SALSAJAY RULEZ

2007-12-29T11:51:00.000+08:00

Aug Jayers Birthday

2007-08-17T11:21:00.000+08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to all our August Babies ~ Rueben, Jacques, Adrienne, Lena

SalsaJay recently hosted a surprise birthday bash for August Babies at Salsa Cabana. Event was attended by many, whom received top secret messages to show up on the designated time and day. Thanks to all, the surprise was pull off somewhat accordingly, save for the fact that only 1 of the bday babies was totally clueless with events unfolding.

Amongst those that came included, the legendary Phileo Flowers ....

Our Latin extrodinaire sifu, Darren Yee ...

and a roomful of Jayers who partied the night away...errr where are the boys in the picture?

While on the subject of birthdays, i can't resist to pay tribute to another Bday Baby whose big day fell on 30th July 2007.
This person is none other than our lovable Tony "the tiger" Goh , whose happy feet can't stop salsa-ing be it in Malaysia, Dubai, Japan, Korea , Vietnam, Phuket and etc. To tony, there is no such thing as SALSA OD. He is our resident SalsaJay ambassador around the world as he frequents clubs and dance with ladies of all different nationalities (writer's comment: lucky fella).

They say that life takes after the movies, and in this sense... tony, who draws inspiration for the love of dance after watching Shall We Dance featuring Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez, truly enraptures the spirit.
Note: the writer can't help but wish that he sees his teacher in the lights of J.Lo. Nonetheless, my initials are J.Lee ...so close enough :)

Farewell to Arina

2007-08-15T15:43:00.000+08:00

Farewells are never easy, especially when it involves a person whom you have known for some time. Although some of us have been briefed of the situation, nothing quite prepared us for the fact that Arina would not be taking classes at SalsaJay anymore, nor join us for our regular makan sessions before classes begun.

Who is Arina , besides the fact that she attends the Wed pre intermediate classes, and also known as the 3rd member of the Malaysian version of Destiny's child? I guess Gregg describes her the best , " She is the gal with the grace, the beautiful smile and with endless patience to dance with the guys in class."

Never have i seen her throwing a tantrum in class. Always ready with a shy smile for guys to come and ask her to dance and always asking me ..."Jeamie, can you show me the step again?"..... although she does it quite well herself. She is the one with the keen sense of adventure to DARE to ask the Teacher to show her more than just salsa moves. From bachata to rueda, to who knows what else she will throw at me .... Arina certainly has shown me her passion for dancing. Oh and did i mention that she makes a very good camera woman as well? This gal can be the artistic director of any publishing company she wants to work for, coz she has an eye for beauty.

On 15 Aug 2007, at approximately 2.40 pm .... Arina left on a jet plane to pursue her dreams for travel and adventure.

Arina... this poem is dedicated to you. It's exclusively written for you from our Malaysian imported French man, Mr. Jacques Lebosse:

In a sarcastic way I should say, see you on Friday,
But today the other me is typing this way,
We all gonna miss you much ...
Some of us very very much .
For a dance or for a play ....
For sharing a coke or something from Marley.. ;)

In the loneliness of a sunset
Anywhere in the world at thousand feet
You might wanna come home,
and join back our fleet.
Be strong! and wait for the sunrise,
You will see all of us standing by your side
A phone call, an e-mail or just a small message..
to keep you up there we will arrange..

You will charm the sky as you have charm us all,
Your smile will travel miles before getting back home,
So farewell my friend and don't look back...
farewell my friend, you will be back .

Arina ... We will sorely miss you. Take care and all the best. And even if you are a thousand miles away, you will always have a home @ SalsaJay.

Tuesday @ Salsajay

2007-08-01T09:33:00.000+08:00

Jeamie (instructor) leading the new students in the basic footwork

Over the last 3 weeks, SalsaJay has merged the previous batch of Tuesday 8pm students with the 9pm students thus freeing the 8pm slot for people who would like to come in and give it a try aka newbies.

New Students having a go at the footwork

I decided to drop by after work as I have some time to spare before heading back to the office again and so witness the birth of a new group of students taking shape.

Leading the beginners in the 1st Set of Footwork.

Reflecting back as well, it felt just like yesterday when I first took my first step in salsa way back in December and I can say that even though I'm no expert, yet, I have come a long long way from having two left feet on the dance floor to being able to strutt my stuff.

Helping a couple with their steps

Of course, looking at the progress of the 9pm's group also impresses me as it was only 2 months ago that most of the students started learning and now, they have started going into doing group footwork as well as more complex moves.

Imagine 3 months down the line and how far these guys would progress! More pictures over here!

July Birthday Celebration

2007-07-24T01:17:00.000+08:00

July birthday baby is none other than Derek Teoh who turns 35 on 23rd July 2007.
Not someone who was used to having surprises sprang at him.... the Jayers once again outdid ourselves by pulling a fast one on an expecting but terribly surprise birthday boy. ( you see, we've got insider news that Birthday Boy was digging around to get news if we were planning any surprises for him as it was a SalsaJay Tradition!)

And how did we do it....? we roped in the love of his life....ahem... to jump onto the bday bandwagon with us. A simple email was blasted out to all jayers...minus, Mr. Bday boy himself, to make arrangements for the big day, and voila, our plans were in motion.

On the said night, bday boy overstayed his class time ( perhaps he is one of those few who enjoy class...hahaha). Yours truly had to draw up alternative plan quickly to get him to leave ... all the while trying to mask my busy text messaging activity as if i was chatting up some guy ( well.. it worked, didnt it?). Meanwhile, some jayers who were gathered at the pavement downstair had to endure the cold and some rain while waiting for the green light from above.

to cut the long story short... we achieved what we set out to do and that is to give derek a surprise bday ... one which he would treassure for years to come....

below is his thank you msg ~

Dear Jayers...

You guys really got me good last friday!

I guess it started when I was filling up the form for Money & You, when people like Jeamie and Michael Y were busy watching out for my IC number. Jeamie insists she knew way before then, but to quote Wilson, "I Dont Believe!"

Somehow, I knew they would be roping in Lena L for this, so I sent feelers out to her, trying to pull some guilt strings saying stuff like "If they were planning something, you would tell me right? Riiiight?" Yeah. Right.

Stellar performance from her that night! Oh, forget about trying guilt trips on this lady! Shes the master at it! At 10pm sharp, I get a call from her, telling me she is waiting "outside"... With pangs of guilt (plus some confusion... I did say I would pick her up at 10 -something- after all) I rushed out and if they didnt spring it on me at that instant, I would have been tearing down the stairs and you guys would have to eat bday cake all on your own! Oh, BTW, technically, she wasnt lying through her teeth. She was waiting "outside" after all!

As it became very obvious that I SUCK when it comes to public speaking, I want to write what I couldnt express in spoken words that night.

To the guys, BOOYAKASHA my brothers!

Rueben, thank you for taking your time to come over and make a fool of yourself along with the rest of us doing the wanking dance (wank-wank-o?) for the ladies. Thank you for not making me do it alone! Bhwa hwa hwa!

Fai, thank you for being the kind, patient (and sometimes, sick animal!) of a training assistant for me and the rest. Even in the middle of a mountain bike trail, you dont mind me going, "Fai pant..pant...pant... how does the ...pant...pant... bloody B2 ... pant ...pant... move go...pant...pant... again??"

Jacques! I remember the first time I spoke to you. I asked if you were french, and how you pronounce "Moet & Chandon"! Thank you for being an inspiration on the dance floor, with your wife. I love watching the both of you move!

Tony, you are the rock of the Intermediates. The most dedicated one, with a huge golden heart. When you first joined, I thought you were bloody lan-si and aloof! But as it turns out, you have one of the biggest kindest hearts I have ever seen. Aight bro!

Wilson, collector extraordinaire... When I heard you like japanese mechs, I thought to myself, wait till he sees my PG grade Strike Gundam model. When I actually visited your place, I malu only to show my one and only model... Another person with a huge heart...

Michael Y, fellow RC heli nut, and the final of the trio who bundled me off to singapore for that crazy impromptu trip. I love you guys.

Terence, you're the guy who indirectly brought me into SalsaJay. Indirectly, you also brought me into Money & You. Indirectly, you are therefore responsible for bringing so much into my life. Simply saying thank you doesnt seem enough. I owe you a lot...

To the wimmin, rock on, my sistas!

Joyce, the little spinner! Who finally has gotten her first pair of dancing shoes after so many years! And Pink to boot! And who also was wondering why her car started sounding like a sports car after her exhaust fell off!

Stephanie, datin, with the longest most luxuriant hair in the whole group (although for one week, there was someone with an even more ju-on - ish hair do than you in the trials class!). Love the way you laugh without restraint. Also love the fun n excitement when some poor dude ends up eating your hair after a particularly enthusiastic spin. ;)

Rachel, with the sweetest smile in the whole class. The little rocker girl. Thank you to you and steph for being the only two salsajay girls in singapore with me. Without the both of you there, I dont think I would have had even half as much fun as I did.

Arinna, Arwin and Pip (Phyp??), aka, charlies angels... the darlings of the pre-inter class. Thank you for dragging yourselfs all the way back to Salsajay just for me! I apologise for the delays, but thats Jeamies fault for letting the class keep dragging on! (Laying blame!) But seriously, I really appreciate you guys being there. Sorry for missing little Arinna...

Zai, the tall sexy goddess of the advanced class. I remember the first time I danced with you. It was the first time I danced with someone from Advanced and I was nervous as hell. However, the compliment you gave me was worth it all...

Laney, with the flawless skin and complexion. The skin on my backside oso not so nice. :P You really must share your secret with everyone...

Wee, always the quiet one, helping and buzzing in the background. You are always the one taking the cake away, cutting it up and serving it, and then cleaning up after everyone else. Thank you so much for your kind and generous efforts all the time. I really appreciate them.

Adrienne Lee Aka Adilah! I know how crazy you get at work, which made it all the more a wonder to me that you actually managed to get off early enough to come over and help surprise the absolute crap outta me! Thank you so much for the efforts... Really means a lot to me...

Jeamie Lee Aka Jamalah Aka Rotan Happy Teacher Aka Elephant-skin-on-her-feet-who-can-spin-barefoot-on-tarmac Aka Lead like Lorry! :P The woman who made it all possible. The one single common denominator we all have. Thank you for being with us all, through thick and thin, and having the patience to drill the moves through our thick skulls. I've tried teaching a few difficult students before, and can end up either wanting to kill them, or kill myself! Its a wonder you have managed to stay sane for so long. Keep up with the coffee before class (just dont get horny!) but dont overdose and ... actually, DO overdose! And reward us with more lines like "Girls! If you grip too hard, your guy wont come!"

Lastly, my dearest Lena L. Winner of this years SalsaJay Actors Award for Best Performance in "Springing a Surpise". Indirectly, its through salsajay that made us possible. If it wasnt for salsa, I wouldnt have met Jeamie. If I hadnt met Jeamie, I wouldnt have known about Money&You. If I didnt go for M&Y, I wouldnt have met you, and if I hadnt met you, I wouldnt know the happiness I now know. As you said, thank God for Precession, Love orbits and other Divine thingamies that brought us together. May this be the first of many many many birthdays that we share together.

To those who couldnt make it, I know you all tried, and I got your individual birthday wishes loud n clear! So no worries! Lena Y, Tim & Tam, Choi, Greg, Richard & Jen, Kelly, thank you for being there in spirit.

If I missed anyone out, please forgive me.

Like I said, in my pathetic attempt at a speech last friday, I have never had a group such as you peeps. Through the one thing we have in common, I found so many other things to share amongst you all. The strange thing is, that one thing was one thing I thought I would never ever get into. I never liked to dance, and always thought I had two left feet. It was with great difficulty that I was persuaded to join SalsaJay, but once I joined, there was no turning back. I love you all!

Once again, from the bottom of my heart, thank you ALL for a fantastic and utterly enjoyable surprise birthday party!

Love always
Derek

Salsa In Saujana - by Derek Teoh

2007-07-18T10:22:00.000+08:00

An Evening with Cuban Flavour

2007-07-16T14:10:00.000+08:00

2007-07-12T11:20:00.000+08:00

Salsa 101 - The Aftermath by Michael Yip

2007-06-27T12:30:00.000+08:00

I am suspecting the 101 in the Salsa 101, is representing the number of hours you'd be spending in bed trying to recover from your sore leg, after the event.

The whole event was amazing! For a person who has never attended a Salsa Festival or Latin Congress, this first time experience was a real eye-opener. Arriving KL Hilton at 5.30pm, Stephanie and I met up with the rest of the SalsaJayers at the registration counter, collected our goodie bags consisting T-shirts, pamphlets, a small bottle of sampled perfume (tried it on Rueben) and some drink coupons. The next task after registering is to find a 'camping spot' to keep our bags.

A good 15 minutes later and we heard Gupson (Attitude Dance) announcing over the sound system that the first workshop was about to begin. The first workshop taught us body isolations and styling. Boy, we got down "dirtayyy" and "naughtayyy" (Our fellow english salsaman would be delighted to show you how ...), it was a good laugh with him telling us the best way to remember the sequence ... "Just make loads of grunting sounds like these ... UHHHH... AHHHH..... OOOH.... wasn't so hard, was it?"

Patricia from Ritmo Latino KL was up next and taught us the Casino Rueda on Salsa Timba. She mentioned the word "SETEH" (not sure if I recalled it correctly) meaning Seven and Coca Cola. Unfortunately I can't really remember the sequence.

The 3rd instructor was Salsa Sam who gave us tips on 3 sexy moves and a dip called Rumba Wena. Among the 3 moves, my favorites were the 2nd and the 3rd (this also means I forgot the 1st...). In the 2nd move, you wrap your hands around the lady while the 3rd is to get the girl to caress you while both if you go around in a circle. And the last thing he shared was the Slow Dip.

At the end of the workshop, the played a movie about the birth of Salsa ... from Son to Salsa ... and eventually it was dinner time. We went to KFC ... excellent choice with excellent selection of food. Bon Appétit !

By 9.20pm we're already back at the ballroom, dancing shoes back on and hitting the dance floor to DANCE! Oh yeah ... all SalsaJayers take note. You might appear on Channel [V] as the crews were trailing us all night long .. from the workshops to the dance floor. (Eddy from Channel [V] ... thanks for your coverage).

There were also dance competitions in the mix with 3 couples performing with each performing a number with their own dance partner and another number with a different dance partner. The winning prizes were given to the best individual male and female dancers. At the party, we also managed to watch performances by Gavin and Sally as well as Gupson and Patricia. The crowds were practically cheering their heart out at the couples. Besides these couples, Fahmy and gang also performed a Casino Rueda piece which was excellent !

After 6 glasses of Mojito (double shots), 2 Perriers later and countless number of dance, we ended the night on a high at 3am by heading off to the mamak for some drinks. With this over, there's the Latin Congress and MSF coming up. For those that has attended this Salsa101 and is going for the Congress or MSF for the first time, well, imagine, you'd be doing this same thing over and over again for a few nights and yes, the next day, your legs will feel like it has run 3 ironman events back to back and you just want to stay in bed the next one week. I can't wait to do this again. :D

Salsa 101 was an eye opener for me in terms of experience (as well as a great night for me as I met up with quite a number of my ex colleagues from ASTRO as well as from my freelance TV days)

Derek's Salsa Breakthough

2007-06-26T13:26:00.000+08:00

A few months ago, I experienced a little mini breakthrough. That moment came when I found myself actually enjoying myself on the dance floor.

Initially, the dancefloor was more like a goal to be achieved, something to strive for, something to fight for, something to attain. I attended class religiously, I watched the instructors and the other classmates like a hawk, I practiced anywhere I could, in the morning just before heading off to work, in the shower (no sweat mah!), in my head during meetings, etc... And when I hit the dancefloor for the first time, it was a nightmare (previous blog entry).

However, I stuck to it. I braced myself, I steeled my resolve and vowed that one day I will be just as fluid and graceful as most of the other couples I saw. I hung on through the nerve wracking anxiety, the embarrasment of forgetting a move halfway through it.

All this while, I practiced, practiced, practiced.

And then, one day ... I was getting ready to hit the dance floor again. Again, I went through that little resolution routine, of saying, you can do it, you dont have to be afraid, don't care what others think etc etc. And I picked someone up to go.

And go I did. Yes, it was a little awkward at first, as usual. I was concentrating 101%. 50.5% on remembering my moves, and another 50.5% on keeping a few steps ahead to pre-empt the next move. And before I knew it, it was the end of the song. I did it! I didnt screw up, I didnt jam, and most of all, I was not completely hoping for the end of the song, like before! I actually ... enjoyed it!

So yes, that was my mini breakthrough! I achieved it! It was no longer just a goal. It was something to look foward to! Something to simply ... enjoy!

Fast forward to today...

That was then. And everyone knows the saying "Never rest on your laurels." And that, my dear friends, was exactly what I did. I stopped practicing. I stopped eating and drinking and breathing salsa. I thought it was like riding a bicycle, in that, once you "get it", it stays with you. My dear friends... it doesnt. Once you turn your back on salsa, it turns its back on you. The next time I hit the dance floor, I got the rotan full force! Again, I felt like having mid-term exams whenever Jeamie reached out and grabbed me for a dance. Again, I started getting the anxious feelings. Again, I starting forgetting moves halfway through. I found myself no longer interested in dancing with girls from other schools. Yes, it was an excuse of "The other schools dont know our moves". But thats exactly what it was. An excuse. A good lead can lead anyone from any school.

So yes, its time I started looking for my groove again.

And how do you do that? Remember, friends, what salsa is. Its a dance. And dances are always danced to music. Music is the KEY! Timing! Fluidity! THAT has to be flowing through your bones. Now I have a new goal to achieve. Its not so much the individual moves, the repertoir. Who cares if you can remember A1 through to Z12? What, if you can just master cbl, underarm turn, ropes, half turn, kumbias ONLY but able to make it flow, make it graceful, make it one with the music, THAT will be better than remembering all the hundreds of moves, but doing them out of timing...

And again, music is the KEY!

What brought about my first breakthrough? Practice practice practice. And what did I practice to? Music! So I started some research. What makes good music good? And how on earth do you get good salsa music when you dont even understand the language? Well, after a LOT of practice surfing while doing my LLB (looking like busy), one tends to get good at search strings. And search I did. And music I received. Good music. GREAT music! And once again, I found myself listening exclusively to salsa music in my boombox of a car. Ministry of Sound has taken a backseat to artists like La India, Willie Gonzales, Ruben Blades, etc. And what happens when you find yourself listening to salsa music all the time? You start dancing in your head. You start listening to the beat, the clave, you start feeling the groove again...

Hopefully, a second breakthrough is round the corner.

Malaysian Salsa Festival 2007 - The Instructors

2007-06-24T14:00:00.000+08:00

Malaysian Salsa Festivall 2007 is approaching fast .... and I am counting the days (too excited!). Anyway .. just a little teaser .. here's some information on the local and international instructors you are about to meet in MSF 2007 .....

Magna Gopal (New York / New Jersey)

Magna Gopal is one of the top international performers and instructors in the salsa scene. Originally from Toronto, Canada she is now based in New York/New Jersey, USA and is internationally known for her grace, fluidity and precision on the dance floor.

Her creative interpretation of the music, ability to effortlessly follow any lead and spin with speed and accuracy has made her extremely popular in places such as Madrid, Italy, Bermuda, Holland, Germany, France, UK, Poland, Peru, Colombia, China, Korea, Japan, India, Israel, Canada, across the US and many others. Her smooth style is a pleasure to watch and experience; her limitless energy ensures her presence on the dance floor all night.

Nestor Manuelian & Lidia McMahon

Two of Australia’s best dancers have come together to create a new flavour not yet seen, collectively they have represented Australia on the world stage for the past 4 years. They’ve taught workshops and performed at major salsa congresses and events in Australia, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Uk, Milan, Rome, Puerto Rico, Auckland and Hong Kong. Known for their thrilling and energetic performances, they draw audiences in and leave them eager for more. They have competed nationally and internationally winning 4 National Titles in the past 4 years. Their team Modus Vivendi are current Australian Salsa Champions, and have represented Australia at the ‘ESPN World Salsa Championships’ 2 years in row and have been finalist twice. In 2007, Nestor and Lidia have already won the Asian Salsa Open In Hong Kong and have been booked in to teach at several Major congress around the world!

Susana Montero

Susana Montero is, by far one of the most sought-after female Salsa instructors in Europe. She has been teaching and performing in London for the past decade and is now one of the premier Salsa instructors in all of Europe. A popular instructor/performer at many Congresses, Susana has a very dedicated following of both men and women. Women love her styling techniques, and the men love the way she teaches partnering. She is able to convey to the men what a woman wants in the lead and how to execute it properly and comfortably for the woman. For the women, she teaches when and how to style, without ever interrupting his lead.

Not many people know that Susana is educated above and beyond that of the average Salsera. She has her PhD. in Psychology from Complutense Madrid University in Spain. Susana doesn't flaunt her experience, talent, nor education. She is the most down-to-earth woman on the face of this planet. She is just as beautiful inside as she is outside.

Leon Rose is one of the freshest innovators in the international Salsa scene. His inspirational style generates enthusiasm and commitment to the art of Salsa dancing as demonstrated when he won the 2000 UK Bacardi Salsa, 2001 Salsa Club championship and 2003 Aji con mango competitions. He was born and educated in London and comes from a Caribbean background where he learnt to appreciate a wide variety of good music from an early age. During these years, Leon attended The Anna Scher Theatre School, which led to many appearances on stage, popular children's shows, including 'Grange Hill' to several televised dramas, one alongside Dame Judy Dench. He has performed on television and stage, from appearances with Enrique Iglesias on Top of the Pops (BBC), The Des O'Connor Show to The Royal Albert Hall in aid of Princess Diana Landmine Fund, Hackney Empire and various prestigious venues around the UK and the rest of the world.

Francisco Vazquez

Originally from Guadalajara Mexico, Francisco moved to the Los Angeles in 1988. Francisco's introduction to Salsa occurred when he accompanied his girlfriend to a nightclub. Motivated what he saw, he immediately set about teaching himself the basics by watching the best L.A. salseros of the day: Albert Torres, Laura Canelias and Joe Casini. Soon the steps came and he discovered that he had a natural ability for dance, a gift for rhythm and a deep understanding of the music. This, paired with the inspiration and influence of the Nicholas Brothers, Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire, led Francisco to create his own innovative style. Years later, it was clear that Francisco had found his niche in Salsa. He had been chosen to dance on stage before thousands alongside Celia Cruz, Tito Puente, Charo and many other revered Latin artists.

Santo Rico Dance Company

Back for the SECOND TIME, bigger and better! This year SIX PERFORMERS from the Santo Rico Dance Company are coming with us to Damai! Joining us this year are Tomas Guerrero, Carmen Taveras, Benjamin Recio, Elizabeth Chavieri, Julio E. Heredia, & Diana Nunez! If you missed them last year, make it a PRIORITY to catch them this year at the MSF 2007!!

