Review of the Canada Salsa Congress '08

Thursday night, GoDanceMambo had the chance to open the 2008 Canada Salsa Congress with the Ooo La La Buresque Showgirls! All weekend I heard great comments about how fun it was. Thank you to Albert Torres, the offical CSC MC who pumped us up! Also performing was City Dance Corps, Salsa Fanatics of Ottawa. The world salsa competition was of top quality: 1st place Salsa Rica    2nd place Danilo & Esther of Toronto in the 'on1' division. Victor and Katia of Montreal in 1st place and Paul & Karina won 2nd in the on2 division. Congratulations!!!!

Although it was a small venue (club "Level" in the Adelaide district), and with not much room to sit down, everyone was contained and dancing with one another the whole night.

As the congress moved to the downtown Sheraton Hotel from Friday to Sunday- over the Thanksgiving weekend-the dance crowd changed from 200 people to 2000! All 3 nights were filled with great shows. When I say great, I mean it showed that dancers worked very very hard on their choreographies. This year it seems that directors opted to go for the ballroom dance and costume style, so as a viewer the themes were redundant. Hardly anyone used storytelling, just straight up choreo. The exceptions were Masacote (Ana & Joel's team) who performed a long, intense and exceptional theatre piece called 'Afterlife', performed to Joel's Latin Jazz composition. They also used contemporary dance movements, adding to the emotivity and richness of their choreo. Often telling a story makes the dancers dance with more conviction and confidence.

It is hard to have an original show. Who stood out? City Dance Corps with their salsa tango, Young & Gen with their mambo routine, Salsa con Clave from Montreal (all girls in the pin stripe suits and hats), the Columbian couple (fast, fast fast!), the Latin Energy kids (always). I always enjoy Hacha Y Machete, especially Burju. Wow that girl has muscality and spunk.

The band, Johnny Polanco y su Conjunto Amistad from L.A were a great choice. They play mid-tempo danceable songs, that aren't too too long. Dj Nilson, Gio, Henry Knowles from NYC and DJ from Miami did a great job. Loved the dancing til 4am! Although Saturday night, the fire bell rang at 3:30am (luckily not earlier)!

It's possible that a lot of the US attendees weren't able to make it due to the economic situation. Even so, the congress workshops and evenings were well attended. Al & Karla as well as a featured Columbian couple were refused at the border, so luckily John & Liz from San Diego replaced them last minute. Josie Neglia didn't come for unknown reasons, and finally the World Salsa Champions from Spain were unable to attend due to an illness in the family. We did have the opportunity to see Ibirocay and from Sweden from the international contingent.

If you are a salsa student or instructor, you can only benefit from attending the Canada Salsa Congress. It really gives you the big picture of salsa, and what there is to do with it. It can be highly motivating to watch people on stage and social dancing! Now that there is a beginner bootcamp, there is no excuse to go! There is everything for all levels of dancers.

See you next year! October 8-12th, 2009.