After watching the amazing Narcos series on Netflix I had a funny idea : Having Pablo and Tata dance ChaChaCha Together ;) I would like to thank Wendy, Olivette and the JeansJeansJeans store for finding a pair of jeans directly from the 80s.
One of the biggest challenges for a Salsa teacher is not to teach the moves themselves, but to help a student, who doesn't really have rhythm, understand the different Latin beats. Latin music is just like mathematics. Being a musician, I often ask myself : what does someone who starts dancing and has no musical background need to know. At this stage, I don't think that a long theoretical musical explanation helps anybody. By experience, every time I tried that approach, I saw their eyes literally go in a daze. I think that a realistic goal to have is to make our students more sensitive to Salsa music, considering that for some, latin music is a giant maelstrom of indiscernible instruments. First off, we can address music in a lot ways, but in its most simplistic form its basically mathematics: a never ending time divisions. Usually salsa dancers learn to dance on a 8 count, 4 and 8 being pauses. Thus, we can double up the counts in the same bar or time frame. At this point we can talk about a 16 count, a concept not too hard to understand for advanced students. the 16, being the "links" in between the 8 count. It is possible to do 32's and 64's as well, which will require great skills. Keeping the beat I would also like to address the rhythmic struggle faced by some. For an unknown reason, some people are better at keeping the beat than others. If I can give one tip to improve that aspect is to download a metronome app and practice at a ridiculously slow speed. Often, even the most experienced dancers will find it hard. They usually find it [...]
Baila Productions Salsa School is proud to be an active participant in our community by offering a 1000$ donation to the "Fondation du Collège Montmorency". We had the privilege to give this grant to Brian-Manuel Arce-Mendez for her excellence in the College's dance program. Congrats to all for you hard work!
Here is our latest creation: Dude looks like a lady;) Thanks to my team of dancers who trusted me and believed in this crazy project. Thank you for your involvement, discipline, sacrifice and especially your craziness. Proud of my team;)
Here's my list of tried and tested Salsa songs that will suit any beginners. When we start listening and dancing to salsa music, the most challenging thing is getting our ears used to those new rhythms. In some latin songs finding the beginning of a musical phrase is quite hard for us who are used to listening to pop rock music. So here's a list of songs that we use in class to help our students get acquainted with this new musical world. Most of these songs are not too fat, well recorded and have a clear musical phrase. For those who use Spotify I included a playlist of a bunch of cool salsa tunes at the bottom. Enjoy ;) 1- Acid - Ray Barreto 2- Yamulemau - Joe Arroyo 3- Micaela - Sonora Carruseles 4- Llave - Grupo Latin Vibe 5- Fragilidad - Milagros Pinera & Sanmera 6 - Madamoiselle, Je vous aime - Haitiando 7- Por Retenerte - Los Titanes 8- Equivocado - Ray Torres y Su Orquesta 9- Pachita Eche - Celia Cruz with Tito Puento 10- Como Me Duele Perderte - Gloria Estefan Ilias / Owner Baila Productions Salsa school
Each year Baila Productions dance team participates in many congresses across Canada. Congresses are a unique moment to get together with amazing dancers and share our common passion : SALSA. For students its an opportunities to see world class performances and attend amazing workshops given by Salsa dancers at the top of their craft. Our 2 Latin dance troops will be performing at the following venues: April 2th-30th Congrès de Salsa Madessimo Madness à Grandy July 29th-30th Ottawa Salsa Congress Sept. 10th DiverDanse (our yearly show) October 6-10 Canada Salsa Congress (To be confirmed) Here are some clips of our past congresses Salsa Bromont 2014 Congrès de Salsa Québec Canada Salsa Congress If you have any questions please write in the comments below Ilias - École de Salsa Baila Productions www.bailaproductions.com
First and foremost, following the “beat” is essential, otherwise even if you repeat a pattern 1000 times, you will not understand why it’s not working out… music is there to be a common reference base … the music is not some thing that plays in the background as in an elevator … music is something that we must actively listen to… I understand that a man may be concerned to succeed with his pattern, but if he’s not paying attention to the music, his chances to execute a pattern smoothly decreased drastically. Also take a couple of basic steps with your partner before performing any complex patterns … set a pace between the two bodies so that everything happens in absolute comfort. Secondly, distance management between partners is often an element in the dance that is overlooked… Your basic steps should be similar to your partner’s … take some basic steps to adjust to each other, you will avoid dancing like an accordion. The goal is to increase the connection, stay close to your partner and make small steps by default. This will enable you to connect more quickly and smoothly. In terms of flexibility, always try to do your patterns with the least amount of force … So once you executed a pattern, try again and decrease the tension in your arms. Accuracy always prevails over force. Lets summarize 1. Listen actively to the music 2. Stay close 3. Relax See you on the dance floor !!!
Ive been dancing and performing for the last 15 years. My goal was to always create original choreographies. I try to follow my heart and passion when I create. Never in my life did I expect people to stand up after this performance. It was a gift straight to heart. Here’s an insight on how I proceed when I create a new piece. First I have a flash… It could be a song I heard, a costume I imagined, a movie I saw, a discussion I had… this creates the initial idea. If it sticks in my head I know I’m onto something. For this choreography, on my way out of our studio, I heard the song Correla (Salsa Celtica) that one of our teachers was playing. I said right away: what is that? Irish and salsa music together? It got my attention… but at that time I was intimidated by that song and the idea of learning the basics of Irish dancing. I knew Irish dancing was hard… really hard… so I dropped the idea… Then one day, I was playing the song and my partner turned around and said… you have to do and Irish Salsa choreo on this tune. At that moment, I knew that I had to do it… the stars were aligning ;) Next step : Presenting the idea to our troupe ;) You should’ve seen the eyes of our salsa troupe when I told them that we are gonna do a Irish inspired salsa dance performance and that we are going to take Irish dance lessons. Those moments I love … cause it always starts with a feeling of this is impossible and ends with a feeling of we [...]
Baila Productions Salsa School is proud to be an active participant in our community by offering a 1000$ donation to the "Fondation du Collège Montmorency". We had the privilege to give this grant to Alexandra Caron for her excellence in the College's dance program. Congrats to all for you hard work! Ilias Benz www.bailaproductions.com
When I started dancing it wasn’t long until I started performing on a stage. I don’t know if it’s due to talent or because there weren’t a lot of great male dancers back then. Anyway, I quickly started to enjoy my time on stage. This was truly partly as a result of spending most of my life playing instruments in a music group and putting on shows. I therefore felt at home on a stage. When I started performing, I was rarely satisfied after leaving the stage. I used to criticize myself a lot, thinking it was normal not to feel satisfied in order to continue to improve. At the end of a show, I highlighted every bad moment. In short, I was hammering myself without even noticing it. I then had an experience that changed my perception of things. I had the chance to choreograph and dance a piece with my friend Audrey Gaussiran; to me she was – and still is – one of Montréal’s best salsa dancers. We performed our routine about ten times. As usual, from the very first performance, my old habits kicked back in; I was barely off of the stage that I was already obsessing with what went wrong. Not forgetting, above all, that I was afraid to make mistakes. I went on like this during 8 performances. I knew we had 2 last performances before the end of our collaboration, and something magical happened on the 9th show. Just a few seconds before going on stage I told myself, “I’m very lucky to be dancing with a dancer of that caliber, and this time I’ll be dancing for her”. Well, this is one of the performances I [...]