Santo Rico Dance Company, currently under the direction of Thomas Guerrero, has become one of New York's premier dance companies with their dazzling choreographies and unique style dancing, and has performed and taught at major events such as the legendary off-Broadway Comedy Dancical "Latin Madness," in Madison Square Garden, and at several Salsa Congresses throughout the country and the world. Santo Rico has traveled to 3 continents and over 11 countries, which include Canada, England, Norway, Switzerland, Italy/Rome, Sweden, Amsterdam, Belgium, Spain, Japan, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and of course MALAYSIA!!!

Kaytee Namgyal (India)

Kaytee is the Founder and President of Salsa India.

In the earlier years he has trained as a Jazz and Hip Hop dancer. He got exposed to Salsa during a stay in Japan where he met a leading Salsa teacher from Los Angeles. After his return to India, he set up a small dancing school which has now grown into Salsa India Dance Company (SIDC), the biggest Salsa-only school in India.

Kaytee has studied with some of the best teachers of the world and is now a certified teacher by Salsa Brava, arguably the best dancing school in the world, and by Edie-The Salsa Freak and Al Liquid Silver Espinoza. He has had the opportunity to learn the Cuban, New York and L.A. styles of Salsa and see different other styles of Salsa and likes to merge all of it in his way of Dancing. "Different Music, Different Styles", says Kaytee.

Mika Takenaga started social dance at the age of eight. In 1994, she won the “Japan Amateur Latin Championship” as the youngest finalist ever in the history of the competition. She went on to win that competition three years in a row before turning professional. Ever since then, her career has taken off as an artist with numerous dance performances, TV appearances and choreography assignments. In May 2005, Mika Takenaga released her very own multimedia Salsa DVD learning kit titled “Perfect Salsa”. The set of 6 DVDs is sold exclusively by avex entertainment. Lessons based on the Perfect Salsa DVD series are being taught at Mika Takenaga’s studio - Dance Studio Casino - located in the renowned Roppongi district in Tokyo. Mika Takenaga has also established herself outside of Japan as an esteemed salsa dancer through frequent overseas dance performances and workshops. In July 2006, Mika Takenaga released the CD “We love Salsa”, a compilation of individually selected Salsa songs, once again through Avex entertainment.

Alberto Romay (Cuba)

Born in Havana City, Cuba, 1965.
-1985: He starts his career as a Professional Dancer and Choreographer performing in various countries. (Cuba, Europe, Africa, Asia).
-1992: First visit to Japan as member of the Musical Preview "Noche Tropical"
-1993: Member of the musical band "Paulo FG y su Elite" as a choreographer and dancer.
-1994: Incorpórate into "Conjunto Folklórico Nacional de Cuba". : Dance participation in Murakami Ryu' film "KYOKO"

Alberto Romay came to Japan in 1995 and after 10 years, he is now the number one Salsa Dance Instructor in Japan known for his grace, artistic ability, high quality work and professionalism. He has shared stage with famous artists and bands such as: The Orchestra de la Luz, DLG, Issac Delgado, Charanga Habanera, Josie Neglia, Narciso Medina, Smap, Aya Sugimoto, Marusia, Tokyo Cuban Boy, Jaila Mompier, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Tangin Fong Matos, Janette Valenzuela, and many others.

Fi & Anasri (Singapore)

Fi & Anasri are no strangers to the Singapore Salsa scene. Indeed, they have been the first points of introduction for many strangers to Salsa for over 6 years. Their fun-frenzied and easy-to-grasp teaching style have made them popular favourites as dance instructors The duo have taken many of Singapore's prominent salsa dancers today from their basic steps to advanced and beyond. They have performed and taught in Salsa Congresses, Festivals and events worldwide. Their frequent appearances in the media promoting this previously fringe activity has contributed greatly to the scene in Singapore as it is today.

Having crossed the causeway many a time, to provide dance workshops and performances, they welcome this opportunity to be part of yet another Malayasian event. You may find information about their courses and the dance-related events they organise at http://www.groove.com.sg

Gupson Pierre (Singapore)

Gupson Pierre is the proud owner, renowned dancer, performer, creative director and principal instructor of Attitude Dance Studio. Hailing from Montreal, Canada, Gupson has more than 10 years of formal training in Ballet and Jazz, and has performed extensively in Canada, USA, Asia and South America he also has more than 10 years of experience as a dancer, performer and choreographer with Howard Gillick Productions and several months as a dancer in Alvin Ailey Dance company. Gupsons qualifications are just as impressive to match his years of experience in all aspects of dance. His extensive dance qualification include:

Bachelor in Latin Dance History Bachelor of Dance and Physical Education Bachelor of Dance Technique

Gupson has been teaching in Singapore for over 4 years in Singapore and is known for his utmost professionalism in conducting classes. He provides a conducive environment with his patience and encouragement, adding his signature and style and attitude to the whole experience of learning salsa at Attitude Dance Studio.

Suman (Singapore)

Suman is a talented instructor, choreographer and performer. He started dancing fours years ago and gained popularity in a very short time.

8 months after he first set foot in a Salsa class, Suman managed to sweep the Championship title for the 'Singapore Salsa Competition 2002'.

In 2003, he extended his winning streak to clinch the much coveted Champion's trophy in the 'Malaysia Open Salsa Competition'. He has gained exposure by representing Singapore in performing at the prestigious Annual West Coast Los Angeles Salsa Congress 2003, after undergoing only 3 months of performance training!

In 2004, Suman set up his own Salsa school with the objective of taking the Singapore Salsa scene to greater heights. In a short span of 8 months of instructing, he has trained students who have gone on to top the 'Singapore Amateur Salsa Competition 2004'.

Gavin Chan (Malaysia)

A native Malaysian, Gavin Chan has been dancing and teaching dance for over 8 and 6 years respectively. Although formerly Jazz trained, his main area of expertise lies in New York style Salsa, Hip-hop, House and Poppin & Lockin.

Gavin’s dance career has taken him to numerous parts of the world to either instruct, perform or to train with some of the world’s best dancers and faculties. Some of these places include New York (Santo Rico Studios, Abakua Dance Company, Fogarate Dance Project, Broadway Dance Centre), Los Angeles (The Edge Performing Arts, Salsa Brava), Miami (Salsa Lovers), London (Pineapple Dance Studios), Sydney (Sydney Dance Company), Germany, Zurich and Japan.

As a choreographer, he is well known for his witty and innovative routines. He choreographed and performed Sydney’s first comedy routine, themed ‘X-Men’. This routine was performed at Sydney Latin Fiesta and won 2 awards, including the People’s Choice Award.

He was also the first to choreograph and perform Sydney’s first Salsa/Hip-Hop fusion routine. This routine was featured at events held for visiting international dancers. Gavin has recently returned from New York where he performed with Fogarate Dance Project and trained with some of the world’s best urban dancers.

Pat Calzadilla (Malaysia)

Pat Calzadilla is a true Latin American professional instructor, dancer and choreographer with more than 12 years of teaching experience in Malaysia alone. Fired with the passion of Salsa from a very young age, Venezuelan-born Pat came to Malaysia and co-founded the country’s first Salsa school back in 1998.

Since then she has moved on, opening her own Ritmo Latino Dance School in the heart of Kuala Lumpur in 2000. To date, Pat has taught more than 2000 students, some of whom have become instructors themselves! She has also taken part in various international events in Hong Kong, Bangkok and Singapore.

Apart from running a full-time schedule at Ritmo Latino, Pat actively spends time keeping the Salsa spirit alive through weekly parties at various clubs in Kuala Lumpur since 2000.

Fasilito (Malaysia)

The first and most well-known Malaysian Salsa Choreographer and Instructor, having taught and performed Salsa for more than 10 years, both locally and internationally. Represented the country in various parts of the world in Dance Folklores Festivals from 1988-1992.

Famous for his unique dance style and wonderful show moves, Fasilito is the choreographer of “Bailanismo Dance Group” which represented Malaysia in the 1st Hong Kong Salsa Congress and in the 1st Thailand Salsa Festival. He was also responsible for choreographing the visiting famous Cuban band, Cubanismo. Fasilito has also been interviewed and performed for local & satellite television programs.

Co-founder of the first Salsa school back in 1998, Fasilito opened his own dance school - Dance Spirit Co. - two years ago. The school made a tremendous impact when his students won the most titles in Salsa competitions in 2005.

Salsa101 @ KL Hilton

2007-06-22T10:52:00.000+08:00

Tomorrow is the day, apart from the Latin Congress to be held in July at PD and the Salsa Festival at Damai Laut in August, this is one party that the salseras and salseros of the Klang Valley and surrounding area is waiting for. Salsa101. Stephanie and myself of course will be there along with the rest of the SalsaJayers, so will you be there as well?

Hosted by Paula Malai Ali, this party also features International Deejays like DJ Domingo - From Peru, DJ Juanito - From Colombia and Dr Salsa - From France. What more, there's also workshops by Gupson, Patricia and SalsaSam as well as all night party!

Let's look at the line-up of activities that we can look forward to.

5.45pm onwards, Workshops by the above mentioned instructors, 8pm will be a short movie about the birth of Salsa and then at 9pm onwards, it's dance dance dance, breaking every 2 hours for Open Salsa Dance Competition between the likes of Gavin & Sally, Güpson; PAT Calzadilla and Fahmy & friends.

And what time do you think the party will end? 3.30am baybeh!! Yup, we have approximately 24 hours to work up that stamina because we'll be dancing till we drop. So are you going ...... ?

For more detailed program listing, Click Here

THE PARTY

2007-06-21T14:47:00.000+08:00

Let's go partying on 8 August 2007!

Linline will be kicking-off the Malaysian Salsa Festival in grand style with performances by some of the world’s best Salsa performers and all night dancing!

Only RM70 for Registered MSF Participants!
Get your tickets NOW

RM120 before 8 August 2007
Get you tickets NOW

RM150 at the door

Additional RM50 for Reserved Seating*
*Limited to 30 seats only at the first five rows from the stage!

Click here to download printable copy of poster
Click here for a map to Impiana Hotel, KLCC

Come and watch performances by Santo Rico Dance Company, Nestor Manuelian & Lidia McMahon, Dance Spirit, Ritmo Latino, Outcast On2, Havana Estudio & so many more!

All you dashing gentlemen out there don’t miss out this opportunity to ask a dance from Magna Gopal, Susana Montero and Ruby Karen! Ladies, dazzle Leon Rose & Francisco Vasquez with your moves on the dance floor!

Or call (Lin) +6012 3181202 / (Murni) +6012 21781707
Alternatively you may also email us for more info

Futsal ala Salsa

2007-06-20T13:28:00.000+08:00

I’ve been putting this off for ages, not because I didn’t want to write it but I’m always wondering how I’d start this off.

(5 mins in and 3 intros later..........)

Football ala Salsa… err… no.
*Note to self* This is a lot harder than I thought it would be.

(15 mins in, 5 intros and a maggi mee later...........)

Futsal ala Salsa !

Everyone knows about football. It’s the world game! Now futsal… that’s new(ish). The popular past time amongst Malaysians boys (and girls) is gaining popularity by the day and I can attest to that cause I play a good 6 hours of it a week. Ironically, when I hurt my knee last Satuday, my first thought wasn’t that I couldn’t play futsal… it was “OMG! I can’t go for my salsa on Wednesday!”

In fact as an avid footballer I’ve learnt so much from Salsa. I actually got into Salsa because I thought it might improve my game. Watching ‘Jinga’ with all those Brazilians playing and dancing in the streets of Rio made me wonder if there was a connection (of course there is! There has to be!). 4 months in and let me say that taking up Salsa has improved my game tremendously because there are a lot of subtle things in Salsa that you can bring to the pitch. Now I know a lot of guys are skeptical about this but allow me to enlighten you.

All those front and back basics. Who would have known you could trick a person by taking a step forward and another step back. Makes it even more real when you actually put your weight on your forward step (thanks for emphasizing the weight on the front foot Jeamie!). And all those times you watch videos of people stepping over the ball on YouTube… it’s a simple “round the world”. Damn this is getting easy! If only there was a move involving a bicycle kick or something like of the sort… now that would be cool.

So how do I liken football to dancing now? I just treat the ball like my partner (or the other way around) and lead it where you want to go. Beware all those other dancers on the pitch that wanna steal your gal (or man or ball)! Focus on the game, keep her close and by the end you’re sure to score!

I guess Ronaldinho said it best “I play with the music in my head, and my feet move to it”.

So to sum this all up, football is ‘The Beautiful Game’. It’s meant to be played with passion and skill, not with rough with ankle breaking tackles. Play football like you’re dancing. Hands up by your side (I know I don’t do this in class and I should), feeling the rhythm of the music in your head and moving your feet to the beat. Most important of all, make sure you’re having fun!

** patience while the video loads, you'll enjoy this **

Till I see you on the dance floor or the pitch! Joga Bonito! Dança Bonito! -

Jean Gan Charity Concert 2007

2007-06-18T19:08:00.000+08:00

3 whole months of practically preparing for the concert finally arrived. Of all Jean Gan concerts that i have had the pleasure of attending, this was one of the most last minute one put together to date. ....but pull it through we did. Everyone were amazing.... gritted their teeth, and give it their all (time and sweat and maybe some lost dates and etc) to see it through, be it rain or shine.

As a teacher of Jean Gan Academy, i was tasked to put together 2 items - a modern jazz for my 13-15 yr old kids and also a salsa item (which i insisted that Jean Gan include... family entertainment or non, as SALSA was something new being offered at the studio) with my 17-18 yr old students.

Scrambling for costume pieces and accessories was something that i have to faced day in day out. Let's see it must be showy without being too sexy, shiny, glitter and definitely must be one size fits all.... ie, everyone must look good , despite the fact that people come in all shapes and sizes. My sis, and some close friends would attests that i spent weeks on costume hunting alone. Many a times, i buy things that didn't even make it on stage.

Choreography was another thing that one have to deal with. Inspiration was not very forthcoming, except for the occasions where the caffeine i took prior to classes kicked in. As such, not only was the choreography for my modern jazz item only done 1-2 weeks prior to concert, the salsa bit where the ladies in black and silver joined the rest of my teenager salsa dancers was done and taught within 2 classes (on the same week as concert day).

Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Fen Ning, Audrey, Darren, Kuok Peng, James Quah, Jacques, and my sis (adrienne), for volunteering their time and energies for this last minute do. Guys , and gals ......Your patience and willingness to help out is deeply appreciated. Thank you for putting up with the choreography and the pot stirs and what nots.... esp Adrienne who rarely attempts any stunts.

I think Sophia, one of our beloved phileo flowers as we call ourselves ( ie, sophia, fen ning, audrey, adrienne, lih yee and myself) who happens to be busy preparing for her wedding day on June 30th and still make time to be a part of the concert , says it best "It had been stressful and fun journey with endless practises, rehearsals and concert shows .. not to mention about the never ending sewing of the sequins on the costume. Nevertheless, it's been a great vast of experiences and funny moments we shared together.. i did enjoyed all the makan-makan supper session with some fattening food although i should be on diet ;*).. i can sum it up.. it's worth it all!"

Despite everything, all the gripes and tempers flaring, i must say the concert has indeed allowed a few individuals to blossom. I have noticed, how people who are usually non committal , becoming committed, I have seen some who are afraid to try new things , practise and practise to get it perfected, I have watched how someone have grown to becoming a more complete individual. These transformations are priceless.

Jean Gan's 2007 Dance Galore concert has touched me in many ways possible...besides it being an opportunity to raise funds for the needy, as well as to allow talents to shine, it has become and avenue to encourage and allow individuals to realise their strenght , dedication and determination. Most importantly it has allowed me to learn from it.

On a high note, it was also a pleasant surprise to see so many SALSAJAYERS sparring their Sunday afternoons to come and show their support. Let's see, at the last count.... there was at least 23 of em... your cheers really make it all worthwhile. So thank you , thank you, from me and the rest of the SalsaJayer performers , for being at Auditorium DBKL last Sunday.... your presence does make a difference.

THANK YOU JAYERS! YOU GUYS ARE THE BESTEST.............. !

1st KL International Dance Festival 2007

2007-06-11T02:34:00.000+08:00

The first of it's kind in Asia to bring together a wide variety of dance forms under one roof including Lion Dance, Hip Hop, Tap, Capoeira, Middle Eastern Dance, Break Dancing, Shuffle, Jazz, Ballroom, Latin, Salsa, Argentine Tango, and many more...

This was a celebration of music, of dance and of life. For one week from 4th -10th June 2007, dancers from all walks of life descended onto the Berjaya Times Square Shopping Mall Concourse sharing their passion for dance with the whole world.

DanceSport, which will include the prestigious IDSF World Ranking Open for the 1st time in Malaysia which will see couples from all over the world vying to maintain or improve their world ranking positions. It's going to be a tough battle for many of them which makes it all the more exciting to watch!

Here are some photos from the event.

Getting Personal with the participants

Amidst the sea of crowds at the event, I was fortunate to meet some international participants and spoke to them. 1st time in Malaysia, Chiu Hsiao-Te and Wu Chia-Ying came all the way from Taiwan to participate in the 1st Malaysian IDSF Open World Ranking DanceSport Championship. Chiu has been dancing for 6 years while Wo, for 3 years. It's also interesting to know that they have only coupled up as dance partners 4 months ago but they displayed incredible dancing skills during the competition.

I met this trio Diana, Abdo and Renata at the event too ... and not only they are friendly, I've learnt something from them too. That is ... Syrian girls are really cute. Ok, that wasn't meant to be said out loud but I did. So bite me.

But seriously speaking, I believe these folks are really young but their dancing skills are .... outstanding ! Words could not describe how beautifully they performed ! Bravo .. Syrians !
Of course, these folks went through years of practises .... ballet background I think. Professionally, they have been dancing and performing for 2 years.

A little about ISDF (International DanceSport Federation)

DanceSport denotes dance as a sport activity. Initially this term was applied to competitive ballroom dancing, in its International Style. Ballroom dancing was extremely popular during the 1910's.

The International DanceSport Federation, or IDSF, is an international governing body for amateurs, while the World Dance & DanceSport Council (WD&DSC) is an international governing body for dance professionals.

Amateur Dancesport is of a high standard around the world. Student dancesport in particular enjoys some great popularity around the world, particularly in the UK where some 20,000 students are members of the Inter Varsity Dance Association, or IVDA.

Since 1997 the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has officially recognized the dancesport as sport, with IDSF becoming an IOC Recognized International Sports Federation. The IDSF strongly pushes for the inclusion of dancesport as a medal sport in the Olympic Games. However the decision of the IOC is negative so far. It is in force only until the 2012 Olympics and subject to reconsideration afterwards.

List of DanceSport dances available here.

Stop Press : SalsaJay

2007-06-01T21:44:00.001+08:00

SalsaJay was in the papers. And not any paper, mind you. It's The Star !

Alright .... by now, some of you out there would have responded by this thought ... "soooo what". Well ... it's true .. so what. But it's quite a big deal for me though. Besides the fact that my awkward posing photos being plastered on the middle page of Metro section (for the 2nd time now), I am pretty proud that SalsaJay made it to the press. After all, SalsaJay has never advertised itself as a professional dance school or whatsoever.

Let's just say .. we're just a bunch of reeeeeaaally good friends who came together to learn a fusion of informal dance styles having roots in the Caribbean (especially Cuba), Latin America and North America (as described in Wikipedia.org).

Did you also know that the name "Salsa" is the Spanish word for sauce, connoting a spicy flavor. The Salsa aesthetic is more flirtatious and sensuous than its ancestor Cuban Son. Salsa also suggests a "mixture" of ingredients, though this meaning is not found in most stories of the term's origin.

SalsaJay is just that.

A good "mixture" of individuals from different ethnic and social background with probably very different personalities ... all coming together to this wild música tropical experience that draws upon or reflects elements of Latin culture, regardless of the specific style. Now .. that's a mouthful, whatever it means.

Anyway ... back to the reason SalsaJay was in the papers. I guess it was case of being at the right place ... at the right time.

Many of you may have heard or read the series of articles on Bavani and Mak from Star, taking up Salsa lessons. Well, I've been following up on their stories and somehow met them at the opening of Salsa night in Red Bar, Kota Damansara. After a brief introduction, Bavani called me asking if SalsaJay would like to perform for a charity dinner. That's how all this began.

For the benefits of those who did not manage to read the newspaper articles on Mak and Bavani, I did a little digging and came up with this chronicle.

25th April - Having fun learning the salsa

2nd May - No choice but to change coach

16th May - The adorable salsa shoes!

23rd May - First public demo a real humbling but happy experience

29th May - Move by the plight of the little ones

30th May - Dressing up for the great dance

6th June - A night not to be missed

So there it was. The story of how 2 individuals who totally can't differentiate between salsa as a dance to a dipping sauce, embarking on the journey to appreciate, to learn and finally to express the Salsa es Ritmo!

Story from a virgin salsero

2007-05-26T13:52:00.000+08:00

My First Time……

(as told by rueben)

……on a salsa dancefloor! What were you thinking, you sicko?? Well after much coaxing from the tigress, Jeamie, and some added pressure from a few other notable sources, I finally hit the dance floor in Red Bar, for salsa. I did spend the first 45 minutes or so in the club sitting and watching Fai and Terence dance, thinking how I was totally never gonna be able to pull that off. Not really the best confidence booster I must say. As it is a couple of days earlier, Jeamie put up a post about Tim taking 6 months before his first dance. And here I was thinking, and I made it known to Jeamie, if Tim took 6 months I’m definitely gonna need a year. But a couple of drinks and some wise words from Arina later (She pointed that the club was so empty and no one was gonna be paying attention, so let’s just go make fools of ourselves. She can be a great pillar of strength I tell ya, heheh ) , I decided to let Jeamie pull me to the floor.

Now I think as most guys who faced Jeamie on the floor for the first time can attest, holding her hand seems to hit you with a feeblemind spell, my mind totally went blank. All the moves I thought I new well enough were wiped clean from my brain. I couldn’t even remember how to sequence and underarm turn into a CBL. It was a bundle of nerves, sweaty hands and jelly legs. But I tried to do whatever I could, with a whole lot of lulls doing front-back basic while I gathered my thoughts and wits, and came out alive, traumatized but alive!!!! Now despite whatever Jeamie might say (she is a PR person after all, so I don’t fully trust her), here is my self-review. It was bad!! Just bad!! Some of my most glaring errors:

1) My hands kept slipping off during twirls.
2) The afore-mentioned mind blank of moves.
3) My recovery speed was severely hampered by
a. Lack of sleep (blame the champs league final that finished at 5 am)
b. A bit of alcohol
c. My plain imcompetence
d. All of the above (RIGHT ANSWER)
4) I think I might have actually bumped heads with my wild flailing hands and stepped on toes. My humblest apologies to my unlucky partners

Oh I’m sure there were more bumbles that what I mentioned here but I shall leave it for now. But it did feel very relieving to get it over and done with. Yes I still need a LOT of practice, but surviving the floor did give me some renewed determination to continue with classes and (MAYBE) more salsa clubbing. Oh don’t get me wrong; surviving an empty Red Bar is worlds apart from surviving let’s say, Salsa Havana or some other club that will be more packed with better dances. We practically had to whole place to ourselves in Red Bar, which made it easier to totally make a fool of myself. But yea….

Oh, I think I have to say, a good dose of alcohol (Dutch courage as Tim puts it) is a great help. The trick is to hit that sweet spot where you have had a few drinks to limber yourself up, but not too much that you lose control of your body. Just an observation. HAHA

Well ok, so I survived my baptism of fire. Now I need to cook up a fresh batch of excuses to avoid Salsa clubs for the next few weeks. Oh hell, then again, it’s time to train. Bring on MSF!!!!

