It was at this point when Mambo became famous across the United States and Latin musicians created a style of music we all know as Salsa music today.

Because Salsa music is a derivative of so many other genre’s combined, there’s no possible way to know who the first Salsa singer was, but there were some true innovators such as Willie Colón and Héctor Lavoe.

BUT!

There are lots of Salsa singers who were the first to accomplish something nobody else has.

Gilberto Santa Rosa
In 1995, Gilberto Santa Rosa became the first Puerto Rican salsa singer to perform at the Carnegie Hall Theater in New York. His opening song was his own rendition of the Lou Briel song, “Represento.” The entire performance was recorded live and then released as an album.

Marc Anthony
New York City native, Marc Anthony released his third album, “Contra La Corriete” in 1997 and that same year, became the first Salsa singer to sell out Madison Square Garden. He was also the first Salsa singer to have an album on the Billboard 200.

Yuri Buenaventura
After recording an album that left Yuri Buenaventura completely broke, he returned to France in 1996. He then talked one of his very close friends into funding another album, titled “Herencia Africana,” which contained an interpretation of the “Ne Me Quitte Pas,” which went hot and put Buenaventura in the books as the first Salsa singer to obtain gold record status in France.

Lalo Rodriguez
Lalo Rodriguez recorded with Eddy Palmieri’s orchestra in 1973. The album, “Sun Of The Latin Music” won a Grammy, making a then 16 year old Rodriguez the first Salsa singer to ever win a Grammy prize.

Ruben Blades
Ruben Blades is considered an icon in Panama, from which he emigrated in 1974 to Manhattan, New York. From here he became known as a talented songwriter who had created a style of singing all his own. He then made a name for himself as the first salsa singer to have written his own music.

Robby Ameen
Robby Ameen grew up in Connecticut and later moved to New York where he began recording with Dave Valentin and Ruben Blades. He joined the band, Seis del Solar, making him the first Salsa drummer, yes I said drummer, to work full-time with a Salsa band. So I guess this is also makes Ruben Blades another “first salsa singer.”

Anita Benner
According to Anita Benner’s bio on the website of the current band she is a member of, Los Bad Apples, she is considered one of Austin’s first Salsa singers. This was when she became the lead singer of a 12-piece salsa band named Moreno Flor.
Don’t Stop – Muevelo!

Nabori
Ok, so Nabori is a Salsa band, but I think they deserve a spot on this page too. They have been named the Best Salsa band of both 2007 and 2008 and the first salsa band to achieve state-wide recognition as the World’s Best Group of 2007.
Son Como Son

DisLOCAdos
I guess you can say that both Karolina Patocki and Lesya Zdorovetskaya of DisLOCAdos are the first Salsa singers of the Ukraine. The 11-piece band that they sing in is considered to be the first of the Genre there.

Angel Carrión

In 1994, Angel Carrión released his third album of his career, “Historias de Azul o Gris.” Among the many hits he already had from his previous albums, this new one had several more and turned him into the first Salsa singer to ever record a full CD in the pop genre.

Sonido Criminal
Sonido Criminal is another Salsa band to have made the history books. For Tito Nieves 35th anniversary concert on June 13, 2009, Nieves invited the band to join him. This make them the first Salsa band to ever perform at City Hall in Orland, Florida.

Victor Vega
And perhaps the biggest achievement of them all goes to Victor Vega, the self-proclaimed first Salsa singer on YouTube. Now THAT’S a record! No other Salsa singers joined YouTube before October 5th, 2005?

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Salsa dancing is spreading like wildfire and Huntsville is the latest victim to the addictive dance. I found this article over at Huntsville PR about how not only is Salsa dancing becoming a craze in the city, but also that lots of men are among the force coming out to participate.

Women statistically tend to be the majority of members who show up to classes, but it seems the guys in Huntsville have seen the light and the ratio has equaled out.

If you want to read more, check out the article here.

If you’re ready to learn to salsa dance, sign up for some free videos.

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As a dancer, you’re probably familiar with the pain and soreness that comes after a hard night of dancing. You’ve probably even taken ibuprofen, such as Advil, to ward off the pain and inflammation, which is actually something that many athletes use.

What these athletes have come to find out though, is that over time ibuprofen seems to increase soreness and pain. The reason for this is because the drug appears to inhibit the production of collagen, which is normally increased during strenuous exercise and is also required to rebuild muscle tissue.

Ibuprofen is very common among dancers for taking away the “pain” and if you’re one of the people who uses it, now is the time to consider alternatives. Start thinking about collagen-producing foods such as soy milk and cheese.

Dark green vegetables, such as kale, spinach and asparagus will help the body to manufacture collagen as well. For even more options, pick up some red fruits and vegetable, such as beets, tomatoes and red peppers or dark berries like black berries and blue berries. Due to its high magnesium content, raw cacao is also a good option.

And you thought chocolate was bad for you!

If you can find chocolate bars with at least 75% cacao, it should do the trick. You can even buy 90% cacao at places such as World Market, although this might not taste as good as the Hershey bar you’re used to.

One thing you should note; building muscle is an inflammatory process, so by inhibiting it with anti-inflammatory foods, you could be reducing the amount of muscle your body could be building. Just know that Ibuprofen can make soreness worse than it needs to be if taken frequently.

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I thought making the “First Dance” a Salsa dance routine was enough to make a wedding one of the most memorable things ever, but watch the video below.

