I need help with the salsa for a coming concert!

[smile]

Hello, everyone!:)

I see the mood here is to the maximum, just as usual :)

Now on the question. I am a president of the school Latino Dancing Club, and we'll have a performance pretty soon- June 12!! One of the dances will be salsa :wink: I have one question..and one problem.

There are no boys for this salsa dance (they became lazy and did not want to learn the steps..) which is somewhat of a problem because it would be just fantastic to show a salsa dance by couples...but I can't do anything about it :( Still, I have the girls :)

Now, my question is: will it be a too boring and stupid dance, if we dance salsa steps like adios, dos, scraf and all of those kind (I'm not sure what's the right spelling of these words) as an ansamble; 4 or 5 girls on first line and the others on second line? Do you think it can be a nice dance, or the audience is going to throw tomatoes at us...?

Then I was thinking of all the dancers coming together and forming a rueda- again with some adios, dos, la roska and maybe pasera...and then for the end of the dance the cirlce will just unroll and we'll end with our hands in the air..How does it sound to you as choreography?

The problem is very serious- I can't find a nice, rhythmic, and more importantly - famous song on which salsa can be danced...I guess it doesn't have to be a real salsa song, just something that the audience will love!! As we all know, no matter what the dance is, if the audience will applaud us and will be having fun if they know and love the song! Thus, I have to find quickly something rhythmic and nice, so that the girls can learn the dance with the song...Please, give me as many suggestions as you can! Or even better, if you have some experience with a school-level salsa concert with a great song and they liked you, share your experience with me! I know that even if we have the greatest dance ever, without rhythmic and nice music....no one will even watch us...:(

Thanks to all of you beforehand!! This is kind of my last chance because the concert is on June 12 and by June 8 the dancers have to know it by hear...otherwise...there'll be no performance...:(

If you have any questions that may help you, let me know! I'll answer:):)

Have fun and see you around,
Smile :)

[Pacion]

I can't find a nice, rhythmic, and more importantly - famous song on which salsa can be danced...I guess it doesn't have to be a real salsa song, just something that the audience will love!!

Hi Smile and welcome to DF! In terms of keeping the latin theme, have you tried Gloria Estefan spanish CDs or the Gypsy Kings? The Gypsy Kings have a particular song that is a mix of 3 or 4 of their songs so that you can have a varity of 'famous' songs. Please no one lynch me but you can even try Ricky Martin. :oops: Do you know the Ketchup song?
http://www.theketchupsong.com/ If you go to their website, you can hear the song and I think it is quite a catchy song :D especially if you try to get the audience participation by way of clapping as part of your routine?

In my opinion, in today's world, you don't have to have men as part of the routine. Yes, it is always nice to have them but, are any of the girls strong enough to lead? What I think would be great is if you all dressed really feminine rather than dressed masculine to try and pretend to have males in the group :?

I don't recognise the steps/moves you mentioned but, you can do a combination of footwork (also known as shines) and a few couple moves, and then go back to footwork/line work. As part of that, trying to get the audience clapping.

Another suggestion, depending on the stage setup and how confident you are all feeling, a few of you can even go amongst the audience and dance amongst the chairs?

Remember that this is as much your show/performance as it is for the audience and therefore, you should try and do what would be fun for YOU. Reduces the preperformance nerves :wink:

A thought is that you can even 'setup the performance' say with the girls walking on stage as if say meeting at an open air cafe or picnic in the park (you might even be able to rope some guys in as arm candy :wink: and just sit on some chairs/blankets and watch :D

Hope this gives you some food for thought and do let us know how you get on! :D

[Sagitta]

Hi smile. Welcome to df!! :) From the steps that you describe I would say that you dance casino style salsa. If you want to do a rueda its good to have moves flowing from one move to another. One rueda combination that I like is enchulfle centro con la dos straight into derecha, followed by trente treis, la rosa twice, then adelante once, ending with dame, and straight into festival. I like this as the people in the circle first circle around each other, then into and out of the circle, followed by moving around the circle.

To end you can unroll to form a line. Another suggestion is to have a combination that results in you all still being in a circle but facing outwards. You bow and then the circle unfurls into a line and you bow once again. For instance, in the circle what is called in salsa a switch behind the back, perhaps it's called "stop Texas" in rueda...back break, together on 3, switch hands, and while the follower unrolls, the leader does a hook turn, and on eight hands shoot up in the air. Free outer hands connect right at the end of song. Then bow, then unfurl, then bow.

There are better combinations, such as doing cadenata, followed by ending with segero, and into this other move. But it all depends on what the people in your group know. My advice is stick to the moves that you can do cleanly with everyone synchronized.

As for song this would really depend on how fast you want it to be. Then if you understand Spanish you can also do moves that reflect what the singer is saying. Choosing a song where that can be done would be best. However, it does not look as if you have a lot of time...

[Sagitta]

Just though of something else...what sort of song length are you looking for? That is how long do you want your performance to be?

[pygmalion]

Are you still around smile? How's the concert prep coming? 8)

[Sagitta]

Either smile is too busy, or has figured out what to do, since there has been no response. That's my guess. :)

[pygmalion]

I hope that we'll get an after-the-event review, at least. :D