Oh ok, quick shout out to the Tuesday ladies who showed up after only 2 (?) classes. I didn’t dance with them, but with what little energy I had that night (not to mention self confidence), I felt that I owed my classmates the first few dances, and injuries. But it did highlight our problem: we have not enough men!!! Without the intermediates, we are in dire straits. Jeamie is already complaining about the lack of eye candy for herself, and we need more man (literally) power. Or maybe good doses of power root???

Til my next foray onto the floor then.

Vote for Zhang Zhen Hong on MY.FM

2007-05-23T11:08:00.000+08:00

Dear all,

Zhang Zhen Hong's song is being played on MY.FM and is being listed up for SMS voting.

So do lend your support by voting for him.

How to vote:

Type MYVOTE <> 16 and send to 32366

The voting will end at 5pm today (23rd May) so do hurry.

The announcement of the result will be made at 8pm tonight as well.

For more information, please check out www.my.fm or www.zhangzhenhong.com.my

Thank You

Malaysian Salsa Scene - spoilt for choice

2007-05-22T17:50:00.000+08:00

Two years ago, if someone would to ask me... where 's the best place to salsa? i would have been able to count the number with my fingers. Of all the places that i have been to, Salsa Havana remains one of my all time favourite.

My acquaintance with Martin Reyes, the manager of Salsa Havana @ Federal Hotel, stretches way way back when he was a band member of a salsa joint in PJ , Juanita @ Crystal Crown to be exact. Back then, my sister and I would swoon and swayed to the music from Martin's live band music. Something about men and their instruments ( *wink *Wink). But anyways , that's not the whole point of this article, although this author does concur that nothing beats dancing to live music!.

Ah .....those were the days where salsa joints were but a precious commodity for salsa-addicts such as i (although in practise ......to the few and many who know me, i may not qualify as one). I have learnt salsa some 5 years ago , and back then my club visits or "field trips" as we use to call it, can range up to maybe 6 (if i am lucky, that is) in a year. However that began to change when i chanced upon a group of people who share the same interests and passion as i do... if not , more.

2007, is the year that i believe Malaysian Salsa is at its highest form. Everywhere i turn, i am surrounded by people trying out new dance tricks on the dance floor ..or starting their love affair with salsa for the very first time. Salsa is also beginning to gain more prominence in the local media. Understandably so as this year, there are at the very least 2 BIG salsa events to choose from ( 1st Malaysian World-Latin Salsa Congress at Port Dickson in June and the 2nd Malaysian Salsa Festival at Pangkor Laut in August), a mini sampler with the Salsa 101 organized at KL Hilton (see promo insert) , and a handful of salsa places to go to practically each day of the week:

Thurs ~ Salsa Cabanna @ Friendster Cafe / Q Bar; Fri ~ Salsa Havana; Sat ~ Little Havana / Salsa Havana
* other days Salsa Havana by requests.

Not a big fan of salsa-ing on a week day night, i found myself heading for a salsa fix not once , but for the past 2 weeks in a row. Last week something amazing happened which tested my limits and boundaries of what i perceived. I went dancing for 2 nights back to back. Talk about commitment! I might as well throw in the towel at work and turn to my new found abilities.. which is to....... Outdance (making sure i have enough endurance on the dance floor, Outlast (keeping myself still alert in the wee hours of the morning), and Out survive ...the long hours at work while trying to appear alert and perky to fellow colleagues and bosses.

All in all a very good year to look forward to. There's so much to see, so much to learn, and so much more to experience. To those out there who have just started with salsa ...my advice is to take this opportunity to truly get to know how wonderful salsa can make one feel. I know, cause i have been fortunate enough to be on the receiving end of this beautiful love affair.

Salsa for Dummies ?

2007-05-16T22:22:00.000+08:00

This is a follow-up from the previous article, Two-Left Feets.

After considerable amount of thinking, I want to share my dance experiences with you, from the perspective of a man. I've been dancing for many years .... well, that's if you consider shaking and wobbling your leg and feets as if you have the fits, dancing. Salsa is something I picked up casually ... a few years ago with my partner. Learning salsa is not as easy as it seems although some people find no difficulties doing this through video clips and watching people dance.

Life Is Unjust ...

Then again, this is life. Some can do it, some don't. Some score .. while the others ... just walk out feeling miserable. Nevetheless, I've always wished for salsa to be documented down in writings. The name of the moves ... how to dance gracefully ... how to hold a girl ... like a man...

It's like ... I wished I had this book ....

Disclaimer : The mentioned documentation above is purely fictional and made-up. The author of this article will not be held responsible for any injuries sustained from self-learning salsa. Please register yourself with any well-established dance institutions to gain proper knowledge in salsa dancing.

Two Left Feets ?

2007-05-15T14:55:00.000+08:00

Fellow salseros and salseras .... how many times have you heard this phrase ... sorry, I can't dance. I have 2 left feet ... usually this is a typical answer from a guy.

And my answer to that ... "If you can walk ... you can dance".

Of course, I did not successfully pester them to join because deep inside .. I know that is an excuse. So don't men like to dance ?

All around the world, people dance. While it is true that not every individual person likes dancing, it is true that all cultures have dances. People dance largely because they enjoy it. There seems to be some mental reward, some joy to be had, from moving in a rhythmical and rather pointless way. That humans have an innate ability to enjoy dancing means that we presumably evolved this. The things that give us pleasure are not random. We enjoy good food, sex, success, hunting, warmth, company, and the like because these all help us to survive and reproduce. People in the past did not evolve to like sex because it gave them pleasure. They evolved to like sex because a liking for sex helped them pass on more genes.

People who hated sex did not become our ancestors.

So, there must be some good reason why humans like to dance. I have a theory which I here put forward to explain why people dance. In short, I believe that women dance in order to encourage men to dance, and that they do this in order to learn about the men.

The Grandparents Observation

If you ask very old people how they met their spouses, the answer will often be that they met on the dance floor. In the time of our grandparents, there was no television, and one of the principle social gatherings was the dance. If you ask a grandmother why she fell in love with her husband, the answer will often be that he was such a good dancer. Conversely, if you ask a grandfather, he is likely to say “Well, she was such a sweet little thing then. The prettiest girl in the room.” It is very rare for a man to fall in love with a woman just because she is a good dancer. I confess that if I saw two women dancing, one of whom danced like a goddess but looked like a hag, while the other looked like a goddess and danced like a limpet, I’d still probably go for the limpet.

The Night Club Observation

Go to a dance club in KL today, and the chances are that if you go early enough, you will see a dance floor populated entirely by women. These may be formed up in small circles, perhaps around piles of handbags, and they would be dancing, and enjoying dancing. They would be getting simple pleasure from the act of moving to the music. They will almost certainly be dancing in a manner which requires little skill. To an observer, they would not be putting out a message which said “Look how skilfully I can dance”. Instead, the message would be either simply “I am enjoying doing this,” or, if they are putting on a show for anyone looking on, it might be “Look what a great body I have.”

Some considerable while later, the floor gets some men on it. This only happens when the floor is so crowded that the men are able to hide on it, and/or when the men have had a great deal to drink, and are too 'boozed' to be able to dance with any skill.

If a man does get up early on, and walks onto the dance floor and starts dancing, then he risks looking a fool. If he dances on his own he looks odd. If he tries to break into one of the rings of women, then he will have a tough time of it. If he dances with enthusiasm and great skill then onlookers are likely to conclude that he is, to use Malaysian slang, “ah beng”, that is, someone who thinks that he is marvelous, but isn’t.

The Salsa Effect

I have done a fair bit of disco dancing but my real love is for Salsa. I have noticed one interesting difference between disco dancing and salsa, which fits my theory rather well.

At the end of a salsa dance which goes well for me, I might get a favorable reaction from my partner. Often, this consists of her opening her eyes as if waking from a nice dream, and saying “That was nice.” She had closed them during the dance, and had been imagining that I was Brad Pitt or Orlando Bloom (that's if they salsa). While dancing with me, she had surrendered control of her body to my lead and her auto-pilot. She had contributed nothing to the choreography of the dance, and had instead been content to go wherever she was led. She was moving to the music, and the music was constant. She was a slave to the rhythm and to the lead. She had enjoyed the dance for the simple reason that she happens to get a kick out of moving to music.

I suppose that for modesty’s sake I should say that not all my dances go this well.

Some women with whom I have corresponded on this topic have reported feeling a “romantic rush” once they have been dancing for a while. It seems that dance can put women “in the mood”, so to speak. Any good male dancers in their vicinity at this point would be in the best position to take advantage of this.

SO WHY MEN DON'T LIKE TO DANCE ?

One might argue that it takes little bravery for a man to get up and dance. Very few men have died dancing, whereas many have died fighting. Men often use Dutch courage (alcohol) to work up the nerve to dance, just as if they were working up the nerve to fight. Men do risk a great deal too by dancing. In a fight a man risks losing his ability to pass on genes. This is the thing of which evolution has made us most terrified. If a man dies, he passes on no more genes. If a man fights badly, he might die. If a man dances badly, he will show the women that he is not a good catch, and so he will pass on few genes. Bravery is the over-coming of fear. Fear evolves to stop us from doing things which might harm our ability to pass on genes. For a man, therefore, dancing does require courage. For a woman is requires almost none. A woman has little to lose by dancing badly.

Partnered Dance

A lot of dance is done in couples. This is not universal, and some see it as possibly a recent European innovation. Nevertheless, I shall write a few words about it. Much of this section is still relevant to other types of dance.

In partnered dances, the man leads and the woman follows. The lead part is more difficult, requires greater strength, and it helps if the leader is larger than the follower. To dance well in unison, the man has to look after his partner. Women do not enjoy men who seek to prove how strong they are by leading with unnecessary force. A good leader leads with enough force and no more, and leads the moves his partner enjoys. It accords with records of female sexual fantasies that they would enjoy dancing with a man who is tall, strong, gentle, and looks after them. By dancing with a man, a woman is in the perfect position to judge both how physically talented the man is at dancing, and how well he treats women. A man who is determined to dance impressively, may ignore the wishes and reactions of his partner, and execute an extra-ordinary series of whirls and jumps, which jars his partner’s shoulder painfully.

Partnered dances are often described as vertical expressions of horizontal desire. A woman can try out her partner’s touch, to see if “chemical electricity” flows. To some degree this may tell her how compatible a sexual partner he might be.

Conclusions

Women have an innate liking for dance. In the past, the women who danced learned more about the men around them, and so passed on more genes, and created a species in which the females have an innate liking for dance. Some things, the women could already see: they knew which men were oldest, which tallest, and which most muscular, but by getting the men to dance, they could learn a great deal more. All information is good. Finding out which men were bad dancers was just as important as finding out which men were good. If a woman gets a man to dance just once in his life, then she has perhaps learned that the reason he doesn’t dance, is that he has two left feet and no rhythm. These women did not have to marry the good dancers, but they might use their knowledge to get the best sperm by having an affair. For most women, the evolutionary jackpot is getting the best sperm in the district, and then fooling some poor sap into helping her bring the resultant child up, thinking it to be his own. Dance helped women achieve this jackpot.

It is well recognized that women are more choosy about sexual partners. Natural selection has armed women with dance to improve their powers of choice. Natural selection has also equipped men with a useful fear of this weapon. - from Evolution Menu

THAT'S WHY MEN DON'T DANCE.

Malaysian Salsa Festival 2007 - Sponsor's Presentation

2007-05-14T18:40:00.000+08:00

Malaysian Salsa Festival 2007 is approaching fast ... I can't wait to ride off into the sunset of The Swiss Garden Damai Laut Golf Resort & Spa and get away from the buzz of citylife. Just in case you were caught offtrack, here's a little countdown timer to check how far are we from MSF 2007.

Waking up to the tropical beat of salsa seems like a very good idea. Can you imagine being there already (imagine yourself in the photo below)... soaking in the cool blue pool, sipping your cocktail with a little umbrella perched on the top ...

The organizing committees of Malaysian Salsa Festival 2007, Linline Production recently organized a sponsor's presentation, a little "preview" to the sponsor's. The event was held at The Studio @ The Lodge Hotel, Kuala Lumpur on the 9th May 2007. I was fortunate to be invited as a guest to the party hence I took the opportunity to take some shots and do a writeup on it.

I arrived at The Studio a little early ... around 7:30pm, since Lin told me the event will begin around that time. As I entered the restaurant, there were barely a few person sitting around waiting for the event to begin. As welcoming as he always is, Roslim was the first to come over and greet me. Then I met Lin and a few other working committees of MSF such as Murni (happy to finally meet her after liaising with her for quite a while), Ina ... and few others.

I finally saw James Q and went over to greet him. As usual, he lugged his Nikon DSLR on his shoulder ... ever ready to shoot any opportunity shots. I couldn't be any happier to confidently whip out my digital camera to being shooting .. (now that I have company !). After a few clicks, James introduced me to Datuk Arif and Datin Kim. Some brief conversation with him later and I found out that he has been very actively involved in the salsa scene for a very long time.

I continued shooting away until they finally announced that dinner is served (finally!). Both James and I waited not a minute longer, starvingly dropped our cams and dived in ! Being an amateur food critic myself ... I would like to comment that the food in The Lodge is definitely awesome ! (Mental note) Someday, I should make an appointment to run a review with these folks at The Lodge ....

Right after dinner, Tsu Mae (MC for MSF 2006) ran through some presentations on details of MSF 2007 ... the current status and what is being expected at MSF 2007. I am thoroughly impressed to know that :

There were already confirm participants from not only neighboring countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and India but also USA, United Kingdom and Japan.
There were already 243 confirmed participants after only the first month of announcing this event. She went on to provide some statistical numbers on salsa population and their preference in Malaysia.

Very interesting facts ! I would love to get my hands on those information and publish them here ... for the benefit of all !

The night went on with another spectacular performance by Fasilito and Jenny, and despite the sound system went a little 'remixed' ... they put on a good show with spins and flips to awe the audiences ! A big 'applause' to Fasilito and Jenny...

And the night ended with the dance floor being open to public and Datuk and Datin being the first to be 'ushered' to start the dance ball rolling. I would like to comment .. that they are the most 'happening' Datuk and Datin I've ever known .. !!!

Anyway, since it was a Wednesday .... midweek crisis started hitting me. My physical batteries were getting drained by the minutes. But not before having at least 1 dance ... with Ina. Well, having 1 dance on the dance floor in midweek is hard to come by ... therefore ... I am satisfied....

Anyway, watch out for the next article on Malaysian Salsa Festival - a detailed writeup on the Instructors ....

SalsaJay First Open Day

2007-05-10T21:27:00.000+08:00

SalsaJay recently hosted its first Open Day affair on 5th May 2007. After months of trying to fit in new salsa enthusiasts into the handful of classes that SalsaJay have .... the need for new classes became rather apparent.

What's an open-day you asked? Well it's an event to allow a gathering of people to try out and experience something totally out of their usual comfort zone. In this case, it was a means to sample some basic Salsa dancing as well as Latin Dance forms.

Latin Dance, by which we go by the flirtatious cha cha cha, to the ever passionate rumba, jive, samba, as well as the fiery paso doble ( see the movie Strictly Ballroom for more visual effects in which the male is the matador, and the women as ...get this, the matador's cape!.) Yes, after years of just salsa... Latin Dancing has finally arrived at SalsaJay.

Invitations were quickly issued and sent a few days before the BIG DAY. It was like a big family day production..... minus the kids. I have had Jayers volunteering to buy refreshments, ice, paper plates, and etc etc. It was all goooooooooooood!

The Open Day program started at 5pm and people were told to report in early. But true to Malaysian timing, being fashionably late is an understatement.

The people that were invited, came for different reasons. Some came to learn dancing, some were dragged by their spouses and the rest ...well, we'll soon find out. The classes went rather well , and were assisted by fellow SalsaJayers who in good spirit came to loan their bodies and hands. As usual, the ladies outnumbered the men ( lucky devils).

While the Salsa class attracted quite a good crowd, the later Latin class was overwhelmed ! Helps that the instructor himself, Darren Yee, is one of the most sought after Latin Instructors in town and has several championship titles under his belt. Anyways, the tryouts was so packed that students could hardly move !

In the midst of all the commotion, the existing Jayers still found time to post and preen for the cameras. Sadly... i didn't get any screen time at all!!!!!!! Next time, i better hire my own cameraman :)

All in all, SalsaJay's first open day was a success. Thanks to all who have participated and all who have contributed their time and efforts to share the joy of salsa ( and now latin) around. Let's all look forward to the next Open Day.

Where R U With Salsa?

2007-05-09T15:23:00.000+08:00

To many, once you salsa, you get addicted and there’s no turning back. Kind of like falling in love I think. So here is my version of the phases of love with salsa. Kindly let me know if you agree, and if you do, which phase you are in!

1st Date

The first date is a tricky one. Sometimes you’re forced to go. Other times you just want to try something different. Most of the times, you’ve heard about it and wanted to check it out for yourself. At this stage, you’re still forming your opinion so Ms(or Mr) Salsa is still a vaguely shapeless entity you’re not sure you’re into. But if you definitely not into, you’ll know at this stage too and stop here.

Casual Dating

If you decided to go on a second date, that means you ‘sort of’ like what you tried. But you can still live without salsa just yet ;P. You are not in love enough to miss it. And fairly confident it’s nothing more than an evening fling you can live without. This period may last a few dates or as long as a few years… a platonic relationship that’s slowly but surely developing further. Little do you realize that you are nearing the Event Horizon (in astronomy terms, the point of no return; the line in the Black Hole when no object can escape being sucked in)

The Whirlwind Romance

This is the stage when you’ve fallen hook, line and sinker. You’re intoxicated. Like a whirlwind romance, you can’t get enough of each other. You think about it all the time, start to organize your life around it and can’t imagine not having it. Your salsa antics – if translated to a human relationship – would be like a couple madly in love.

The Stable Couple

The initial passion and excitement of a new relationship has come to an end… and you have now settled into a comfortable, cozy twosome. Your object of desire is now a big & regular part of your life you still can’t live without but now it’s fixed as a routine pattern already. This stage can go on forever, like a couple co-habiting, or can progress to The Married Couple.

The Married Couple

At this point, you’ve decided to live with salsa, for rich or poor, in sickness & in health. It has become so integral to your life that when people remind you how good you are, you go “huh?” having taken for granted how long you’ve devoted yourself to it and how much you’ve grown. Usually this stage are the people who are so devoted they took up teaching, performing, administrating, organizing festivals or some sort of salsa legwork with all its mundane stuff like taking care of the bills etc just like a married couple.

The Married Couple with Kids

Like a Mr & Mrs, you and salsa continue to grow together, still learning something new each day. Only this time, you have to divide time screaming after kids who won’t listen to you ;-P. It can be a tiring job raising kids and the only reward is to see them grow.

Can you relate to that? If so, which stage of the relationship are you at?

A Surprise For Teacher

2007-04-27T16:37:00.000+08:00

I am in trouble.

Trying to remember everything that has occurred during the week we planned our teacher, Jeamie Lee's surprise birthday party isn't going to be an easy task. And to thing this surprise birthday party was one of our best-planned surprise party to-date. Just like the teacher said it ... "this is the new benchmark for all surprise birthday parties". And I'll drink to that !

It all started in the beginning of April. The initial plan was to have a surprise birthday party for Jeamie before her actual birthday ... a week earlier to coincide with a Saturday. But the plan was held back as we realized that Jeamie will be attending the Money & You program throughout the week that we're planning the event which leaves us no other option but to postpone it a week later. I guess it's a blessing in disguise because that left us more room to add more items to the agenda. An idea struck us (imagine the light bulb on my head lights up!) that we should get SalsaJay students to perform for her.

With that thought in mind, Tamie put on her organizing cap and began mobilizing, gathering and planning the resources to make this work. Communication notes were distributed ...an email each to the beginners, intermediates .... and to the advance folks to canvass them to perform during Jeamie's surprise birthday party and another to friends and family informing them to participate in the event.

What happened next was way out of everyone's expectation. Swifts responses came in ... answering to the request for performance ... without hesitation. With that aside, the next challenge was to develop sequences for the 3 groups of students .. catering to their current skill and ability level. This wasn't easy at all, considering some of the beginner students has just started their lessons just weeks ago.

Things began to fall into place ..a piece at a time. Just as Tamie and I was banging our heads thinking where to have the practices for the students ... Jeamie called, informing us that she will not be coming for the Friday class and Fai (Assistant Instructor) would have to replace her to teach. We screamed with joy ... and almost instantly after getting off the phone with Jeamie, Tamie distributed more emails ... informing all the students involved to move in for practices.

As planned, the students came in for the practice on Friday (coincidentally Fri the 13th!!!) and while the Intermediates were having their usual classes ... taught by Fai, I started briefing them about the footwork sequence that they will be performing with. As I mentioned earlier, things fall into place almost coincidentally ... because Kuok Peng actually turned up and help coached the beginners. Fai also took turns to coach the beginners further to help strengthen their skills. With everything running that smooth, there's no way we would fail !

Well, heck ... it almost did ! While practices went on, we also celebrated the students who's birthdays fell on April .. like we did, monthly. And since Jeamie wasn't there .. she would expect to see photos of the event. Somehow ... somewhat ... the birthday photos went public and Kuok Peng's face was in it. And as sharp as Jeamie is ... she was asking us why is Kuok Peng at the studio ... after all, usually Jeamie is the one to invite Kuok Peng over for any event. Good thing is, we managed to mumble some silly excuse and change the topic... (hmm.. not that sharp after all, eh?)

We continued working on the sequencing the following day with help from Fai and Tamie. Michael Yip was great help as he could remember almost all the steps that Jeamie taught them. Slowly but surely, Tamie & Michael worked out the intermediate sequences. Despite the strong team spirit ... some tension and dramas surfaced causing some of the students to consider dropping out of the performance but the issue was solved eventually. It is amazing to see the strong team spirit and how much effort were the students putting in .. all because they had one purpose in mind. That is to make Jeamie, their teacher be proud of them.

And while the students and the rest were busy with the dance performances, other agendas were being planned as well.

The next itinerary to go on the board was to have Zhang Zhen Hong singing for Jeamie. A good start ... and like the Timothy you know, I don't bow down. And neither does Tamie ... we wanted live-bands, we wanted to invite all of Jeamie's friends to attend the party and surprise her. After some serious thoughts ... we scrapped the idea. Well, some of it .. that is. Somehow, it felt like we're organizing her wedding rather than her surprise birthday party!

So we agreed on the agenda ... Zhang Zhen Hong' sings ... and fellow students perform. Now to fix the location ... a phone call later and I managed to confirm it @ Cigar Divan ... our brand new Salsa Club in Eastin Hotel.

Richard and Jennifer, if you're reading this ... thank you very much from the bottom of my heart for helping us pull this through. And I would like to apologize on behalf of the gang if there's any inconvenience caused ...

We now have the location to run this event, next ... to finalize on the performances. Whoaa... check it out ... we actually have performances. Oh yes we do !!!

Just to recap, this was what we had planned ...