If you saw the Office last night, this is the video you’re looking for.

The bridesmaids and groomsmen all did a wild entrance dance to the song “Forever” by Chris Brown for this creative couple getting married, and each couple had their own special steps.

My favorite part was definitely the beginning because it was so unexpected and random. I really like when the groom came rolling out of the crowd too. This was too awesome!

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The current record for the most people ever to dance to Michael Jackson’s Thriller was officially set and recorded by the Guinness Book of World Records when 242 students from the College of William & Mary performed it in May of 2008.

Looks like that record may have just been blown away by Mexico.

On Saturday, August 29, 2009, (Michael Jackson’s Birthday) 12,937 people in Mexico City attempted to beat the current record and did a great job of doing it. Getting that many people in one place to do Thriller is just amazing. They’ll find out if they beat the actual record sometime next week.

As it turns out, there was also another group of people trying to beat the old record. More than 500 people in Liecester danced to Thriller on Saturday as well. At least they had fun.

Watch both videos below.

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The reason I wrote this post was because I ran across a video of Obama dancing on the Ellen show back in 2007 and it just got me thinking about how this type of stuff never happened when I was a kid. I never felt like I could really relate to our political figures and see them as real people, just like us normal folk.

Isn’t it weird about how differently politics are viewed these days as compared to only eight short years ago? When I was young, I saw politics as the most boring topic in the world that only my parents could enjoy. Of course this has changed as I’ve grown older and began to understand it’s impact on my life.

I’m sure many people have learned to enjoy politics much more recently, especially with the latest election including so much pop culture.

Both Obama and McCain had Twitter accounts and were highly involved in social media, both were being endorsed by celebrities such as Daddy Yankee and Brad Pitt, and with so much drama surrounding the cultural and racial status of Obama and the gender of Sarah Palin, not to mention the baby drama surrounding her daughter, the gossip magazines weren’t ever going to run out of material.

All of this brought politics out of the boring, bland days of old and into the young eyes of our future.

I think we’ve come a long way and I’m very happy of the way things have changed. What do you think about it?

And to end this post the only way I know how, some fun dancing videos featuring Obama, Biden and Palin. Make sure to check out the last one where Obama and McCain have a dance off.

Barack Obama Dancing on Ellen Show

Michelle Obama Dancing on Ellen Show

Joe Biden Dancing with Jill Biden at Commander in Chief Inaugural Ball

Obama Dancing for Senator Ted Kennedy

Obama and McCain Dance Off!

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Hopefully prison isn’t the place you decide to learn how to salsa dance, but if you ever go there, at least you’ll have a good instructor.

At Kirkham Jail near Preston, Lancs in the UK, both prisoners and guards are getting free salsa dance lessons by an inmate who is known as an expert Salsa dance instructor. They aren’t revealing exactly who that instructor is, but it’s being said that he’s a world class level teacher.

The lessons take place every Wednesday night and the instructor also provides separate lessons to the guards during the weekends.

So far, the lessons have proven to be huge success and the prisoners love it. The prison has been quick to note that this is not funded by the Prison Service, but is instead a prisoner initiative. They have also stated that the Salsa lessons are always monitored by staff and do not replace work, training or education.

I think it sounds like a good deal. I only have one question; are they dancing together or are they learning to Salsa dance solo?

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Today on the Good Morning America Show, all of the pairings for the upcoming season of Dancing With the Stars have been announced.

Several of the pairings have already been leaked online from various sources such as from the press and even Twitter.

Karina Smirnoff will be training Aaron Carter while Karina’s real-life partner, Maksim Chmerkovsky will be working with Debi Mazar on her own dancing skills.

One of stars already being voted most likely to reach the end due to her history in dance is Mya, who will be paired with Dmitry Chaplin.

In a strange twist, Ashley Hamilton will be trained by the same person his father George was paired with back in season 2, Edyta Silwinska. The father Hamilton must’ve had only great things to say about her, for that push to happen.

Two pairings were accidentally leaked via Twitter. Donny Osmonds son wrote to his father, “Good luck on DWTS!!! You and Kym are going to win this season. You’ve got my vote every week,” in reference to Kym Johnson. Then Natalie Coughlin spilled the news that she would be paired with Alec Mazo, when she Twittered, “We both went to Cal Berkeley and studied Psychology at the same time. Go Bears!”

Of the last leaked pairings is Tom Delay and Cheryl Burke. Tom Delay should be fairly happy with this since Burke has already lead two other celebrities to victory.

Here is the complete list of pairings officially announced today:

• Aaron Carter and Karina Smirnoff
• Natalie Coughlin and Alec Mazo
• Mark Dacascos and Lacey Schwimmer
• Tom DeLay and Cheryl Burke.
• Macy Gray and Jonathan Roberts
• Ashley Hamilton and Edyta Sliwinska
• Melissa Joan Hart and Mark Ballas
• Kathy Ireland and Tony Dovolani
• Michael Irvin and Anna Demidova
• Joanna Krupa and Derek Hough
• Chuck Liddell and Anna Trebunskaya
• Debi Mazar and Maksim Chmerkovskiy
• Mya and Dmitry Chaplin
• Kelly Osbourne and Louis van Amstel
• Donny Osmond and Kym Johnson
• Louie Vito and Chelsie Hightower

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