1) Zhang Zhen Hong serenading Jeamie with his favourite number in his first EP, "Beautiful Lady" harmonized by Timothy and special guest, Jacques Lebosse .. this will be the first time ever, for anyone to hear Beautiful Lady being sung by a French man. (and to think I still have that tune in my head till today ....). Special Rhumba performance by Jennifer Kot and Sean Hong. Also in the list is another song performance by Zhang Zhen Hong, titled "You're My One And Only" ... with special Cha Cha Cha performance by Sean Hong ... and a surprise dance with Jeamie Lee.

2) The beginner, intermediate and advance students agreed to perform a sequence ... using only the steps that teacher Jeamie has taught them.

3) Salsa birthday song ... this is a must ! Somehow, this has became a tradition. A birthday custom. The birthday person get's to dance with the opposite sex ... not one but the whole club, if possible !

Some more efforts were planned to throw Jeamie off the surprise birthday track even further for her ... she is helluva smart and suspicious when coming to birthday surprises. First, we got Richard from Divan to SMS Jeamie, informing her to come on Saturday (21st Apr) because there's a salsa performance by some international group. This is to 'ensure' that we CAN plan a trip to Divan on Saturday without creating any suspicion.

Then we organized a sorta "simple" birthday gathering for her @ The Curve ..TGIF on her actual birthday .. the 19th. It was just me, Tamie, Jacques, Zai, Greg and Zhang Zhen Hong ... and guess what, we completed it with presents and all. It must be a jolly good evening for Jeamie for she had quite a lot of fun, more for us ... especially when the TGIF folks did their traditional birthday thingy on Jeamie (I quietly told them to do so... ).

Just before we left The Curve, it rained hard ! (I guess lying on people's birthday isn't a good idea .. even if it's for goodness sake!). And we could see it in Jeamie's eyes .. she was kinda reluctant to leave that early (we left at around 11 ish) ... but we told her we can't stay as next day was a working day.

Things quiet down the next day for Jeamie ... while we (the advance fellows) continue to squeeze our already brain-dead mind and pushed it further to memorize our sequences .. 3 full minutes of it ! And we have to thank the Lebosses for letting us practice @ his place ... and to top that, they even ordered pizzas during one of our practices.

One thing lead to another and very soon, it's THE DAY. Saturday, 21st April 2007 will probably be the day many of SalsaJay students won't forget very quickly. To many of us, it was just another Saturday as usual. SMS'es flying around confirming rehearsal timing and stuffs to bring. For me and Tamie, we had our usual family day outing ... and while at it ... we bought some birthday decoratives from The Curve ... Party Shop. I managed to grab some temporary tattoos while at it. Tamie got the banners and a gigantic birthday card.

At 2pm, we got to Eastin Hotel ... and checked into the hotel room. Oh, almost forgot ... Richard .. thanks a million for providing us with the free hotel room.

After checking in and dropping our stuffs ... we quickly hurried down for our final rehearsal. When we got to Divan, the beginners and intermediates were already doing their stuffs. Up-to-date, I am pretty impressed by their level of commitment with the mentioned objectives in their mind. Bravo guys and gals ... you've earned my respect ! Although the rehearsals went through fine, I could see the worried faces .. especially with the Intermediates. Of course, I fully understand their predicaments .. after all, it's a whole 2 minutes 30 seconds of salsa sequencing ... and they only came up with it ... in like, 3 days ago ???

As for the beginners (some started salsa lessons just weeks ago), I did not sense as much anxiety. Maybe it has to do with the fact that they did not know what are they getting themselves into. Or they are descendants of warriors from the recent movie 300 ! Either way, it proves that fear is the only factor that is preventing people from performing ... in this case, a dance performance.

Of course .... easier said than done, I practically messed up my rehearsal. I began to wonder how am I to perform that night. Checking my watch ... 6:00pm. I pushed the thought aside and began ushering the guys to go prepare and get some dinner as well. We had our dinner ... and went back to the hotel room to get prepared.

(Fast Forwarding to 9:30pm .....)

We are now all dressed and ready to roll. Time check again.... 9:32pm. Walked around a little, checked with Xavier if everything is alright. Mic check ... good. Timecheck ...9:34pm. Gosh ! Why the heck is the time passing so slow .... The crowd is slowly flowing in ... I can see Richard and Jennifer out at the entrance ... seems to be happy with the crowd.

Finally .. it's 10:30pm. It's time. It's now or never.

I overheard someone saying Jeamie has arrived ! Very quickly, I went around to verify the information ... which is true. I proceed to get everyone in position. Another call confirmed that Jeamie has arrived Eastin and is now entering the parking lot.

Gosh ! What a VIP !

Felt like the Secret Services are positioned all over the building, watching every of Jeamie's moves.

Crackle...crackle .... the radio beeped. A voice boomed through the speaker of the walkie. Alpha to Tango, Alpha to Tango. The bird is in the cage, the bird is IN THE CAGE.

Roger, roger. Everyone .. in position. Team Jollypecker, are you in position ? AFFIRMATIVE, sir. Team Willywonka ... positions? GOOD TO GO, sir ! Team Junglejerry .. all in positions? Yes, sir YES !

Again the radio beeped ... Alpha to Tango, Alpha to Tango ... the bird approaching target, sir !

I blinked twice and woke up from my daydream. Okay, back to reality ... I just realized that Jeamie is ALREADY AT THE ENTRANCE of Divan ... I grabbed the microphone and go on full standby mode. The moment Jeamie stepped into Divan, I practically shouted through the microphone ... JEAMIE IS IN THE HOUSE. JEAMIE LEE, THIS IS A SURPRISE BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR YOU. SO ... SURPRISEEEEE !!!! AND SHE WAS GREETED WITH LAUGHTERS, APPLAUSE AND CONFETTI'S....

You should've seen her face ..... ! She screamed as everyone in the house (club) shouted "SURPRISE" to her .... She slowly staggered her way into the club ... and someone brought a chair and made her sit right next to the bar, in front of the dance floor. The first show ... is a number by Zhang Zhen Hong, an invited guest (the latest upcoming singer/dancer/actor in town) especially dedicated to Jeamie titled Beautiful Lady. As he began to belt out his song ... Jennifer swirled in with her ultra-sexy Rhumba moves ... followed by Sean.

Fellow readers ... if you were here .. you'd understand what I meant .. if you were not ... do note that I nosebled for a while. Just when Zhen Hong did his second chorus .. yours truly grabbed the microphone and did an accompaniment ...a mild surprise to all. The greatest and 'bestest' surprise was when Jacques Lebosse came in to do the 3rd chorus. The crowd reacted as if Back Street Boys just did a guest appearance. But of course, to hear a French man sing to Zhang Zhen Hong's Beautiful Lady is a chance of a lifetime.

Jacques .... you're the man ! Still remember the verse "Wu Fxxx Dai Thi"? .... (if you don't understand ... read Beautiful Lady's lyrics).

The performance was the salsa performance .. by the students. 3 groups ... 3 dance sequences ... respectively @ 1 minute, 2 minute 30 seconds and finally 3 minutes. The intermediates struggled a little but otherwise good showmanship. And this definitely caught Jeamie by surprise ... and you can definitely see it in her face ... the face of one happy and proud teacher.

Almost immediately after the dance performances, the birthday cake was rolled out ... and smacked right in the middle of the birthday cake was a candle that said "DON'T EVEN ASK" .. which I guess refers to Jeamie's age ??? We shall not debate that issue any further .... for now.

Done with the birthday cake ... and on to the dancing. I don't know if all salsa dancers practices this but very often, our birthday baby get's to dance with members of the opposite sex ... for a whole salsa birthday song. And I am talking about the birthday baby getting a new partner every 30 seconds or more. The song went on for about 4 minutes plus .. and you would be right to think Jeamie is tired after that dance ... guess again. She's as active as a grasshopper ... or was it a rabbit.... whatever.... anyway .. she's still active.

Zhang Zhen Hong came in again to do another number ... this is a fast one, also a song wrote by himself ... titled "You're My Only One" ... and Sean surprised Jeamie by asking her to dance with him. After some thank you speeches by Jeamie Lee ... Divan's dance floor was finally opened to the public when Salseras and Salseros spin the rest of the night to the clave and drum beats of the Cuban mood.

This story is written based on a real event. Any incidental mentioning of names are purely done on purpose.

Interview with LadyKay

2007-04-23T17:20:00.000+08:00

How many of you listen to Traxx.fm on Wednesday nights? The reason I say that is because I only tune in to Traxx.fm on Wednesday night from 10pm to 1am for the WHATEVER LATIN radio show.

I'm sure if you tune in at those hours, you'd know who LadyKay is, right? I have the greatest of opportunity to have an online interview with her recently and well, this is how it goes...

1.) Hola LadyKay, do you remember me?
Of coz I remember you,.. you are the person who requested Noelia's song in salsa version .... and at the time i aired the dedications your gf is not tuning in... how can i forget...

Wow... to be honest after so long being interviewing people.. it feels kinda different and weird but good kinda weird to be interviewed by someone hehehe...

2.) Can you tell the readers something about yourself?
I am reaching 30s... gosh and that sounded so OLD already to me... and I love travelling, photography, music and latin dance is my newly found passion. I started off in diferrent field all together than what I am doing at the moment... ahha... that is for me to know and you to find out... I hate spicy foods and durian... but love cold and soupy foods...

Hmmm what else about me... I am the eldest of 3. I have a brother who is married (Anne, the first granchild in the family.. woohOooo), my sister is in medical field as do my mother. I lobe doing charity especially at old folks and orphanages. I do love hanging out with friends as well especially during the weekends when i dont have nothing plans or having an adhock plan... ROADTRIP!!!!

3.) How did you get involve in traxx FM especially the show WHATEVER LATIN?
It started off by me being a close friend to flying-singh! He always encouraged me to apply since I have the voice that is what he said... My passion for music grew even deeper when i started spinning in few clubs before i been called for an interview for the job in radio. I hosted few programmes before such as Midnight Romance, Good Morning Malaysia and few others before the rebranding excersice took place on April 1st few years back... then I was for while transfered to the radio news center as a reporter and editor then to the TV production (Entertainment unit) being a producer.

I am all rounders ... then I was called back to TRAXXfm. I thought i need to do something different and since in one of the belting we have genre music and that time i just started to familiarised myself with the latin music and dances,... the idea just sparked and there it is.. Whatever Latin. I took this initiative as well cause by the survey that i have done, many malaysians now are into the latin scene and It's a good thing. Why whatever latin? cause i dont only play salsa, but I cater for all genre of Latin music... eg: samba, reaggaeton, chacha, pop, ballads, rnb, oldies, boleros and many more.

4.) What is your favorite Salsa song? Is there a Fav. song you will always play during your show?
My favourite salsa song would be Luis Enriques - Quien Eres Tu and Charanga Habanera - Ay Hay Amor. Being in a radio you cant always play what you like... cause we as a DJ has to always remember that we are playing it for the pleasure of the listeners.

But at the same time we have to know the boundries of entertainment... we cant satisfied everyone... so we try our best... and no, I dont try and put the same songs most of the time of my favourite cause that would be so not fair to the rest. Whether we like it or not... you have to play it.

5.) Weird song request ever?
Hmmm let see... so far, i would have to say none of the request is that weird yet.. i only have a few who wanted songs sung by kids... and they kinda persistance on that one.. hmm dont know why and they dont even know the title of the song... but i did try and find it .. to my dissapointment i still didnt find anything till today... sorry! perhaps another song?

6.) Most memorable experience as a salsa-addic?
I would have to say,... being able to dance! Eventhough from my observation not many guys would dare to dance with someone of my size but those who cares to dance and would... its a wonderful feeling to be able to move around the dance floor gracefully and having a pair of DANCING SHOE. Honestly, being in the latin scene you can also see people are into dancing and not much of hanky panky and making and meeting new compadres from all walks of life, its also the most memorable experiences in my life.

7.) What can you tell about the Malaysia Salsa Scene...

It is now one of the sought after scene in Malaysia. The speedy exposure to the public is one of the greatest achievement. Before, I remember the hip hop and reggae and stuff but now Salsa is THE in thing for Malaysians.

People are actually opening up their eyes to the scene and broadening up their mind and venturing into this type of music and the way they dance. I am so sure that sometime soon in future Most malaysia would turn it into some local top entertainment not only in clubs but also in other premises and on the air!

8. Where's your Fav. salsa club(s)?
So far from few that I've visited i would have to say I fancy Salsa Havana and Qbar. Why?

Salsa Havana - love the spacious dance floor and the crowd are well educated ones. PR of the owner and their workers are brilliant.

QBar - Eventhough the small dance floor didnt stop people from pushing one another at the dance floor the ambience there is so HOT and SPICY! The live band added up the spice and the music mix are pretty well done. the food there is not so bad either.

9. Weirdest place to Salsa?
Haha must it be a salsa club? I would have to say the weirdest place would be Me doing the dance in the Conti! ... While im on air that is... U just play the music and blast it in the studio and start dancing ....

In term of weirdest place (club) hmmmm Well i dance salsa sometimes in Rum Jungle LOL.. eventhough its not a salsa joint but who cares... the music counts...

10. 5 words describing salsa
Hot, Spicy, Sexy,Addictive and Breath-taking.

11.Where do you see Salsa in 5 yrs times?
As I mentioned im sure the scene will expend its horizon and most of the public in Malaysia will be aware of the genre of music and many will definitely know how to move to the tempo. Its great success im sure in near future.

12. Any last word?
My thanks to SalsaJay, and all of the readers for supporting the Salsa Scene here in Malaysia. To TRAXXfm listeners keep supporting us and thank you for all your kind support as well.

I am glad there are such things called the Latin Music cause it's refreshes someone heart and soul and put a smile each and everytime u move to the beat. I am a living proof for that. Keep dancing, keep smiling and keep the Salsa Scene alive! Viva La Salsa.

Alrighty micheal.. thanks interviewing me... Cheers mate

What happened to 4 & 8?

2007-04-12T11:50:00.000+08:00

My coordination sucks! I have two left feet and two left arms. I cannot remember the moves I learnt only moments ago and I can’t string a sequence together for all the tea in China! So why did I come back to Salsa? I’m either gluten for punishment or have a dancing death wish.

Here’s my story ...

Three years ago I met a Promotions Executive from BMG Records. She was bubbly, had an infectious smile and had more energy than James Brown on steroids…. que Ms Jeamie Lee. At that time I was working for a free press magazine in the city. Usual publishing story ... long term goals, short term plans. Jeamie was the client and I was the sales and marketing geezer convincing her that this month’s edition of the magazine was hot of the press and in the shops. This however could not be further from the truth. The stark reality was that the company had barely enough money to print their own name cards let alone a 100 page, full colour, glossy magazine. During my time at the magazine I was often asked how we could afford to print such a glossy magazine when it was distributed for free. It was simple – we couldn’t! For those of you who know Jeamie will know she has a face that you just can’t lie too. And to cut a long story short, we told her about the dilemma, she stop advertising, I left and the magazine closed.

Now to the salsa ... during this upheaval Jeamie asked whether I liked dancing. Sure I do, I remarked. Naturally, I was thinking of my John Travolta, hip shaking, ass-moving dare devil moves on the hot dance floors of KL. When I was informed this type of dancing was Latin American Salsa grooving I gave one of those unconvincing “sounds interesting” remarks.

We’ve all given that fake, semi muted grunt sound when someone suggests something that sounds as appealing as having your teeth removed with a spoon! Yet I was convinced to give it a shot. I went home that evening and told the old ball and chain (my girlfriend) and my two friends (Jacques & Zai) that I knew someone who teaches salsa and what do they reckon. It was a big yes, and the following week we headed over for our first lesson at SalsaJay. At that time I don’t think it had a name and went by ‘Jeamie’s-mums-place-the-studio-in-old-town’!

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:- No-one told me that coordination and sequencing was involved! On the hot dance floors of KL I was in my element flipping my arms and legs like a deranged baboon to disco tunes from a bygone era.

Why ... ?

Because we were all doing it and we all looked cool! Here…in the studio…I had to remember the names of moves and then put these moves into a coherent sequence. And to make matters worse I had to count at the same time and miss out the numbers 4 & 8!

Madness!

One year later, sadly I could no longer make the classes. A 2 ½ slash 3 year hiatus set–in and it wasn’t until I logged onto to MSN that Jeamie convinced me to come back. So I did, just before last Christmas. And it hit me straight away what I missed about the lessons. It wasn’t only the challenge, and trust me, it’s a challenge, but it was the camaraderie, the fellowship and the friendship. SalsaJay creates this aura, it’s hard to explain but it makes you want to come back. Something tells me with Jeamie at the helm supported by Tamie on admin, Tim pumping the marketing machine, Michael the BlogMaster and the rest actively recruiting Jayers, SalsaJay has a long and prosperous future ahead. But a special shout out must go to Mr Fai who moves like James Brown on that dance floor, makes me green with envy and supports Jeamie relentlessly week in, week out!

So to future Jayers, I have come to realise that I will never be the Michael Flattery of the Salsa world with my two left feet and two left arms but I will keep trying until either I have no friends left or I turn up to class and they have moved elsewhere!!

Thank you for having me.

The 1st Malaysian World-Latin Salsa Congress

2007-04-06T16:38:00.000+08:00

Never see Salsa as what you can be, but rather what you are. See it with the soul, not the mind - BorikenSalsero

The 1st Malaysian World-Latin Salsa Congress is the first salsa or latin festival or congress of its kind in Malaysia to garner support from the local Ministries and to reach out to the masses. The Congress true to its name honors the place of creation of this rhythm and dance and though many countries make a claim to its origin it is now a rhythm and dance that belongs to the world.

Presented by the International Federation of Women's Enterpreneurs (IFWE), and supported by The International Woman Association of Malaysia (IWEM), the 1st Malaysian Word-Latin Salsa Congress brings the world of latin music to you. A collaborative effort at all levels, the event creates a new chapter in the world of salsa and enterpreneurship.

Reasons Why You Should Go To Selesa Beach Resort, Malaysia For the 2007 1st Malaysian World-Latin Salsa Congress

Shows & Performances
The 2007 1st Malaysian World-Latin Salsa Congress includes 3 nights of spectacular shows. Highlights of the show features a fifteen piece Venezuelan Salsa Band "Banda Sigilosa".

(An opportunity for all Malaysians to see what a real salsa band in Latin America really is like!!!!! AND OF COURSE to experience the sound of all the instruments that make salsa the music that it is!!!!!)

The 1st Malaysian World-Latin Salsa Congress features some of the most inspiring Latin Dancers from all over the world including

Luzdalli Bello - Venezuela
Johnny Sanchez - Salsa Y Punto, Spain/ Venezuela
Salsa Y Punto- Spain / Venezuela
ASERE- Cuba / Japan
Patricia - Ritmo Latino, Venezuela/ Malaysia
Fasilito - Dance Spirit, Malaysia

Dance Workshops
There will be endless workshops taught by some of the best Latin Dance Instructors in the world. You can learn Salsa, Bachata, Reggeton and Cumbia and many more. Whether you’re a beginner or a professional, you will find a workshop to suit your level of expertise.

There will be a dedicated "Beginner's Room" for those people who are new to Latin Dance, as well as Advanced workshops for even the most seasoned professionals...

Parties All Night Long
Each night of the Congress there will be a party with live bands and DJs. The parties represent a great opportunity to dance and make friends with people from all over the world. Some of the best dancers from Venezuela and Australia will be ready and willing to give you a spin on the dance floor, not to mention our local talents...

The Most Affordable Salsa Event
The Malaysian World-Latin Salsa Congress represents excellent value for money. Do check out the price packages below.

The Full Pass package covers :

1) Included Accommodation from the 29th June check-in in the morning till the 2nd July (check-out) 3 days and 3 nights
2) Breakfast, Lunch and Dinners for the whole event
3) All the entrance to all the workshops
4) Entrance to our beach party
5) Gala Dinner
6) Entrance to all the dance performances
7) Entrance to all the Musical shows with the 15 piece band From Venezuela.
8) The Gala Dinner will also include a special Latin Guest Star who will be singing with the band

Port Dickson Is A Great Place To Visit
Port Dickson or more popularly known as, PD is a favourite weekend getaway for Kuala Lumpur and Singaporean folks especially those seeking some time away from the hot, stifling cities. Refreshing cool breeze blowing in from the straits and the relaxed environment was one of the reasons for choosing this tiny seaside village as a colonial beach resort. PD's main attraction is its 18km stretch of white sandy beaches.

Selesa Beach Resort is nestled on a stretch of white sandy beach on Malaysia’s West Coast. With a scenic view of the Malacca Straits, Selesa Beach Resort is an ideal retreat for a getaway or convention venue. Easily accessible via the North-South Expressway, it is just an hour away from the ever bustling city of Kuala Lumpur and historical Malacca and 45 minutes drive from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).

Please register as soon as you can because rooms are limited !

Sweat & the Dance Floor

2007-04-04T12:31:00.000+08:00

OK... You know the saying.. "It's a Jungle out there...."? Well, when it comes to salsa clubs, sometimes, it is.... but let me tell you what can happen in a hot, sweaty club.. (And to those of you with a polluted head ... [points at Lelek and Wilson] I know what you two are thinking when you read that...)

Anyway, back to my story... this came to mind after SalsaJay's outing to Cigar Divan @ Eastin. In anticipation of another great night of dancing and some great non-stop salsa music... when I reach the place with Stephanie, the place is packed and well, a tad too bright.. but that's not what this post is all about.

As I walk to the back of the club, I brush past some dancers at the edge of the dance floor and unluckily get stomped by a long, sharp heel down on my foot. And I'm not sure whether they are beginners or selfish dancers who are so busy still concentrating on their steps that they don't even bat an eyelash or say sorry.

Some of you may say, how can a dancer know the difference? Well, you take a crowded room full of experienced dancers and compare it to a room full of inexperienced dancers; and let me tell you how many times you were bumped into or stepped on. I can guarantee you it will be less than 10% or not at all because they usually are considerate about their floor space or stop their partner before they bump or step on another dancer.

But that was not the end of the night's dance...

Imagine the inexplicable feeling of dancing with a partner who's clothes are soaked to their skin; and actually do moves that make your hands brush against their sweaty clothes!

Or how about a sweaty two-kiss hello we all love to do but to have their sweaty cheeks bathe your own in sweat!

Dancers, please remember some basic etiquette rules as alot of the salsa venues seem to lack proper air conditioning:

1. Bring a change of clothes if you know you sweat alot the dance floor.

2. Don't actually kiss when you're sweaty... and let the dancer know that's why you're not really giving the proper hello or goodbye.

3. If a dancer insists on dancing with you, you can warn them that your clothes are soaked right through; therefore they have the chance to refuse.

And always, always watch out for your partner to ensure they don't bump or step on someone else on the dance floor. And if you do, please remember to apologize.

If you didn't even notice, guaranteed, you need to pay more attention to your dance space and not just on your partner and your moves.

PS. Maybe we should do like the JPJ and come up with some Defensive Dancing to cater to all this things.

Salsa Video: Ruby

2007-04-03T13:41:00.000+08:00

The Salsa Congress is just around the corner.
The Salsa Festival is just a couple of months away.

Now I know some of you readers have been selected to perform at the festival. And if it's your first time, definitely you'd feel scared/stage fright/nervous. Basically every type of fear that you could associate with performing in front of a capacity crowd. Getting worried now?

Well, don't be, all I want to say is, practice, get the steps right and when you go out there. Just enjoy yourself!

If that still does not convince you, check this video out.

As you can see, she's just a young kid and if she can do it. So can you!

Malaysian Salsa Festival 2007 - The Destination

2007-04-02T16:35:00.000+08:00

For four days from morning to early morning, you’ll have the opportunity to choose from many of the dance workshops from beginner to advanced levels in different styles of Latin dance, being taught by a list of the most sought after Instructors both nationally and internationally renowned. Spectacular dance performances comprised of the hottest local and international dance groups from around the world. And the night ends (or not) with taglines such as ...

"We Partied till the Crack of Dawn! Every. Single. Night.".

And guess what ... there's no one to call your mobile phone ... asking you to get home because it's too late !!!!!!

All of this and more, right smack in the heart of a lust tropical forest where the sun shines at the deep blue sea .... where bosses can't find you, emails don't arrive and traffic jams are unheard of.

This year marks the second year of the Malaysian International Salsa Festival. For those of you who attended the Malaysian International Salsa Festival 2006, I am sure the memories are still fresh. You will be able to "re-live" those exciting moments this year. As for those first timers, believe me you are not going to want to miss any of this. Being that this is THE ULTIMATE AND MOST AFFORDABLE SALSA HOLIDAY available, there’s absolutely no sleeping till Sunday. Oh and whatever happens at the Malaysian Salsa Festival, stays at the Malaysian Salsa Festival.

And now a little about our holiday destination, the Swiss-Garden Resort & Spa Damai Laut.

Swiss-Garden Resort & Spa Damai Laut is a very private hotel with 300 well appointed guestrooms overlooking the Straits of Malacca and Pangkor Island. It is located on a 425 acres of natural rainforest and surrounded by lush tropical rainforest, wetlands and offers beautifully landscaped gardens and large open spaces with breathtaking sea view for guests who want to relax and enjoy a wonderful retreat to nature.

All rooms are either overlooking the serene blue sea or lush tropical forest. Each of the rooms are spacious and comes with a hint of unobtrusive elegance. The decor is of traditional Malaysian design to show our desire to make your stay as comfortable as home.

Zhang Zhen Hong: Living the Stuff of his dreams...

2007-04-02T14:47:00.000+08:00

April 1, 2007 - April's Fools Day. The only prank I received was from Stephanie, as usual, I believe everything she tells me, so it's easy for her.

Anyway, enough about that, at 1am (Monday), weary from my drive back from Ipoh... I was browsing through The Sunday Star and came across this article in the Face-2-Face section, page 6, about Zhang Zhen Hong. True stuff, ain't no April Fools stuff, full page spread.

The article is titled Living the stuff of his dreams. If you've missed the article or didn't have the Sunday Star, you can read the article here.

The Star also featured video of Zhang Zhen Hong's interview with Jo Teh. Here's the trailer.

The full length of the video can be found at http://zhangzhenhong.blogspot.com

A Thank You Note from Laney

2007-03-30T00:35:00.000+08:00

Dear all my salsa jayers,

I must write and thank all the salsa jayers for the flower. For all your
information, the flower that I received is pinky Lily….

Oh my God!!! It was so beautiful; I like it so much…..

It was so surprised to me because my birthday had passed, I think that I would not be received any gift from anyone…. it’s totally out of my expectation …I have no idea that your all will arranged somebody to deliver the flower to my office....

I don’t know how to describe my expression & feeling on that time…..

Happy? Excited? Shocked? Warmest? Touched?… Really a big thank you to u all …

Muachsssssssssss…………

I love you all & you all are the best!!!

A Thank You note from Zhang Zhen Hong

2007-03-28T10:10:00.000+08:00

Dear SalsaJayers,

I think a simple thank you would not be enough to express my heartfelt thanks to all of you who have contributed and showed your support during my EP launch.

Thank you so much for coming, buying my CD and showing your morale support. I really appreciate it. Now I understand why people say 'don`t count the years but count the memories.......'.

You have all given me a beautiful memory which can last a life time. Please imagine myself in front of you, with my hands holding yours and with my head bowed, thanking you again.

Love,
Zhen Hong

Zhang Zhen Hong EP Launching

2007-03-26T13:39:00.000+08:00

This post is way overdue ! Yeah .. I finally

It's finally the weekend that I've been looking forward to all week. I know it's nothing new, we all look forward to the weekends ... but this weekend was extra special! So special that I woke up extra early to get prepared ... I checked the batteries on my digital camera and making sure I have enough memory space for my photo shots later.

24th March 2007 ... is Zhang Zhen Hong's EP launch day. For your information, Zhang Zhen Hong is the latest upcoming star ... in the arena of chinese music. You can find out more about him from Wikipedia or better still, visit his blogsite at http://zhangzhenhong.blogspot.com.

The launch was to be held at Halo Cafe in Sunway Pyramid at 11:00am and I was already running late. Checked my watch .. geez ... it's already 10:30am, I jumped into my car and stepped on it. Arriving at Sunway Pyramid, there were queues at the entrance as usual ... what luck! Good thing there's jockey parking ... so I parked my car and quickly rushed into Halo Cafe. I looked around .. there's a few people around, mostly friends who came to help ... and the makeup artist just got in as well.

I signed on the guest book as request and proceeded to look for Zhang Zhen Hong. I finally located him after making some inquiries, apparently is in the makeup room. I knocked and opened the door, and there he was .. sitting there while the makeup artist, very skillfully 'did' him up. I asked for permission and ran a few shots of him having his face done. I have to agree, I like him better when he is smiling. But then again ... I am not exactly in the position to compare, I mean ... he's Zhang Zhen Hong ... for goodness sake!

After finishing my shots on him, I left the room and headed towards the press area. Most of the seats were already taken so I decided to stand while waiting for the event to begin. While waiting, I paid attention to the background music ... they were already playing his song ... it was Beautiful Lady. I got his CD a while ago and I've ran through all his numbers. There's 5 songs in it ... and my favourite ones were Beautiful Lady, Ni Shi Wo Wei Yi (You're My Only One) and of course Shou Hou (Waiting). As much as I would love to sing along to his songs, I must admit I am a banana (I don't know about elsewhere but in Malaysia and Singapore, a chinese who can speak, read or write in mandarin is termed as a "Banana"). Well .. there's always Hanyi PinYin (romanized chinese).

Finally the MC walked up the stage to introduce Zhen Hong (hmm ... I am now on second name basis with him huh ...?). Yeap, the event has begun ....

After some brief introduction, Zhang Zhen Hong made his appearance on stage to further introduce himself. And he followed on by belting out his first number, Beautiful Lady which is quite a crowd favorite. This is judging from the reaction of the audience ... especially the ladies. They just seemed so mesmerized by his song ... (or was it his looks?) ....

As he was completing Beautiful Lady ... suddenly 2 beautiful ladies ran up the stage and stood next to him. If it weren't for the similar dress-ups (which I believe are their costumes) I would've thought they were his fans. Anyway, Ni Shi Wo Wei Yi (You're My Only One) was playing on the speakers .... and Zhen Hong awed the audience with a superb dance performance.

I do believe the ambiance within Halo Cafe suddenly became a little warmer after the performance, possibly because of Zhen Hong's 'hot' moves. I am sure the ladies in the house are already in love with him .... (gosh I wanna be singer too ...)

This is the part where I need to summarize the whole event as I am already taking up a little too much writing space. I could go on and on .. since the story I was about to tell is not even halfway through, but you'd probably be snoring by then. So I am deciding to let the photos tell the stories ... Anyway, following on to the story, there were press conferences, appearance of Regine Tai and finally Zhen Hong belted his other numbers and that was it ....

And I shall sign off here for now. Until my next album launch (as if la ...)...

Happy Birthday ... Lin & Roslim

2007-03-22T23:53:00.000+08:00

I love birthdays .... I love to salsa.

What more ... if it's a dance-themed birthday party !! Yeap, I attended one recently ... and I absolutely want to thank Lin and Roslim for inviting us to her party (I hope she likes our presents ...). By the way, Lin Hamid is the "super-lady" who brought Salsa Festivals to our home ground and made it affordable. Without her, I would still be looking through brochures of Hong Kong or Australia Salsa Festival .... At least now, I have MALAYSIAN SALSA FESTIVAL 2007 ... to look forward to ...

The party was held on a Wednesday night, 21st March 2007 at The Lodge, KL. The Lodge was previously a small hotel, now converted into a restaurant ... an Italian restaurant. It's located right opposite Wisma Genting, and behind Aero Bar. The Lodge consist of an indoor restaurant cum bar and another section serving patrons in a open-air concept, next to a swimming pool.

The party starts at 8pm and that's what the invitation SMS says. But as usual, we got there late...! Of course, we have good reasons to be late ... dance classes ended late, around 9:30pm. We got to The Lodge quite late, slightly past 10pm. And good thing the party was still very much alive. One thing that delighted me the most was to hear salsa music being played, the moment I stepped out of my car. My first thoughts were....

"Cool ... there's dancing !".

I mean, it's mid-week and I totally feel the need to wind down. The bosses were always at our necks looking for some certain numbers. If you're in sales, you'd know what I meant. Anyway, getting back to Lin's story ... yeah ... after all, this IS her birthday story (sorry Lin, got a little carried away as usual). As I entered the restaurant ... the first person I noticed was James Salsakaki Quah. And why not .. he is with his usual red shirt and red face, you can never miss him! Despite his "redness" .. he was still very much sober ...very much his usual self. Another glance around the dance floor, the frequent bunch... they were all there. But of course, why not? After all, it is Lin Hamid's birthday, right...

I spotted Lin right at the back so I carefully swerved and swayed my way through the dancing crowd with Lin's present in my hand. I finally handed over her the present, followed by the usual "muak-muaks" and then proceeded to start the chow-downs. And guess what, most of us agree that the food was really good! You should see Fasilito ...and Jeamie ... stuffing themselves ...

After satisfying the tummy, we moved on nearer to the dance floor. Bachata music were being played and of course ... some folks were already glued together doing their Bachata thingy. And deejay Xavier was spinning for the night. Bravo ... Xavier, for spinning some really good music that night! We rested a little more and slowly but eventually, we started moving onto the dance floor ... first for warm ups and then to "burn the floor".

I would say, it's pretty cool to be able to do some dancing during the mid-week period where work tension is at it's peak. I can't say that for all, but to me ... dancing really helps ... you may have burdens in your mind, on your back ... but once you're on the dance floor executing your next death-drop or tornado spin ... the mind is somewhat taken over. Nothing else matters ... just your dance partner and occasionally the "high heels" of the person dancing next to you ....

We left around midnight since we needed to start early the next day, unlike some folks who has the luxury of sleeping in (... yes Fasilito, I am talking about you...!). Overall, the party was fun, the food was good ... the guests are nice ...

CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE PHOTOS OF THE PARTY

Lin & Roslim, you guys organized a helluva great party ! Then again, you guys always do, Don't Cha?

SalsaJay on MSF 2007

2007-03-20T09:21:00.000+08:00

I have a good reason to be happy this morning.

I just happened to click on the Malaysian Salsa Festival 2007 website and guess what! SalsaJay's little logo is patched right in there, in the Affiliates section. Just right next to the Embassy of the Republic of Cuba and Trinidad Group of Companies ...

This came as a surprise, since I only casually wrote to them ... asking if we (SalsaJay) could support them in any way. I received a prompt reply stating that we are welcome to help promote their site. And here we are ....

Closer To Home - The Cigar Divan

2007-03-19T16:38:00.000+08:00

I am supposed to post this article some time ago but due to unforeseen commitments, it was delayed and I am posting it now (err..... actually ........ I am just being lazy .... there ! I said it ...)

Anyway, it all started with this message I received on my mobile phone a little while back. I believe it was early March ... and the message reads ..

"New Salsa Club in Eastin Hotel. Grand opening on 3rd March 2007"

I thought to myself ... Wow ... cool ! Viva is re-opening again. I re-read the message again, and it says the club is called Divan. I don't recall hearing a club in Eastin Hotel with that name so I guessed it's probably a new one. I was curious and so was the rest of the gang. It's a good opportunity for the newbies to try-out this new club and also their dancing .... perrrfecto !

On d-day, I was running a little late as I had to attend to some personal matters back home. Anyway, equipped with my faithful digicam, I headed out towards Eastin Hotel. As if being late is not bad enough, I actually took a wrong turning and was heading downtown .... I cursed myself for being such a !@#%& and took a HUGE u-turn and headed back towards Damansara.

Finally I caught sight of Eastin Hotel from afar, evidently recognizable via the huge.. red.. neon light of "The STAR" paper (Gee, how could anyone miss that signage?). Arriving at Eastin Hotel, I drove past RUSH Bar & Club ... previously known as Viva Dance Club. Memories flooded my mind ... recollecting the early Salsa days. Viva Dance Club was one of the more "happening" place for salsa dancing particularly for PJ folks like me. And I was just starting my Salsa lessons back then. I was starting to get the fun of salsa at the clubs ...

Then it closed down.

Well, Viva did not exactly "closed shop" ... they just discontinued Salsa nights. And my theory was ... ? There's just not enough patrons for the club owner to make ends meet. Well .... I do believe there's certain amount of truth in that. Back then, men dancers were rare ... (ha ha .. as if it's any different now ...)

Alrighty, back to my story. I parked my car ... and rushed upstairs to the Divan ... and of course, when almost arriving the entrance ... my paces slowed down ... (I have to look cool, don't I ...)

And there it was ... finally ! Divan Club ... or more accurately known as The Cigar Divan. Later, I found out that this place is actually a Cigar den ... oops, sorry about that. And here's more details ..(ignore this, I am just posting it for the sake of ... err.. just it la!)

Fitted with a gallery displaying an array of Cuban history, walk-in humidor, an island bar and plush furnishings, The Cigar Divan is one of the premier cigar and wine outlets in town. Complementing the cigars are an exquisite collection of wines, liquors, non-alcoholic beverages and delectable snacks. The outlet carries famous wine brands such as Chateau Lafite De Rothchild, Chateau Mouton Rothchild, Chateau Latour and Paulilac.

Operating Hours
3.00 pm - 1.00 am (Mondays - Saturdays) * Close on Sundays & Public Hols

Now, that aside .... let's get back to the club. At the entrance of the Divan, I was greeted by 2 lovely ladies ... Jennifer and Michelle (peeewitt!). And standing next to them was Richard ... this friendly dude whom I initially thought was some sort of 'bouncer' for the club ... but eventually, I found out that he runs the Club. (paiseh)

And Jennifer .. his fiancee. So, that made clear .... hands off, you "would-be" predators.

I also found out that I need to cough up RM25 to enter the club (oww!). 2 drinks for RM25 ... well, that could pose a little obstacle for some salsa-addicts out there. I mean, RM25 + RM5 for parking .... you do the math. Richard, the manager is well-aware of the issue and is currently working out with the hotel management to cut down that portion. Last I heard, after swordfights and whip lashes with the hotel, he managed to bring down the price... to RM18.00, I think (yayyy..). Quite a breather for us, don't you think ? CHEERS !

Well, that wasn't the only issue during the opening night. The moment I stepped into the club, the first thing I notice was .... sticky dance floor (bad for dancing) and the place is steaming hot! I mean, sweaty hot .... not passionately steamy hot. And there were tables and chairs cluttered all around, not exactly an ideal environment for dancing, especially Salsa. Correction... especially MY Salsa. Although the opening night was packed, some of us went home with an unpleasant experience. So did I, but of course not before providing the feedbacks to Richard.

We were there again last weekend, on Saturday (17th Mar, 2007) and I was pretty impressed with the improvements as promised by Richard. Of course, the turnout wasn't that pretty ... with the general salsa crowds dispersing to different venues. Havana Estudio had a studio party on Saturday, and others were at Salsa Havana. The crowd here were mostly SalsaJayers with a handful of cigar smokers around but that doesn't stop us from burning the dance floor.

The airconditioning worked out great and the floors were nice and smooth (a little slippery but it was alright). And there were more space to dance ... with the extra tables and chairs removed. DJ Xavier was there spinning the night with grrrreat Salsa tunes although the songs were a teeny..weenie..long. (my knees and legs were aching the next day...cough, cough). Generally .... we couldn't ask for more, except for cheaper drinks, right ... Richard ?

Location map to Eastin Hotel, PJ (for those uninitiated and out-of-towners). Please click on the map below to get a clearer image of the map.

Stephanie's Birthday Surprise

2007-03-19T11:00:00.000+08:00

On Friday, the 16th of March, SalsaJay held a Surprise Birthday party for Stephanie. The preparation for the whole thing, in my humble opinion, was a nerve wrecking one. Especially when Stephanie and her mom bumped into Jeamie and myself at Midvalley the previous day. And we were there to hunt for Stephanie's present!

On the day itself, send out a mass reminder to everyone concerned, including her best friends to make sure they could make it on time! As Jac says, if he doesn't know me better, he'd thought that I'm extremely stressed about the Surprise. Well, in a way, I am... as I don't normally hide things from her and as some of you could testify, I suck at lying! LOL.

Anyway, on the actual day itself, have to play it cool, took her to Fasta Pasta at Ikano and told her that that's her birthday present, nothing else. After finalizing some documents, we proceed to meet the rest of the gang at Secret Recipe before the class. And she was wondering why no one greeted her Happy Birthday when they meet up with us. All buat tak tahu only. LOL.

Class proceed as usual, we dance and all, and every now and then, I dashed out to call up her friends to make sure they are on time. :p then, come 9pm, Jeamie says "Ok Class, that's all, now all can just practice what we have learn today until the next class starts". I quickly dash out, get the cake ready, rushed her friends up into the holding bay (the little corner next to the altar) and pray that she don't walk out to the toilet before we are ready!

The Crunch time came at 9.15pm sharp as I couldn't wait for Lim Meng anymore (She's stuck in Midvalley searching for a "little" present for Stephanie). So cue the singing, I lead Stephanie's best friends into the room with the cake. SURPRISE!!! As you can see from the above picture, she was truly surprise! Which was great! Just what I wanted. She even shed tears (who captured it on film/digital picture?).

The usual candle blowing, cake cutting, speech was done and once that customary ceremony was over with, we proceed to do a little Birthday Dance for the Birthday Princess with the first dance by the "Si Kung" and upcoming Malaysian Singer, mr. Zhang Zhen Hong and the list trickled down to the final dance with myself. :D

For more pictures of the Birthday Party, just click here!

Salsajay: The Place

2007-03-15T17:53:00.000+08:00

I'm sure quite a number of readers that venture into this site has been wondering Who or What is SalsaJay. Before we go further, just click on the play button to hear some music to set you in the mood to learn more about SalsaJay.

WHO?
Basically SalsaJay is not a dance school BUT a community or gathering of friends to hang out, share some jokes , network , find partners, and most importantly to share the joy and experience gained from the salsa world.

WHERE?
One other question that comes under the category of FAQ is "Where do you guys/girls go to learn Salsa?".

Well, SalsaJay has a home. And that home is where all SalsaJayers go and learn how to dance. And this is how our home looks like. All that we need is available here.

If you would like to join us.

We are located at:
9B, Jalan 52/8, New Town, 46200 Petalng Jaya,
Selangor Darul Ehsan.
(We are located next to Sri Melaka restaurant)

Our Lessons are as follow:
Beginners: WEDNESDAY ~ 7.30pm
Intermediate: FRIDAY ~ 7.30pm

Contacts:
Email: timlow2002@gmail.com

Phone: +6012-390-0048 (Jeamie)
Phone: +6012-262-2864 (Tim)

Celebrities Among Us

2007-03-15T16:45:00.000+08:00

SalsaJay's been around for quite a while now ... and over the years, has attracted countless people from all walks of life to join. But should you be surprised if any one of them could be a celebrity or probably just a celebrity wannabe ? Let's see the analysis below ....

We'll being with our beloved teacher .... Jeamie Lee. No wonder her passion for Korean tv series burn brightly...

Next on the list ... Tamie .... gambatei ...gambatei ...

Now I understand clearly why I get attention from aunties all the time .... hmmm..

Mr. Fai as always .. he is full of surprises !!!! Kuchie kuchie hota ....

And we move on to our 'international celebrity' ... Jacques Lebosse or was it Keaton ? Jacques could be the batman body double ....

What about his other half .... Zai ? And we all thought she was from Brunei ...

From there .. we move on to Mr. Terence "Magic" Tan.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE ....

張禛宏 Zhang Zhen Hong

2007-03-13T23:06:00.000+08:00

Zhang Zhen Hong. I'm sure alot of people would wonder who this person is... I would say he’s my “Salsa Si Kung” (The Teacher of my teacher) but that would make it sound like he’s bloody old. Right? So let me try to put it in another way...

Zhang Zhen Hong is a relatively new artist with his first EP to be releasing soon. Now he venture into the world of Blogging to get closer to his fans and listeners. You can visit his blog at http://zhangzhenhong.blogspot.com/ and get the latest updates. I’ll try to keep readers of this site updated as well with all that he is doing in regards to his music.

He’ll be releasing his EP on the 24th of March and I hope the readers of my blog would help push his songs in the radio by voting for him and calling in to request for his songs. If you are lucky, I’ll be giving away a CD or two of his to the lucky readers. So stay tuned!

A lawyer who has a decent day job, he went through years of waiting, disappointments and diaphragm torturing just to produce an EP. He is now living his dreams of coming out with his own music. Now his dream is realized and soon, you’d be listening to his music over the radio.

But as fellow dancers/Salseras/Salseros, let us do our part in supporting him. You can start by heading to your neighbourhood music shops and ask for Zhang Zhen Hong's album. As a Malaysian artist, especially in Malaysia, is not easy. With such wide ranging competition among the other singers and the rampant piracy. The only thing we can do to help, with budget or no budget are these:

1. BUY ORIGINAL album .. of Zhang Zhen Hong. Let's support buy getting one of these little treasure, and when Jeamie bring him by the dance studio, we can also get him to sign on the album making it even more precious. I heard that it would be sold below RM 20.00 .

2. Call up the local radio stations which play chinese songs, and REQUEST for Zhang Zhen Hong's song ( # 3 - titled, So hou ... i think it means waiting in English)

3. Observe and list out all the restaurants, all cafes in your area that plays chinese music. We can get Zhen Hong's promoters to provide them with complimentary music.

The more airplay = the more publicity= the better the reception. So do what you can do, be it just little or a lot. Every effort counts.

Check out some sample of his songs right here.

Salsa Away From Home - Korea

2007-03-09T09:24:00.000+08:00

It's that time of week again where we bring you another installment of WHERE'S TONY? In this episode, Tony was spotted in the northern Hemisphere. A country famous for Teakwan-Do, Kim-chi and ... Salsa?

Tony: As promised to Jeamie, I braved the snow, very low temperature (-3C) n slippery road to go out tonite in search of the best salsa in Seoul.

I managed to find a few and check the place out. I found the place from this website http://www.nicerent.com/mn_entertainment/salsa.asp

I do not need to search far as the first one, Bahia is the best salsa place on earth which I have visited so far. It is situated in front of Hongdae (short for Hong Ik University). Bahia is named after a town in Brasil and it is under the basement of a shop haus. From outside I tot there is nothing happening as there r no music.

But to my shock after I pay the 5,000won and as I walk into the place, the whole place was packed like sardine. I think minimum about 150 ppl is inside and easily about 50 couples are dancing the bachata. The place is about 1 1/2 times salsa havana but with the whole middle of the room clear of table n chair, the dance floor are big. Only a few stools are available at the side of the room. Other than that everyone are either standing or dancing.

Do not believe what the website say, this place is definitely not for beginner and the faint hearted. The lady came in their best salsa costume and men are not bad at all. This is all amid the freezing temperature outside. Inside all those overcoat and jacket is the shortest skirt (for ladies) and hairiest chest (for men).

Jeamie, you are wrong. Who say in Korea, salseros are more than salseras? Definitely he/she has not been to Bahia. Men still outnumbered woman. Due to this, i was INVITED to dance the whole nite. My fellow species out there, salseras in Bahia are really the aggressive one. We are the one who is being hunted down. I could not keep track of how many ladies I have dance with. Maybe 11 but m not sure. I was drown in the middle of the dance floor with salsa music. I keep dancing from salsa, bachata to even merengue.

To my fellow salseras too, pls do not be disappointed. If you are a great fan of Bae Young Jun, Ju Jihun, Rain and etc, you will love this place. They are everywhere. If I am gay I will be here everynite.

I have attached a picture of myself in front of the Bahia club. I broke all traditions as I have included one of the most gorgeous lady 2nite into it. Her name is Nancy. Anyway I will try to check out another club tomorrow if time permits.

So come and visit KOREA.

General Information

Bahia is the latest bar in hongdea area. When you reach there, fist you can hear the sound making by the shoes and wood floor. It is very well known as salsa bar for beginners. There are more than 60 rare Latin discs the owner bought when he travelled abroad. Salsa lesson for beginner is taking every Tuesday( 8:00 pm).

Open hours : 7:00 pm ~ 1:00 am, / 7:00 pm ~4:00 am (Fri, Sat )/ Close on Monday.

Admission fee : 3,000 won (including a drink)
Beverage : 3,000 ~ 10,000 won

Website : www.bahia.co.kr

Way to Bahia : get off the Hongik Univ. station, exit no. 6, there’s the LG palace building. Behind building, you can see the ‘Bahia’ sign with picture of coconut tree.
Tel : 02 335 1512

As we conclude this adventure of Tony, where will he head to next? Stay tuned to find out in our next episode of ... Where's Tony?

300

2007-03-08T10:25:00.000+08:00

Can's say this for all but for me, salsa is addictive. Where there's a salsa beat, there's a salsa move. Sure ... the fire doesn't burn out .... it just sizzles slowly ... and sometimes ... you just feel tired.

You want a rest. A break.

That's when we go watch a movie together ! Ok, I admit. Besides salsa, I like photography .. I lov e to sing ... and occasionally if it doesn't clash with my salsa lessons, I'd love to catch a movie. And incidentally, I just saw 300. No, not 300 movies ... and it's not the number of DVD titles I have either. It's the title to this new movie by Frank Miller ... hey come on, Frank Miller? Sin City? No?

Ok, ok ... here it is.

300 is a 2007 film adaptation of the graphic novel 300 by Frank Miller about the Battle of Thermopylae. The film is directed by Zack Snyder with Frank Miller attached as an executive producer and consultant, and was shot mostly with bluescreen to mimic the original comic book work. 300 stars Gerard Butler (Trainspotting, Dracula 2000, Tomorrow Never Dies), Lena Headey (The Cave, The Brothers Grimm), Rodrigo Santoro (Charlie's Angel, Love Actually, Stuart Little 2), Andrew Tiernan and David Wenham.

I missed the starting bit as I was late but as I walked into the cinema hall, my eyes were already glued to the screen watching mighty King Leonidas (pronounced Leo-nai-das) kicking this funny-dressed black fellow into a dark deep hole. Well, I am very tempted to tell you what happened but I'd rather you watch the movie.

Spartans believe that death on the battlefield is their greatest glory, and so they train their sons to become warriors from a very young age, forcing them to leave home and live amongst the wilderness for years as a test of willpower and strength. This is the path Leonidas (Gerard Butler) takes as a child -- trained to fight by his father -- and sent into the woods to do battle against mother nature and a lone, fierce-looking wolf. When Leonidas emerges, he is king of Sparta -- a militant man who will fight to the death any army that threatens to strip him of his wife, his home and his freedom.

But all is not well in Sparta; the Persians are advancing, and they have sent a messenger to offer Leonidas a deal: kneel down before Persian King Xerxes and your people will be spared rape, torture and death. Before the Spartan council can discuss the matter, Leonidas takes it upon himself to promptly kill the messenger and declare war .......

Finally, after a long drawn-out opening (which felt as if it were written by a seven year-old, and not the great Frank Miller), Zack Snyder's epic battle sequences begin.

Well, since this is not a movie site ... I am not going to give a lengthy rating and review. I'll summarize the whole thingy into a sentence.

Go watch it. It's bloody good.

Ok, ok .. that's 2 sentences. So sue me.

So U Think U Can Dance? Betul Punya Story

2007-03-08T06:28:00.000+08:00

The much awaited dance contest has finally reached Malaysian shores…! So it was with eager anticipation that I attended their press conference today at Ruums, Life Centre KL. Inside, my mind was ticking… wondering who will be unveiled as the judges…

But first came the opening act. Dancers trouped out to perform a traditional Malay, Indian and Chinese dance then gave way to a pair of ballet dancers. There were a guy and girl in some exotic Malay costume executing something that looked like it came out of Puteri Gunung Ledang. Then there was alsos two sexy couples who salsa-ed to a Samba number (huh?) and finally three dancers dropped some hot and sexy hip hop moves.

Then 8TV CEO Ahmad Izham Omar and Business Development Manager, Ms Lam Siew Kim turned up on stage and said, “Oops. Sorry we’re not unveiling the judges yet until the next press conference so that we can keep you interested.” (Damn you, 8TV!!!)

Luckily there were other juicy details…

The first is that, like the US version, dancers wil have to compete in a few different gernes namely hip hop, ballroom, TRADITIONAL, comtemporary and MANY MORE. Notice key words in CAPITALS. This new twist, the traditional category will feature local dances like tarian zapin or the bharata natyam and etcetra. Even the comtemporary dance, going by the five minute performance during the launch, will be locally contemporary – meaning artsy fartsy mystical PGL kind like the one just performed.

So it’s not that predictable after all. Malaysian dancers will now have to buck up on the traditional elements… especially since (drum rolls, please) the word is already out that world renowned traditional dancer Ramli Ibrahim is the Head Judge!

Hmm.. no ballet / lyrical? Maybe that’s where the MANY MORE comes in; ballet salsa, modern etc. Who knows how many dance they will be featuring. It will explain the secrecy behind the judges’ identities. Apparently, there will be many...

The Schedule
And oh, don’t forget to book your whole weekend off! Coz the auditions falls on Friday and Saturday (16th & 17th) and the call back, two days of intensive boot camp is next days; Sunday and Monday! Yep, they’re shooting 4 days non-stop.

Tentatively they will pick 40 of the best dancers for the boot camp but Sunil, the Executive Producer doesn’t want to commit to figures yet. “Who knows if the quality is very good, we’ll increase the number of people called back,” he said. “Our objective is to help local dancers get recognition. So come dressed to impress!”

From the boot camp, the top 10 male and 10 female dancers will be picked for the ‘live’ shows. The dancers will break until the ‘live’ shows start airing on TV.

The first episode airs 5th April 2007 at 9.30pm and every Thursdays after that.

From there the format will remain the same. The judges will pick the bottom 3 dance pairs and the audience will determine who gets voted out via SMS. When there’s only 6 dancers left, they’ll all go to the Grand Finale. All stages; Audition, Boot Camp and ‘Live’ Shows will be held at the Panggung Bandaraya / DBKL.

So you think you can dance? Join now coz even professionals are allowed and encouraged to join. The grand prize is…

And fame. And possible product endorsements and stints with 8TV and dance gigs and all else that comes with national exposure.

Sigh. Isn’t that just the stuff of dreams?

Nim
March 6, 2007

Better Salsa FAQ

2007-03-07T16:14:00.000+08:00

Frequently Asked Questions

The instructions tell me to move my weight onto a particular leg but it's already there!
Remember that a step is a foot placement AND a weight transfer. Just make sure that you've transferred your weight properly after the foot placement in the previous step.

I start in time but seem to fall out of time. How do I fix it?
You may need to pay attention to the fourth beat; you should dance on three beats and WAIT on the fourth. Many people rush and end up dancing on the null beat, throwing their timing off.

I can dance faster if I keep my heels off the floor on the backward steps, but I end up with sore calf muscles…
Keeping your heels off the floor is a bit of a cheat, you should practise your back steps with your heels down. You might dance slower at first, but it will eventually help you develop power in your legs. Lowering your heels gives your calf muscle a chance to relax and eases tension on your Achilles tendon.

My feet keep slipping whenever I take a back step.
It's probably a combination of two things: you're not lowering your heel to the floor and it's causing you to transfer only part of your weight at a shallow angle into the floor. First lower your heel to the ground; full contact with the floor gives you more friction and therefore more grip. Then transfer your weight completely over the foot by ensuring that your hip is moved directly over it. This process is slow until your legs develop more power but it gives you more control, especially on slippery floors.

I have trouble keeping up with fast music.
You might need to relax a little. People tend to move slower if there is tension in their bodies. Another possibility is that your step size might be too big. Try dancing "on the spot" to check if you can dance in time. If so, then you should dance with smaller steps, at least until you build up enough power.

How much should I turn in the turning basic?
It's taught as ninety-degree turns. Dancing in real life requires you to be able to adapt to whatever conditions, so you can practice it at whatever increment from no turn whatsoever (the back basic) through to a full turn.

I don't feel confident or safe dancing in heeled shoes.
The answer to your dreams is the toe lead. That's when you take every step landing first with the front of the foot instead of the heel. Learn the basics with toe leads in flat shoes first, then move on to heeled shoes.

I want more speed and control during my turns and spins!
Turning quickly requires a strong push off and less contact with the floor during the spin. The energy needed for a quick turn is provided by a strong transfer of weight from the set-up step into the turning step. During the turn, the weight is held over the front part (ball) of the turning foot with the heel slightly raised off the floor.

How do I get more control of my turns?
Keep your head up and your weight over the front half of your feet; dropping you head will cause your butt to jut out, and your weight to move over your heels, introducing a wobble during your turns. To stop the turn, lower the heel of your turning foot and your other foot to the floor. This increases your contact with the floor, effectively applying the brakes.

Cuban Salsa

2007-03-07T00:15:00.000+08:00

I know the Salsa that Salsajay dance to is not Cuban but it's never wrong to learn more about the origins of Salsa. Right Jeamie? This is written to help expose the curious and the newbies to the history and the world of Salsa.

The Cuban Salsa - Extracted from BBC's "Strictly Come Dancing"

History

Salsa is still relatively new compared to other Latin-American dances, such as the Cha Cha or the Samba, and as such is still in the process of evolving.

Cuban Salsa is the most original form of Salsa - other forms include 'Mambo', 'Modern Salsa', 'New York Salsa' or 'Colombian Salsa'. These were later forms, all based on the original Cuban Salsa. They came from Cubans who immigrated to New York and mixed Salsa with elements of Rock and Roll.

One of the main differences between Cuban Salsa and the New York Mambo style is that in the Cuban Salsa dancers move around the floor and around each other in a circular motion. In the Mambo everything is much more linear, with the dancers moving from front to back in a straight line.

Cuban Salsa was a response to the development of traditional music. In the early twentieth century a variety of new instruments, like the bongos, double bass, cow-bells and most importantly the claves, were introduced to Cuba.

This meant the emergence of a new sound - originally called 'Cuban Son'. The defining feature of this new sound was that the beat of the claves held the music together.

Dancers feet began to mirror the rhythm of the claves, and Cuban Salsa was born.

How routines should look

Salsa means 'Sauce', so the dancers should depict a very hot and spicy interaction with each other! It is a dance of courtship.

Dancers should give as much importance to eye contact, and flirtations between each other as they do to performing to the audience.

The overall look of the Cuban Salsa should be sensuous, sexy and fluid, with the dancers moving around each other in circular movements.

Cuban Salsa should be danced on the ball of the foot, never on a flat foot.

Steps should be kept small at all times.

Drops and lifts are permitted - but should be delicate and subtle. Cuban Salsa is all about the lead looking after his lady, so flinging her around in some dangerous lift above the head is not in keeping with the character of the dance…

We should see plenty of interweaving dance moves - legs and arms often interlock and the dancer's bodies often seem as if they're becoming one.

Cuban Salsa is danced ON the beat - the couple typically begin to move on either the first or fourth beats.

Although couples can break away and dance individually, there should be contact between the man and woman for most of the routine.

But breakaways do happen - normally at the start, or more commonly in the middle of a routine.

As mentioned above - Cuban Salsa is a dance about courtship and all this entails. That means that a lot of the movements are representative of the man trying to flirt with the woman, with the woman playing hard to get.

Props are often used to achieve this - a scarf is one of the most popular, although sometimes a hat is used.

What routines should include

Cuban Salsa basic is a four-step pattern taken during four beats of music, in a tap, step, step, step rhythm.

The Hold
When in close hold, dancers should perform with a proud, toned, erect poise, with the man's left hand, and the lady's right hand held quite high at eye level. Couples can hold hands in the normal way, with the lady's hand placed in the man's - or the man can hold the lady's wrist.

The man's right hand folds neatly around the ladies waist, and the lady's left hand folds around the man's neck or back.

Cuban Motion
Cuban motion is essential in the characterisation of any Latin dance, especially Cuban Salsa. It is used throughout all the basic steps.

Cuban motion is all about weight transference between the legs. As weight is transferred to and from each leg, the hips should move in the opposite direction; so step left, hip right. However, good Cuban Motion is not just about swivelling hips. The movement should originate from the centre of the body, and therefore the shoulders, ribs, hips and knees should naturally move to the rhythm of the music. The key to good Cuban Motion is to make it look effortless!

Open Break
An Open Break is sometimes taught as the first step in Salsa. It simply amounts to an 'opening out' of the hips from a close contact hold.

Cucaracha
Cucaracha is the Spanish word for cockroach, and in dance are often known as a 'second position break'. It's a basic figure consisting of side breaks to the left and right. The Cucaracha is essential in establishing the rhythm and timing of Cuban Salsa.

Rumba
This is a vital element of the Cuban Salsa - it sets it aside from the more modern forms, and introduces the 'flirting' element of the dance. It's a move in which the man and woman dance apart - the man trying to attract the woman, the woman playing hard to get...

The man is almost bent over, moving every part of his body with a light bounce. His upper and lower body should move in opposite directions. The woman has more of an upright poise, moving with less bounce, and more swing.

Salsa turns
Salsa turns are also known as 'Changing Places'. They are a simple but essential move in which the man and the lady continuously change places. They are circular movements that use plenty of intricate arm work.

Tornelio
A signature move in which the woman holds the man's hand and spins him around while he squats on one leg.

The Chair
A signature move in which the woman literally sits on the man's right thigh.

Underarm Turn Right or 'Alemana Turn'
This move is usually danced from, and back to, close hold but can be used in an infinite variety of ways depending on the ability of the dancer. The man releases hold with his right hand, raises his left arm and then simply turns the woman under his raised arm bringing her back to close hold again.

Salsa Away From Home - Japan

2007-03-06T09:46:00.000+08:00

Before leaving for Japan, I surfed on the web to find the best place to salsa in Japan. Found some info from www.salsapower.com.my ... boy, there's at least 40 of them in Tokyo alone.

"Which one to go leh?" Tony thought.

After further checking, I finally found Salsa Sudada and another one was Salsa Caribe. The best thing is they have direction maps to their location.

So with their maps in my organiser, I flew to Osaka with high hope. I know I will not be able to salsa in Osaka because of my tight schedules. By the end of first day, my head is already spinning with mixtures of sochu and oolong cha (tea), plums ... I just don't remember anymore.

Finally, my only chance to salsa came today. I flew from Osaka to Haneda airport and checked into Tokyo Dome hotel at about 8.30pm and by 9.00pm I am already at the hotel guest relation table asking for directions to Roppongi Station. Ok, I have to take the subway (Mita line) next to the hotel to Hibiya station. Then from there, switch to Hibiya line and proceed to Roppongi station.... easy.

My heart is pumping hard, very excited as I arrive Roppongi station. As I exited the station, I saw a huge Roppongi map just as I come up from the station. Walked a little bit and found Salsa Sudada.

It's on the 3rd floor ... as the lift door opens, I felt at home in japan for the first time ! I must admit, salsa really makes me feel good. Usually, I feel like I am in anime world whenever I visit Japan.

The waiter is a "gwailo" but spoke to me in fluent japanese. I asked for the menu .. was really hungry ! As I looked around, I noticed all seats were occupied with jackets and overcoats. Nobody is sitting down. Everyone is salsaing. They danced on every inch of the place that they can find. Salsa Sudada is as big as Salsa Havana.

I checked the menu again, gosh ... everything is either in spanish or japanese. Equipped with some italian, I managed to make out a word that I can understand. POLLO = chicken. I don't care how they cook it but I'm too hungry to care. I pointed towards it and ordered another kirin bierra.

A lady just got back from dancing and sat beside me. I began to wonder if she's attracted to me. Unfortunately, people just sits randomly there...sigh. I introduced myself to her. She told me her name is Melissa but speak english, she does not. Finally she mentioned a word which is universal .... Salsa? I said ' haik.....' and out we go. My first salsa in japan. Taken.

The place is small, very tight .. I wonder how do we dance? We have to dance very closely. Everyone is dancing with their shoulder rubbing each other. And I recalled sensei's advice to dance close. Anyway I still managed to execute some moves such as the "bkt", "perut Buncit", "london bridge", men changed of hand n "sakai". WhenI finally came to my senses, 4 songs has passed and it's Merengue. Boy was I tired....

Then I realized I hadn't eaten yet. I bowed and wished her arigato then returned to my table. She continue dancing with another friend. That's how passionate they are. I enjoy my Grilled Pollo and Kirin beer.

There was this short man. I mean really short, about 5 feet. but height does not seem to be his problem because he dances with any ladies, even very tall lady with very high heels. He can really spin them and the way he sway is also sexy. Which is why, I believe he has no problem getting any lady to dance. I think they enjoyed dancing with him too, from their expression.

After finishing my food, I looked at my watch .. gosh 10.45pm, have to get another shot at salsa before I leave. I asked a lady who just walked into the club. We just danced. No conversation. Danced for about 20 minutes. Then we stopped and chatted for a while. He name's Miho. She takes english classes every Friday after work and have been dancing salsa for 2 years.

I highly recommend this plc bcoz it is easy to find n the food n drinks are cheap. Also no problem to find any dancing partner. Everyone is very friendly too.

General Information
Salsa classes every Wednesday and Friday.
Tuesdays and Thursdays are for Merengue. 7.30-9pm.
Cost is abt ¥2,000 including first drink.
Open hours are daily 7pm-5am and 7pm-7am on Fridays and Saturdays

Location
3F Fusion Bldg., 7-13-8 Roppongi, Minato-ku
Tel: 03-5474-8806

Pls check on their website for more details. http://www.salsasudada.org/

Editor : That's all for his trip to Tokyo, stay tuned for the next edition. A little MSN bug told me that Tony is currently in Korea. Hmm..... Kimchi and Salsa?

Tony's Salsa Club Experience

2007-03-05T20:00:00.000+08:00

This post is a month old as Tony wrote about this on the 11th of February and well, we're only posting it up now.

Tony: Sitting in the lounge in Narita, just finished my breakfast waiting to board my flight is another hour time, I thought it is best I jot down something for me to 'fill u in'. The last few days was a very busy one except yesterday I managed to enjoy hot spring in Hiratsuka. 'Hot spring' I leave it for another session as our main topic is salsa.

Before I left for Japan, there was a party in SH for our beloved sensei fren. Everyone in our class enjoyed it very much. Based on the photos taken, our Superwilson had an orgasm dancing with Tim. Both definitely enjoy it very much. (See pic!)

I agree with Angela, I also felt that I can salsa naturally with Laney. She really know what I wan to do. She is the only one that I can execute the 'sakai' or 'satay' (dun know which one is the correct term) successfully. I can do it over n over again with ease. I still think she is a spy.

I almost broke Angela and Waiwai(YY) arm that night trying to perform the same move on them. So sorry. Dancing with senior is a hell of experience. My confidence gained momentum then and there. I m not afraid to dance with anyone anymore. With the few moves that we learned, it really make wonders. We can really do it with a lot of varieties. I wanted to salsa with Sensei but unfortunately she was hot cakes that night.

No chance for me to get free tips, sigh......

El Cantante - The Movie

2007-03-05T01:26:00.000+08:00

Simply the most anticipated movie all Salsa fans are looking forward to. To be released in the cinemas on August 1st, this is a movie starring Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony.

Directed by Leon Ichaso, This movie is about the life story of Hector Lavoe who started the salsa movement in 1975 and brought it to the United States. This movie is produced and played by Puerto Ricans (Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez) to show Hector LaVoe's glorious career and sad trajectory.

If there is a book about salsa music Hector Lavoe will be in every chapter because not only was he there during the beginning of the New Your Latin phenomenon called Salsa music but he also has influenced the career of many famous salsa singers who follow his footsteps. Hector Lavoe is well known with his contemporary such as Willie Colon with beautiful songs such as Che Che Cole, Mi Gente, Aires de Navidad, Pirana, Ah-Ah / O -No, Vive Tu Vida Contento, Rompe Saraguey, El Cantante y El Periodico de Ayer. It was and it still is electrifying. Hector's songs with hints of county music (Jibaro) from Puerto Rico touched many hearts around the world.

Salsa is a universal language, you can go anywhere in the world and you'll find people with LPs and CDs of salsa music. The true and original salsa music will always live through the memory of Hector LaVoe.

Check out the trailer below

Whatever Latin

2007-03-02T15:23:00.000+08:00

Wow, Timothy has invited me to contribute to this site. Cool! - Michael

How many of us listen to ~~Radio 4~~? I mean... Traxx FM? The frequency of 100.1 (in Klang Valley)?

Either I'm so out of touch with the radio station or I've listen to way too much to MP3s and CDs that I just found out that Traxx FM, on every Wednesday plays WHATEVER LATIN between 10pm to 1am.

Now that's cool or what? Well, if you like Latin/Salsa songs, then it's cool... if not, um... :p

LadyKay spins @ that time along with Mary. And you can call in, write in or email her with your request for whatever song you wants her to play. Latin of course. To make it easier for everyone, just click on her name and you'd be transported to her page.

I've made my request so hopefully, I'll hear it this coming Wednesday. Right LadyKay? *Ehem*.

What song am I requesting? Here's a sample of it. :D

Salsa Away From Home - Singapore

2007-03-02T13:27:00.000+08:00

I love to Salsa.

Whenever I have the opportunity to travel, my first thoughts are ... "hmm... I wonder if they have Salsa Clubs here". I don't know if I am a little overboard, but I am hoping there are others out there who thinks like me. But I know someone who share the same passion as me. He is Tony Goh and with a group of friends, we've been learning salsa together for a while now.

Fortunately for Tony, his job requires him to travel a lot. And fortunately for us, wherever he is ... he scouts for Salsa Clubs. Which brings me to start this episode called the "Salsa Away From Home". I figure, not only should we provide the readers with the name and locations of Salsa clubs ... we should share the experiences we have in the club. A little bit of club review, in a certain sense.

We had a couple of write-ups in the previous postings on clubs abroad but let's start afresh in this post.

In this first posting, we have Tony reporting back from Singapore. He has recently visited the Union Square @ The Amara. Here's an article on the venue.

Opened in 2000, Union Square at The Amara is the only place in Singapore where you can get Salsa music six days a week provided by DJs and live bands from Cuba & Colombia. It is also the first local club to introduce bar-top putting. Golfers’ night happens every Monday. Union Square has established itself as a congregation venue for salsa enthusiasts from the four local major dance studios. It has even designated Tuesday nights for Salsa beginners to rehearse their moves. The club’s deejay will gladly play Latin and Salsa song dedication requests from audience . Enjoy the performances of foreign and local artistes at the Wine bar. There is also a pool table for pool players.

LOCATION
165 Tanjong Pagar Road
The Amara #02-05
Singapore 239924

HOURS
Mon-Thu 11am to 1am,
Fri 11am to 2am,
Sat 11am to 3am.

AMBIENCE
Located in the second floor of a rather dodgy shopping mall, Union Square is a suprisingly decent bar. Even with its liberal use of red, the place manages to look classy without looking like Heidi Fleiss's boudoir. There's a live DJ for those who want to burn some calories, but most of the clientele's usually quite happy just playing pool or chilling out with their drinkies.

CROWD
Mainly local executive after a long day at work. Whip out the Johnny Walker!

X-FACTOR
There's a Salsa and Merengue night on Tuesdays and Thursdays for those who feel the need to come-on-shake-your-body-baby-do-the-conga.

HAPPY HOURS
Mon-Sat 11am to 9pm.

OPENING HOURS
Mon-Thu 11am to 1am, Fri 11am to 2am, Sat 11am to 3am.

MUSIC
Retro / Top 40s / Progressive House / Latin / Salsa / Drum & Bass

FOOD
Finger Food

SPECIALTY
Salsa and Merengue Night / Drum & Bass Night

DRESS CODE
No slippers, shorts, singlets

ADMISSION CHARGE
Cover Charge: Cover Charge Waived

ACCEPTED CREDIT CARDS

So You Think You Can Dance ?

2007-02-28T14:30:00.000+08:00

So You Think You Can Dance ? Is now in Malaysia and the auditions are on. For those of you who is unaware of what "So You Think You Can Dance?" is about ...

So You Think You Can Dance is an American dance reality show and competition that is broadcast on the Fox Network, on Fox Japan, on CTV in Canada, on Living in United Kingdom and Ireland and on Network Ten in Australia.

The series premiered on July 20, 2005 and has a similar premise to the American Idol series of singing competitions, with nationwide auditions leading to the discovery of the next big star. The show was created by Idol's Simon Fuller and Nigel Lythgoe and is produced by 19 Entertainment and Dick Clark Productions. A mixture of contestants is chosen for the show, ranging from unknown street dancers to winners of national championships. All contestants have to work their way through a rigorous audition process, and then over the course of the show are assigned different dance styles and partners each week to test their versatility.

Top dancers are then put through grueling rehearsals and auditions and slowly narrowed down to a top 20 list of 10 men and 10 women. These contestants are then paired up and must randomly pick a partnered dance. Often this is not a style that they are familiar with and the dancers must learn the style from scratch. Couples will then perform the routine(s) and America votes for their favourite couple. The bottom couples must then do a solo performance of their choice to win over the judges’ votes so that they do not get eliminated. This continues weekly with one male and one female eliminated weekly.

The winner of the final show aired on October 5, 2005 was Nick Lazzarini, who received over 37.6% of the vote. Lazzarini won $100,000 and the use of an apartment overlooking Central Park in New York City for one year. Here's a video of Nick's winning dance.

Here are some worldwide links to So You Think You Can Dance ?

SalsaJay's Week Of Chinese New Year Celebration

2007-02-26T06:38:00.000+08:00

It's Monday morning already and whilst I am preparing to go to work, I managed to pen down or should I say ... key down my thoughts. Well, it's more of a recap of what has happened for the last whole week.

Time flies like there's no tomorrow....
Time also flies when you're having fun !

I remember a week ago, I was looking forward to the Chinese New Year (CNY) celebrations, which only happens once in a year. The shoppings of new clothings, boxes of oranges, cookies ... has passed and now it's back to reality. Back to quotas, target achieving and deadlines, welcome back to the real world.

But the past week was really fun-filled, especially when you are surrounded by all your buddies, celebrating the holidays together. I've never attended so many gatherings within the same week ! Neither have have gambled so much within the same week either .. ha ha. These photos would show you how much fun we had ...

JEAMIE'S CNY OPEN-HOUSE PHOTOS

The first one on 18th Feb 2007 (Sunday) is of course our beloved teacher, Jeamie's CNY Open House ... too bad I missed the Lion Dance .... by the time we arrived, the lion was pretty much packing up to leave. Ho-hum ... got to wait for another year then. There were food, drinks and of course some dollar exchanging hands... (if you get what I mean). Anyway, here's the photo of the gatherings.

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Here's more shots on Jeamie's Open House from our "special guest" photography, James Quah.

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After a day's rest, it was the TimTam's turn to throw the open-house gathering cum potluck cum whatever-it-takes-to-have-fun party. Because of some bad miscalculations on the maps, many had trouble finding the place, but eventually all arrived in time .. for the Yee Sang session. Everyone, with chopsticks in hand .. dived into the variety of food and drinks ranging from KFC to Dominos pizza and even curry chicken. Definitely a feast for all. Here's the photos from TimTam's CNY Open-House.

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Darren's CNY Open House was held on the 21st Feb 2007 (on Wednesday) at his place, somewhere in Cheras. There were cookies, drinks ... blackjacks and mahjong. Of course, for us who is not so keen in the quick money sessions .. there's always PS2 to keep us company. Here's the snapshots at Darren's place.

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The following day was Kuok Peng's turn for the open house. And this is the 2nd potluck this week ... and goes to prove that potlucks will always end in oversupply of food ! For our potluck, it took us days to finish the leftovers ... and that's for the whole family, I really wonder how Kuok Peng does it ...

The gambling session was fun especially with KP's little darling, Ming Mei (hopefully I got the name right) accompanying us throughout the sessions. Also not forgetting KP's little surprise announcement for us.

Readers : You will have to wait a little to find out what the announcement is about.

But anyway, here's the highlights from KP's CNY Open House.

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Wilson's place was supposely the last CNY Open House for this year, but I doubt that's gonna be the end of it. Seeing how much we enjoy each other's company, I believe more will come ... slowly, it not eventually.

Here's an excerp from the loads of thank you mails after all the gatherings ....

"Dear all,

thank you for the invitiation Wilson. It has been a great fun night , and the hospitality level is way way high .. thanks to Rachel, Mike, steph , Laney, and Angela for co-hosting and ensuring that we have enough balls ( ahem ... fish balls, sotong balls), drinks, alcohol, an etc to last us through the night.

not forgetting ALL who were present. you guys are the Life of the party!!

regards,
jeamie"

Some captures from Wilson's Party

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SalsaJay V for Valentine Party 2007

2007-02-16T13:51:00.000+08:00

I don’t know how to begin…. But the past week has been crazy fun.

It was Valentine’s week, and I guess all of us went a little bonkers from cupid’s arrow. The day started off quite well …with mushy poems and I love yous flying around and as usual jamming just about everyone’s mail boxes. For a preview of the love poem , check out

http://groups.google.com/group/salsajay

I had calls for a V day small party of a sort to make up to those who were forced to come for Salsa Class on Wed. The message was bring some chocolates to share, and I will supply the mandarin oranges *GRIN*

I am proud to say, we not only had some chocolates … WE HAD LOTS OF IT , thanks to Arwin, Arina and Pip !!! , Cup cakes from Pip’s boss from work, and sparkling juices which came in pink, blue and purple colours (thanks Terrence).

Datuk and Datin Michael - Stephanie Looi paid us a surprise visit , straight from their dinner … and they were thoughtful enough to bring a heart shape balloon to share with the rest of the class :P ( Meanwhile, Super Wilson was bz cooking up a storm for his dearly beloved Rachel. Hope the food was as tasty as it looks :P )

We had the opportunity to meet the other half of Derek … Yian, who by the way has the sweetest smile ever.

The night rounded up pretty well and i hope all our Newbee Jayers had a glimpse of what SalsaJay is all about.

P/s – To our Australian exports ….. Melissa, Hui Ying, Marjorie , please spread the salsa cheer around and do teach us a move or two when you guys get back here.

Thursday, 15th Feb
Time – 7.45 pm

FIRST GOOD NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT: We NOW have not ONE but TWO 2.5 aircond units cooling off the heat generated from all the SALSA in the studio. BIG, BIG CHEERS to Derek , for making this all a possibility!!!!

Anyways, back to the storyboard…. So… all the hot mamas of SalsaJay were caught off guard by the ‘papasans”. WHY? Here’s how it all unfolded.

Firstly, our Jayer Ambassador, Tony Gere, emm I meant Goh, had promised the lovely ladies with some yummylicous Lindt chocolates which he bought while high flying around the globe (that is after he had bribe me with some italiano Lavazza coffee powder which to this day I am still waiting for Wilson to find me the proper tools to brew the kopi). Pleased to say, he meant every word he promised.

Next, as we were settling down for class … Derek came a skipping along and passed me (and the rest of the hot mamas of the pre inter class) a box ( NOoooooooooo , it’s not a Diamond Ring , although it did inspire me to teach the ‘proposal’ move in class that night ..hahahhaha). I frowned … Patchi??? I must have been leaving underneath a tempurung for not recognizing the name. I used to think that Ferero Roche were one of the best chocolates around town until I tasted my first GODIVA chocolate. And according to Derek, Patchi is of the same category.

Just when we thought that the treats has come to an end, lo and behold Super Wilson pull out strings of beaded necklaces and proceeded to pass them around the ladies.

Goodness gracious, our salsa Dudes has really Out DONE, and Outshone themselves this time. Never have I seen such a show of Appreciation. So ladies, I hope all of you know what to do next time on the dance floor… Don’t’ get me wrong fellas, it’s not about the bribery that you have given to us, but it’s the thought that we ladies MATTER in your hearts.

To close off the memorable night, we drank ourselves silly with all the gentle and foreign-named booze that Derek brought , ate more chocolates …courtesy of TimTam, snacked on Sathia’s pineapple tarts from Tawian, and munch on more mandarin oranges ( terrence – thanks for the juicy one *wink*).

Photos of our Valentine Escapade are currently posted on the following websites:

Feb 14th pics
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zique/sets/72157594537524261/

Feb 15th pics
http://www.bubbleshare.com/album/124638

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone ……..

Introducing ... The Jayers Lounge

2007-02-13T12:47:00.000+08:00

Finally !!! SalsaJay has it's very own discussion forum. We've had SalsaJay website for a while now but it has never reached it's peak i.e. no consistent activity. There were times when everything gets heated up, and you see a handful of articles, then subsequently it cools off. In order to keep things running, a site has to be updated as frequent as possible to keep the contents "fresh". After all, you wouldn't want to read news that's 3 weeks old, would you ?

Fortunately for SalsaJay, we found a new talent .. in the form of Michael Yip. An experienced blogger no less, his creativity has helped to improve the online image of SalsaJay. And also introducing The Jayers Lounge, a place for our fellow salsa students and teachers to express themselves ... sharing experiences and resources when available.

You're more than welcome to join this group, to read about our activities ... to get updated on the events, downloading some dance videos or event to contribute some articles.

A Birthday Party In SH

2007-02-06T06:24:00.000+08:00

It was a Friday morning, the 2nd of February ... to be exact. I am a little excited today ... because it's a Friday and I am sure you've heard of "Thank Goodness It's Friday" ... and also because I have Salsa lessons on Friday.

My handphone beeped ... a message arrived. I took a look and it was from a buddy, Chanttal ... one of my 'salsa acquaintance'.The note says "Come celebrate a Surprise Birthday Party @ Salsa Havana for Fasilito tomorrow nite". I was like ... Yippee !!!! Another Salsa outing, another reason to go dancing. Yeah, I didn't think we'd go out again because we're pretty much still recovering from our blast from last weekend (James & Audrey's wedding).

Anyway ... the next morning, SMS started flying around .... as we planned on the gift for our birthday boy ... or should I say, Birthday Man ....

I pretty much have some vague idea what to get for Fasilito. With his "Stylo Milo" dress sense, I figure some pretty "hip-hoppish" setups would look good on him. Someone else suggested gadgets .. yeah, why not ... boy toys. Ok ... I said toys for boys ... and not toy-boy ... hmmm. Anyway ... yeah, gadgets would work too. So we went shopping that afternoon, we headed straight for MidValley. We finally picked up a nice bling bling cap, a "muscular" tee shirt and a nice sexy, bright red, bling underwear ... and Jacques & Zai managed to get a wireless headphone too, from The Curve. By now, you should be able to imagine Fasilito in the whole outfit ...

We arrived SH at around 10:30pm ...by that time, the place was quite crowded already. As I was buying my entrance drink, I spotted Tony spinning away ... followed my Micheal and the rest of the 'shebang'. Geeez ... was I excited ... can't wait to get in there and start groovin.

For more photos of the night, click here.

FASILITO'S BIRTHDAY

Cuban Cigar

2007-01-31T12:15:00.000+08:00

A cigar is a tightly rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco, one end of which is ignited so that its smoke may be drawn into the smoker's mouth through the other end.

The English word cigar is from the Spanish word cigarro, which in turn derives from the Mayan word for tobacco, siyar.

Cigar tobacco is grown in significant quantities in such nations as Brazil, Cameroon, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua and the United States of America. Cigars manufactured in Cuba are widely considered to be without peer, although many experts believe that the best offerings from Honduras and Nicaragua rival those from Cuba. The Cuban reputation is thought to arise from both the unique characteristics of the Vuelta Abajo district in the Pinar del Río Province at the west of the island, where the microclimate allows high-quality tobacco to be grown; and the skill of the Cuban cigar makers.

The Origin Of Cigars

The indigenous inhabitants of the islands of the Caribbean Sea and Mesoamerica have smoked cigars since as early as the 10th century, as evidenced by the discovery of a ceramic vessel at a Mayan archaeological site in Uaxactún, Guatemala, decorated with the painted figure of a man smoking a primitive cigar. Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus is generally credited with the introduction of smoking to Europe.

Two of Columbus's crewmen during his 1492 journey, Rodrigo de Jerez and Luis de Torres, are said to have disembarked in Cuba and taken puffs of tobacco wrapped in maize husks, thus becoming the first European cigar smokers.

In the 19th century, cigar smoking was common while cigarettes were still comparatively rare. The cigar business was an important industry, and factories employed many people before mechanized manufacturing of cigars became practical. Many modern cigars, as a matter of prestige, are still rolled by hand; some boxes bear the phrase Totalmente a Mano, "Totally Made by Hand," as proof.

Cigars from Cuba are derived from tobacco components found throughout the country of Cuba: meaning the filler, the actual tobacco, and wrapper all come from different portions of the island. All cigar production in Cuba is controlled by the Cuban government. Unlike other cigar companies, where each brand is harvested and rolled in its own factory, each Cuban cigar brand is rolled in several different factories in Cuba. Cuban cigar rollers are famous for being the most skilled rollers in the world.

Salsa Insight by Tony Goh

2007-01-16T09:11:00.000+08:00

Dear All,

Sitting in my tiny seat on a 6 hours flight to Lahore, I think the best way to kill my boredom is to write this email to share some thought with my beloved classmates and teacher. I also want some answers to my doubt. Just to share some thoughts here with you. Last week was a very adventurous for me in salsa. I visited 2 clubs and have experienced dancing salsa with a total stranger.

Club 1(Thursday)
Mystere - Ritz Carlton Jakarta (recommended by Tim in his blog).

Got the chance to visit this place because my customer canceled our karaoke session. (Apparently his wife got a stroke attack). Anyway, with nothing to do at night in a city of 20 million population, I just hopped on a taxi and ask to be driven to Ritz Carlton. Found Mystere on the lower ground floor. Saw a sign saying "Class in session about 100,000rp/lesson. However when I got in, the classes were over because it's about 11pm when I arrived. I ordered my drink and extended my "antenna" to "scan" around. The crowd can be summed up to 3 categories - beginner, advance and senior. Yes SENIOR age > 50's! Despite their age, they dance very elegantly.

I got myself up and ask someone to salsa.

Lady I - To my horror, she is in the advance category !!!
I felt 'kaku' and not knowing what to do, we ended up chatting with front and back basic. She is friendly and surprisingly taught me 2 new moves. She told me she only salsa'd for a year. Later, the bartender told me she is there every Thursday.

Lady II - Sitting down I scanned the crowd again. This time I got to ask a beginner. But unfortunately she was just about to leave. Maybe my next trip then.

Lady III - I got a senior to salsa. I think she is approximately 60. Anyway can't ask her age right? It is just taboo... Anyway I started with front back basic, underarm turn, cbl and a turn. After just 30 seconds, I forced myself to stop, because I think she is too fragile for me. She loses her balance easily and I worry she might end up on the stage where the band plays. I just can't control my strength yet. I ended up chatting with her group of 'matured' frends. They have learned for a year too. Anyway the place closes at 0045. With a few shots of Caipirinha my body started to float, so I decided to head back to my hotel and sleep. I politely decline to join them to the disco adjacent to this place. Despite their age, they are really very 'update'.

Club 2 (Saturday)
Salsa Havana KL with Derek and his friends.

Same thing, extended my "antenna" out to scan the area. It seems like there's a class outing just like ours seated behind us. We are sitting at the 'Premier' location in the club, according to Derek. Sitting there for an hour just watching others salsa, I started to get bored. I just cannot leave that place without any salsa. So I invited a lady to salsa from the group behind us. The dance was ok but occasionally, my lead signals were not received by her. I presumed that maybe my signals were just not strong enough. I'm worried to force my way through. I just don't know. The steps I observe her do, I can say that she is quite advance. She told me later she only learned for 7 months but she has been dancing every weekend in club. After that dance we left.

Conclusion.

Dancing in classes are just not enough to sharpen our skills to survive the jungle out there. In a class, it's a controlled environment. Teachers are the leader giving instructions. Out there, many things can happen. No leader to follow. Suddenly you can become 'kaku' (frozen) like me. We have to think of our next step almost immediately without our teachers giving the instructions. The best way is to learn the steps in class and then go out to the real world to practice and practice. Anyway practice makes perfect. I'm impressed with some people who can dance with just anyone and any age. I think we should have more class outings. What do all of u think? Broaden our horizon.

A Little Memory Goes A Long Way ....

2006-12-20T16:42:00.000+08:00

First times are always memorable. I remembered my first time like it was yesterday. The feeling, the ambience, the person you were with ... Do you remember yours?

Err .. I was referring to your first experience at the Salsa Club ... gee, what do you think I was talking about.

Anyway, as I was mentioning ... those moments, although memorable ... may not be pleasurable altogether. After a couple of months on the training floor, you think you're ready to go out there. To the real world, to the dance floor where the professionals and experts prowl. You remember your basics well, memorized your CBL's and under-arm turns ... some hopefully ... a few dips and off you go. I still remembered, my first club was at Eastin Hotel ... which I totally can't remember the name. Besides Jeamie Lee n Tamie (obviously), Sook Yee was the first few who actually danced with me and ... you would really wanna know what happen then. That .... you will need to ask me personally .. he he.

Everyone has to start somewhere, even for our very own SalsaJay talent Mr. Fai. I remembered when he first joined SalsaJay, he was just a little boy .... about 5 inches long .... nahhh .. just kidding. Well, he did start early .. sometimes I wished I'd started earlier. Anyway ... this is his side of the story.....

From Mr. Fai

You all did good... and u know it was worth it!!

I felt even worse the first time i went out to a salsa club....

I manage to reject a few ladies including a mexican (pretty hot i must say) lady coz i was so concerned/nervous to dance....

I had the longest front&back basic dance in my life and obviously i also had the mind numbing, bone shaking, spine chilling first time dance with my instructor (Jeamie of course) and the confidence breaking experiance whenever i bump or when my partner bumped into another couple...

The only reason i was on the dance floor was because jeamie was too strong and she manage to drag me to the floor (Damn, u a strong lady!) And after that horrid shocking endevour.... i told myself.... One day.... one day i will be on that dance floor, sweeping her (jeamie lah coz she was my intructor mah) off her feet like those other pro dancers....

Well, the day is still not quite there yet but im still dancing and im still reaching for it...

Trust me, its worth it. = )

Good job all!!

New 'Gen' SalsaJay Field Trip

2006-12-20T11:34:00.000+08:00

Holiday season is here again, Christmas then New Year and of course, this is when the party begins! And for you and I ... what party will it be, without Salsa huh. Of course, I am assuming you're a salsa dancer. Then again, you could be wrong but it's never too late for you to start, you know.

Well .. as promised, this is an update our recent outing to Salsa Havana. One which has been long outstanding and finally fulfilled! But this is not any regular salsa outing, this is the one which the "new generation" SalsaJay makes their debut ... or some would say ... lose their Salsa Virginity, to a certain extent. Hmm .. I wonder if they got their "ang-pow" from the teacher after that ....

Anyway, words no more ... here's the firsthand account from the newbies after their "first experience" on the dance floor.

From Angela Lin

Terima kasih cikgu Jeamie.

Yes i definitely, totally, deeply agreed and believed that being a female salsa dancer is much funner, you girls were just like a punch of flying butterflies that night..... ^_^...... So i just needed to be relax??? Much more relax i suppose???? Ok Ok Ok, i will try.....

Forgot to thank you, Fai. Thanks for your teaching on that basic bachata steps (was it?). It was nice, man.

From Laney

Aiyaya..... What's a wonderful report from all of your all....
As the first experience dance in front of the public, I just can said it was 'fresh' to me....... It really 'opened my eyes'....I must keep up my efforts to practise...
Tony.... thanks for your compliments but I am not a spy... Actually you dance well on that night...

Jeamie... I'll try my best to keep my steps smaller..
Fai... thanks to u too coz u guided me to do a nice ending pose...

From Tony Goh

I was actually very tension dy when I am driving to Federal. I do wish that the traffic will last forever.

I lost my salsa "virginity" to Angela. It was a very anxious and exciting experience there dancing salsa in a club for my very first time.

When Jeamie pull me out to dance, I got the shock of my life. I had this retro scene in front of me. Suddenly I found myself shrinking back to when I was 7-8 years old size.Here standing in front of me is this gigantic, big eye and fierce looking teacher with sharp pointing spectacles (the one u would find in the 70's). Worst! she was bending this thick ROTAN! With this kind of scene in front of you,of course I have become this little boy with trembling feet, shaking hand and couldn't look up at her face. Felt like a puppet n just let her do whatever she wishes la. Huge relieve when finally the puppet master let me go. Phews......... .

After 10 minutes rest, I was back in my present form. Just realise what had just happen. I said to myself. Hey that is not TONY GOH. I made a vow that I am not going to be anyone puppet anymore. From now on, I will eat salsa, drink salsa and sleep salsa. I am going to be well prepared to be tested by teacher anytime.

Dancing with Laney was very enjoyable. She is very good and moves like a Pro. Her body sway just like the others ppls beside us. LANEY, sure you are a beginner or just a spy? Ha Ha Ha.

I was very lucky than you bro. At least I managed to get Yee Yoke to dance with me for 1 minute. Yea ........

From the field trip, I realise that salsa teaches us respect for each other. For the lady, she need to trust the man to lead them. (oso trust that your man will not send u crashing onto other couples). If, u trust your partner good enuf, you can even dance with your eyes close. Also respect for other couples on the dance floor as well.

Thank you all for a wonderful nite that day. Before I end this I want to ask our "rotan happy wielding" teacher, when we are going to learn the bachata? It look very sensual and romantic.

Here's a feartfelt one from Derek

So, last Saturday was supposed to be the beginners first field trip to Salsa Havana, conveniently located in Federal Hotel (with all its connotations of seediness and all). Well, convenient seems to be the misnomer of the week, cos I left my humble abode at 9:30, thinking that I will arrive at the pre-arranged time of 10:30 with a lot of time to spare. I was horribly mistaken, as it took me fortybloodyfive minutes to travel down jalan bukit bintang! During that short stint, I got a call from Angela, who was also caught up in that same jam as I was, although she was probbly 4-5 cars down the road in front of me. When I finally got in front of Federal Hotel, I turned in, and started looking for parking. Turns out I either have to use the car jockey service (which I will do my utmost to avoid - have you seen the way they drive your cars??) or park in Low Yat. So, Low Yat it was...

Walking up the escalators, I had no idea where Salsa Havana was, but no worries, there was booming latino music wafting down from somewhere upstairs, so with my ears to guide me, I slowly found myself standing in front of the club. Paid 9 ringgit for a bottle of mineral water (choke, choke, yes NINE ringgit!) and in I went. Angela and Tony were already inside, with two of Tony's friends. A guy called Champ, and another whom sad to say, I cant remember his name.
Feeling hungry (didnt have time for dinner) I ventured out again and bought a chicken sandwich to go. The fandango that occured at the coffee shop as I was trying to pay for my sandwich, I will leave for another time. Suffice to say, it brings new meaning to the word, incompetant!

Back in the club, with my dinner in tow, I found Tony and Angela at the same place. People were starting to pour in, and I rushed to finish my sandwich so I could get first dibs with Angela, alas, Tony beat me to the punch. Just before I swallowed my last mouthful, Tony lead Angela out to the dance floor.

So I sat back and watched, as they hesitantly found the beat, 123, 567, 123, 567... front basic, back basic, front basic, back basic, 123, 567, 123, 567. (disclaimer: my memory of the night is not 100% complete, due to trauma suffered later on, which I shall elaborte upon shortly) Then Tony (whom I shall assume was leading *smirk* *wink*) started leading into the first non basic move. Cross body lead, spin, guy change hand, windmill, london bridge etc etc. They seemed to be doing ok, so I started gazing around looking at other people. I noticed there was a guy there, rather nerdy looking, thick glasses, goofy teeth, hair out of a bart simpson show, but he could move! For a while I was thinking he looked familiar, but I didnt give it much more thought, as before the song ended, Tony and Angela were back! "Whats wrong?", I asked, as she was massaging her foot. "Tony step on you ar??"

Apparently, her shoes were a little too high heeled for her to spin and groove, and each time she did, she would get shooting pains up her foot. Oh well, I suggested she rest awhile and try again. Worse come to worst, take off and dance barefeet la!

Ho Ho Ho, whaddya know, the goofy looking guy comes up to me and goes "Derek?" Shit, I knew he looked familiar! I knew him from my rock climbing days! Heres how I remember him ->
Back then, there was this group of us so called "Rock-Rats". We met up at the climbing gym at least once a week, and outdoors on the weekend. All of us were roughly the same skill and strength, so we would enjoy climbing together and encouraging each other, because we would basically know what was going through each other's minds... Well, one day, this guy rocks up, wearing knee pads!! Of all the goofiest, newbie things to do! (almost as bad as wearing socks in rock shoes!) He could hardly climb, let alone do a leadclimb, but he stuck out with us. We didnt mind him joining up with us, in fact, we encouraged him and belayed him whenever he was attempting any climb.

Well, as I've heard, God is fair, because on the dance floor, he is a GOD!!! Holy schmitt, he could move! His demeanour was completely different from an uncertain, unconfident budding rock climber. Here, his whole posture, his body language oozed confidence, and I must say, he had no problems getting any hot chick there to dance with him. *green eyes*

Well, after a while, Terence rocks in and ushers us to where Jeamie had reserved a space for us beforehand. Slowly the rest of the gang seep in. Fai, Jacque, Zai, Timothy, good lord, even Rachel and Wilson! Aha, Laney and YeeYoke! And there she was, in all her splendour (and the shortest mini skirt I've seen in a long time), Jeamie! First person she hauls over to the dance floor, poor Tony! I couldnt really see his face from where I was sitting, but I was already starting to feel the first signs of a panic onset! I was whispering (more like shouting la, damn loud music!) to Angela, "OMG, I'm going to kena also!!"

Lucky me, the next newbie she pounced upon was YeeYoke, then Laney, then Angela. All this while, I was hoping she would miss me, as I was trying my utmost best to be as inconspicuous as possible. Well, how inconspicuous can you be, when you are 6'1" and overweight?? Finally she snaked her way through the people I was hiding behind, grabbed my hands and dragged me screaming and kicking all the way across the dance floor. Ok, ok, I exaggerate, but if reality were formed from thoughts, that would have been my exact behaviour.

So there I was, holding hands with my instructress. Shoes feeling like there were filled with rocks. The first signs of cold sweat trickling down my forehead, cold shivers runnning up and down my spine. What to do? Go for it la! So, 123, 567, 123, 567.

123, 567, 123, 567. Shit, what next? Ok, Crossbody lead! Ok, done. Half turn, under arm turn. Guy change hand, spin, JAM! I have no idea what went wrong but before I could pull her into a windmill, something stopped! Was there superglue on the floor?? Did someone spill some? Ok, attempt to recover, 123, 567, 123, 567. But the problem was, now our hands were crossed! Ok, try into the windmill again, but I felt like I was moving through molasses! Everything seemed to happen in slow motion! How many minutes have passed? Couldnt have been more than 40 seconds, but it felt like an eternity! Oh god, that look that Jeamie just shot me! The only way I can describe it is "Boooooring! Are we going to do something within this century?? Yawwwwnnnnn" Ok ok, underarm turn, half turn, crossbody, spin... Damn, is that the only arsenal I have left in my repertoire? Oof! Someone collided with me! Actually, its more like _I_ collided with him! Jeamie pulls me in close and screams "Look out for space for yourself!". Ok, ... Bang! I accidently send Jeamie crashing into someone else! Jeamie pulls me in close and screams "Look out for space for ME!!!"

Then finally, somewhere in the fog of my panic addled brain, there registered a change in pitch, and different tempo, the end of the song! Good lord, I had somehow made it without getting stoned to within an inch of my life! I retreated back into the seated audience, completely drenched. I must have looked like I just took a shower with all my clothes on! Laney and Angela were having a field day, laughing at my pathetic, completely defeated appearance!

Now that my ordeal of dancing with my instructress was over, I could observe the others. There was a guy dancing there, longish hair, innocent baby face, looked like he was not moving very much, but what little he was doing was more than enough to send the woman he was dancing with into all sorts of spins, locks, gyrations etc... And when he danced with Jeamie! My God, I never knew it was physically possible for a womans anatomy to move the way it did on Jeamie! This was her, going all out! Leg, up and behind the guy, dips, it was all a flowing symphony of synchronized movement of bodies in time with the beat. So this is salsa at its finest!

So, a few songs along, and I feel as though I have recovered enough from the trauma of my first dance with Jeamie. I offer a hand to YeeYoke, but, wah liaw! Kena Reject! Ouch! Talk about crash and burn! Nothing more I could do, as Laney was already swiped up by Tony, and Angela was still nursing her foot. So I just continued to sit there and observe the other dancers.

The highlight of the night was when Jeamie took the mike and the stage. She announced that tonight was a special night as it was the first time that her beginners class was here! Clap clap clap... I look around, hoping no one would realise I was one of them, malu for Jeamie only...

Next announcement was that it was Timothy's birthday! Apparently there was a "traditional" Salsa Havana way of celebrating a persons birthday, and so, after blowing out the candles on his cake, some women formed a line and danced with Tim one by one. I have to say, it was fantastic, watching Timothy dance, using the whole floor, with one girl after another. Jeamie would dance in with a girl, spin and change partner, and lead the previous girl off. After a good 5-8 minutes of non-stop dancing, Tim finally gives up and calls the end of the dance.

Next up was a special presentation from the people of Shell! Apparently, it took them all of 1 (ONE!) week to learn their routine, but it was fantastic! Jeamie was dancing in with them as one of the girls. Totally synchronized, not just between 1 girl and 1 guy, but with five couples! Malu man, 1 week and they can do like that... Me, how many months aledi? Shame shame...

A few songs later, I get my turn with Laney. Less pressure than with Jeamie, but still felt very uncomfortable. Same amount of moves, same molasses feelings, same jam in my head. I cant beleive I even forgot how to do a basic armlock! Tried to do the spare tire move, but Laney didnt want to do it, boring it seems... Sathia move, ok ok la, girl turn guy turn, ok ok, but timing off. It seemed everything was out of whack! My timing, my memory, even my feet seemed to not want to listen to me. After a while, the change of pitch and tempo registered another end of song, and we made our way back to the others.

After a few more songs, I decided I had to go, since at that point in time, I was exhausted, sticky n sweaty, and I had to wake early for a morning ride. All in all, it was a very humbling experience. Going to the dance floor is similar to dumping someone in the deep end of the pool. Either you make it and start swimming, or you drown. In this case, either you build up the confidence to move n groove, or you give up. Well, that being the case, I aint going down without a fight! So, see you all for the next class!

SalsaJay "New" Generation

2006-12-15T20:00:00.000+08:00

SalsaJay has been idle for the past few months. Everybody's busy with work, I guess trying to clear off the year end. And guess what .... ? It's the 15th of December and 10 more days to Christmas .... yayyyy !!!! No prize fo guessing what will I be doing this Christmas. It's probably more Salsa party than usual.

Although I mentioned earlier that SalsaJay has been idle, I was referring to http://salsajay.blogspot.com. SalsaJay Dance School is bustling with activities .... the usual Friday classes and salsa outings.

Of course, some "extra curricular" has been taking place i.e. we've sent out a group to perform at the Shell I.T's Application Hosting dinner, happening on the 16th December 2006, at Impiana Hotel, KL. The group will then perform at Salsa Havana on the same night ! To top it off, this group has just picked up salsa dancing .... 3 weeks ago.

Upcoming events ... Year End party @ ParkRoyal Kuala Lumpur, salsa performance from a local dance school in KL.

Stay tuned for more information updates and photos on these events.

Newly 'Sonified' SalsaJay ....

2006-11-09T14:15:00.000+08:00

Hey hey fellow Salsa people !

As I am typing this article ... my feets are grooving to the Orquesta La Palabra ... a cool salsa song .. which .. incidently is this week's SalsaJay Pick of The Week !

SalsaJay ... if you noticed .. has been in the incubation chamber for quite a while now. Well ... that's an excuse. The truth is ... me, Timothy Low has been slacking. I've not been updating the SalsaJay site for the last God knows how long. But fear not ! I am back ... again (yeah, I"ve said that before) .. and hopefully this time .. for good. I guess maintaining a blog site is not that easy .. and sometimes I wonder how those dedicated bloggers do it.

Anyway, before I go any further with the latest happenings in and around SalsaJay .. I would like to bring you another new feature in SalsaJay. The Salsa music you're listening now (if you have your speakers turned on...) is a little tool from Sonific. Basically, I will feature a new Salsa song every week, for your listening pleasure.

So ... go enjoy ....

Cherating MSF 2006 In Media

2006-09-11T20:30:00.000+08:00

The memories of Cherating Malaysian Salsa Festival 2006 still lingers in the my mind. Here are some articles published by The Star recently. Read about them here ..

http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2006/8/26/lifeliving/15211830&sec=lifeliving

Here's an interview with Candice Leong and Ahtoy Won Pat-Borja

http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2006/8/26/lifeliving/15245939&sec=lifeliving

Read about former CEO of Multimedia Development Corporation Datuk Dr Mohamed Arif Nun and wife Kim salsa-ing together in Cherating

http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2006/8/26/lifeliving/15245951&sec=lifeliving

And a little about the roots of Salsa

http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2006/8/26/lifeliving/15247415&sec=lifeliving

Festival Cubano 2006

2006-09-10T17:51:00.000+08:00

For the second successive year, the Trinidad Group has organized Festival Cubano in Malaysia. The Festival was officially launched by its Royal Patron, YAM Tunku Naquiyuddin ibni Tuanku Ja'afar on April 21 with a spectacular charity concert by the Afro Cuban All Stars. The concert was sponsored by Best Western International, the world’s largest hotel chain, in benefit for the Yayasan Tunku Nurul Hayati, a foundation for underprivileged and abuse children. This years event will feature a 7 piece Cuban band who will accompany a master chef and cigar roller who were all specially flown in for the event.

This superb 7 piece Cuban band has been the talk of the Cuban music scene over the past few years. Sazon has performed at the best clubs in Cuba as well as toured several countries in Latin America. Their vast repertoire ranges of high energy Salsa, Merengue, Latin pop to current popular English songs has made Sazon one of the most exciting bands from Cuba. Their band leader, Jesus Santiago Martinez plays the trombone and is accompanied by keyboards, drums, percussionist and bass with two female lead singers.

Chef Brito as he is fondly referred to has been in the Cuba's hospitality industry for over 30 years. He has held many high posts in the Cuban Hotel Association and the Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality in Cuban. For many years, Chef Brito was in charge of all the food and beverages served at all major international events in Cuba including Head of State and dignitary functions, conferences and festivals organized by the Government. He has represented Cuba in several international hotel and culinary conferences around the world. Apart from his culinary skills, Chef Brito is also a qualified-sommelier.

Master Roller Adonis started off his career as an apprentice at a tender age of 16 at the Partagas factory and in a short span of time rose to the rank of supervisor. His cigar rolling skills and ability was noticed and he was eventually transferred to Havana's best and most important factory, El Laguito, home to the world famous Cohiba cigars. He has so far demonstrated his cigar rolling talents at several events in Spain and London. Adoni's specialty is rolling Torpedo and Double Corona cigars.

Festival Cubano 2006 Schedule (or what's left of it)

Although the Festival Cubano 2006 started on the 1st May 2006 in Westin Hotel, Kuala Lumpur ... you can still catch them in their last leg of the tour. They are currently in Genting Highlands Resort until 16th September 2006.

1st Sept - 16th Sept 2006
Genting Highlands Resort, Pahang.

18th Sept - 20th Sept 2006
Puteri Pan Pacific Hotel, Johor Bahru.

22nd Sept - 30th Sept 2006
Le Meridien Hotel, Kota KInabalu.

SALSA IN JAKARTA CITY

2006-08-22T14:29:00.000+08:00

I visited a Salsa Club in Jakarta ! Yes .... and it was amazingly cool. The people ... the ambience ... the music ... the attitude ...

And I would have to thank Irene Chandra from P.T Onesoft for going through the trouble of helping me to locate a Salsa Club in Jakarta. It's like looking for a needle in the haystack. Yet, since the day I landed in Jakarta ... my mind seemed to be thinking about visiting at least a Salsa Club in Jakarta. Even at the Asia I.T event in Gran Melia ... I was practically asking if anyone knows any good Salsa Club in Jakarta. And finally Irene agreed to help me locate one which eventually lead me to Heti ... the Salsa intructor from Casa De La Pareja (pronounced Pareha). A couple of telephone calls later, we met up with Heti and was en route to Mystere ... one of the top Salsa Club in Jakarta. Mystere is in Ritz Carlton hotel which is located at Mega Kuningan in central Jakarta. It's a huge club with a cool live band that plays excellent latin music.

When we arrived at Mystere, it was early .. I think around 9pm and there were not may people around. I was kinda worried in the beginning .. thinking, if that's the salsa scene in Jakarta .. I am really gonna bore to death ! Anyway, I was introduced to Ivan, Heti's partner in La Pareja and a few other frequents to Mystere. Ivan ... is the most humble guy you will ever meet ! Now, if I am a chic .. I would have added that he's also very sweet ... but then again, there could be misunderstandings .. so let's just settle at 'humble'. He would excel at being a Tour Guide ... explaining all the stuffs I needed to know about the Salsa scene in Jakarta.

Heti ... on the other hand, would have all my praises and compliments for being one of the passionate person about salsa I have ever met. I can't really explain it, but you can actually feel the sensuality of salsa flowing in her. Now, how would I know about that ... ? For one, she actually took the trouble to come to my hotel, pick me up and send me to a Salsa Club .. all because I mentioned that I love to salsa. Just tell me, who ... in their right mind, would do this great favor if not someone who is so passionate about salsa ? And ... bear in mind, I am a stranger to her as well, to begin with.

Anyway, if you ever feel the sudden urge to pick up Salsa or need a Salsa Tour Guide in Jakarta City, please contact these good people ...

Ivan or Heti @ CASA DE LA PAREJA - Jl. Lebak Bulus Raya, No. 33A. Tel : 021-7511354

Anyway, nuff of that for now ... let's get back to salsa. Salsa music began to play shortly after we arrived, there was a few person learning salsa on the dance floor in front of a huge stage. Then more people began to arrive at the club and we were told that the reason of the sparse crowd was because it's a public holiday (i.e. it's Indonesian National Day on 17th August) hence a lot of people would've gone for holiday. The crowd grew gradually ... and eventually the live band started .. and with a bang too ! The feet slowly moved ... and very quickly .. I was already doing my very first Cross Body Lead in Indonesia. Yes ! I have gone international ... ha ha ha !

I got tired very soon, exactly after the 3rd dance ... as usual. I always get tired after the 3rd dance .. that's when I need to take a break to "dry" my shirt !!! And I started to observe the dancers in Jakarta ... there were quite an equal number of men:women ratios although I do notice quite a few elderly lady who's equally stunning with their salsa dances.

INTERESTING FACTS
Interesting fact 1: Elderly ladies have young, outrageously good salsa skill male dance partners.
Interesting fact 2: Most guys and some ladies dance REALLY well
Ineresting fact 3: Crowds are very participative to group activities i.e. line dancing

I was also fortunate to meet Amel & Yono (they performed at the Malaysian Salsa Festival recently) ... and they were very friendly folks, not to mentioned how impressive they dance....

JAKARTA. AN ADVENTURE.

2006-08-19T18:25:00.000+08:00

A little something about Jakarta before we go any further ... Jakarta (also Djakarta or DKI Jakarta), formerly known as Sunda Kelapa, Jayakarta and Batavia is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Located on the northwest coast of the island of Java, at 6°11′S 106°50′E, it has an area of 661.52 km² and a population of 8,792,000 (2004). Jakarta has been developed for more than 490 years and currently is the ninth most dense city in the world with 44,283 people per square miles.

I just got back from Indonesia ... Jakarta ... to be exact. And I must say, it was an exciting experience .. or adventure if you might call it. I arrived at the Jakarta International Soekarno-Hatta Airport on the 13th August 2006 and it was a Sunday. I'd say my first impression of Jakarta was a good one ... the airport looks huge ... old looking but not rundown, just clean, very clean. Standing amidst the crowded airport, we hailed a cab or "taksi" and headed towards the hotel, Gran Melia. Jakarta taxis are more colorful than the bright yellow cabs of Manhattan; they come in such a great variety and can become a source of confusion. I was on a "Silver Bird" taxi ... at least that was what I was adviced to ride in Jakarta. "Just grab any Silver Bird or Blue Bird.. but not anything else !".

And I really didn't ask why ... which I found out eventually. Driving in Jakarta city is no easy feat ... I can vouch for that, since those of knows me ... understands clearly how I drive. Then again, I believe this is old news. All greats cities in the Asian region boast great drivers ... Bangkok, Manila ... and let's not forget our proud Malaysians. Besides the "taksi" there are also other mode of transport which provides equally adventurous experience .. such as ...

The TransJakarta, a bus rapid transit system in Jakarta, Indonesia. The system is modeled on the successful TransMilenio system in Bogotá, Colombia. Alternative common names include Busway or TJ (pronounced Tije, "tee-jay").

The "Mikrolet" a smaller version of public transport. Not as romantic as the bemo of Bali, it is typically a modified van that can carry up to 10-12 passengers. Mikrolet can take you to the remotest corners of Jakarta.

Bajaj, a Vespa (think of it as a fat-bottomed motorcycle, if you don't know what a Vespa is) derivative with an attached carriage. Their obnoxious bright orange color, and distinctive, ear piercing rattle, will accompany you along your ride in the constantly vibrating vehicle. It's similar to the "Tok-Tok" of Thailand.

The last one in the chain is probably Ojek. Ojeks usually park in front of small alleys (gang) that can have thousands of residencies inside. There is no chance for a taxi or a car to get into these alleys, and the distance maybe to far to walk it. So, Ojek - a motorcycle complete with its driver for hire - comes to the rescue..

That aside, let's get back to my story. As I was saying, we got to Gran Melia hotel which was located somewhere near the southern part of Jakarta (bear in mind, Jakarta is HUGE). Arriving at the hotel, we were greeted by a line of men in uniforms (army, I presume) guarding the exterior of the hotel. A few of them stopped us just as we drove up the hotel, requesting to perform an inspection on our cab. Cab driver inform us that this is a norm citywide .. all hotels, malls, office buildings and popular tourist destinations require checks like these upon entering the premise. Talk about tight security !

The currency of Indonesia is Rupiah, I am sure you know about that. I am just not used to paying thousands of Rupiah's for food and stuffs we buy. Just imagine ... I stayed at the Dusit Mangga Dua hotel and it cost me approx 500,000 Rupiah's per night. That's a lot of zeros ! A cab ride starts at 5,000 Rupiah's and the meter rolls faster than a stopwatch ....

And with a couple thousand Rupiah's, you can buy yourself some decent food from any nice interesting stalls around the city. Food is never scarce in Jakarta ... every little corner, every alley .. there's a stall. Whether it's selling piping hot "Sup Buntut" to spicy "Nasi Goreng Gila" or the special "Satay Babi", you are sure to find them. But from one traveller to another, my advice to you is ... take a look at the surrounding ... see how the food is being prepared. If you're ready to stomach it, by all means ... take the gastronomical adventure ! But if your tummy toodle thinks this is a little tad too much, fast food or some decent commercial restaurant would be as good.

MSF 2006 Photo Link

2006-08-12T13:10:00.000+08:00

The Malaysian Salsa Festival in Cherating has came to an end but the memory lives on through the photos. Check them out here ...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/side2side/sets/72157594232401276/