Three years!
Wow, it does not seem that much when you look into
one single digit number, even when this number is
3! Still, when you realize that this means 156 weeks,
over 130 newsletters,
30 000 and more pictures and attending over 500
events this starts to be impressive number.
As some of our old fans know, we started as a consumers
guide website that caters to us just regular dancers
who just want to have fun. We have zero tolerance
for primadonnas, ‘cool’ a.k.a not grownup
yet attitudes, monster egos or anything that would
go in this pile. And it worked! Many of you think
the same and you embraced us with both hands. For
over two years we are the world’s most visited
website that covers Latin trends.
And as the word salsa, it evolved; it is not only
salsa on 1, salsa on 2 or Cuban. It is so much more!
Salsa to us is a word that encompasses an ever-growing
movement and an expression for both Latinos and
new generations who even do not speak Spanish and
even for those who just like to peek from the outside.
SalsaSPOT now includes musician interviews and coverage,
and that includes a variety of trends besides salsa,
merengue and bachata. Many dancers who grew over
the past years took lessons and expanded their horizons
to encompass the other dance styles in their routines
and many musicians also played with merging new
rhythms and influences in their routine. Millennium
salsa is very influenced with hip hop and it is
cool to see a flowing rhythm of salsa merge with
syncopation and a popping of hip hop. And on the
music front we have similar fusions. Reaggeton
swiped the nation by storm and our own Fito Blanko
is now an international brand.
So let us give you a short story of our site and
our perspective. The site started as a hobby site
and at the same time it gave the salsa community
a professionally designed and programmed site. It
was free for users, instructors and clubs, and back
then we were picking up the bill for hosting, programming
and registration. Needless to say, it came as a
big surprise when one
well known dancer from our scene and now residing
in Holland sent a bitching e-mail
to all the instructors and clubs ‘demanding’
we rename the site and go about our business differently.
Of course it set a stage for what we will have to
deal with. Dude, it
is free, and it is ours. We giggled
a lot then and we even giggle over that one today.
As far as for the name, we changed it when we had
a name we wanted, which was universal enough to
make sense in every language.
To make your browsing easier we have many other
domains coming to our site and one of our babies
is SalsaToronto.ca
so our Toronto crowd can find their home easier.
And here it goes a new story. There
is this person from Toronto, inadequate and of course
a terrible designer and writer who somehow in his
head figured out he will walk around and make business
cards stating he is SalsaToronto.ca.
He stole things from our website and was selling
it to clubs, and presenting himself as a part of
our company. We laughed in how he embarrassed himself.
Nobody believed that that poorly designed cards
can possibly represent our site, but the freak did
not get discouraged. Boy, don’t you enjoy
having this glamorous job going to events and reporting
to you, when you have a freak following you around,
threatening, intimidating and even grabbing your
butt? Well Mr. Stalkalot
is now under observation of the police and we certainly
hope he will be under observation. Period. So,
needless to say, the great and good experiences
are balanced out with misplaced people who are deprived
of attention and successes in their lives. Worse
yet the only way they want to work for them is by
extorting ill-willed actions. Hm, if all that energy
has been invested in studying maybe someone will
actually bother.
Dancers
Ok, let’s stay
with Mr. Stalkalot a little bit more as he is a
good example of a terrible dancer. For us, the media,
personalities like that are God-send. Where else
can you find a middle aged guy who believes that
the crowd loves his dancing, serving as entertainment
for the crowd with his terrible dancing antics?
This tops any audition on reality
shows. This Loseralot is not a first to have these
illusions of grander. No posture, no grace, no styling,
no lead, …
Ok, Mr. Stalkalot and Spinalot crowd are not really
your garden variety and weed at times does grow
alongside the flower garden, but we have managed
to dewed the news and give you all the new stuff
that is going on. This also meant that we needed
to grow, visit and observe new and different.
All that development stuff boils down to an individual;
if a person willing to grow personally and professionally
he or she will need much more then spinning and
charisma. To really succeed, one needs technique
and emotions combined in the mix and to get ahead.
How many of your local salsa celebrities attended
classes and added something of their own? Dancing
is much more then spinning, it is expression, flow
and connection. Do not be fooled with Spinalot cliques.
The practice part in dancing and playing an instrument
is that thing that is not fun. It takes hours of
repeating a bar or two or getting that leg movement
just right, and if you were ever a neighbour of
an aspiring musician you will know what we are talking
about. Practice makes perfect and practice needs
some ‘elbow greese’.
After all, going out is so much enjoyable when
you observe these wannabes completely clueless of
their inadequacy. What an entertainment!
In these three years, shows about music and dancing
seem to be very popular. It is great to see reality
shows of this kind as you all get an insight of
these personalities. Sometimes a great dancer comes
with cocky personality but most of the times great
dancers come with focus, determination and vast
training and great respect for people who contributed
to their growth. Sometimes, it is only a matter
of maturing. The latest
FOX Network show, So You Think You Can Dance, which
airs 8pm EST features some really exceptional dancers
and it is amazing to observe that people with ballroom
background actually seem to have an advantage as
a requirement of the show is often couple ballroom
dancing. Brian who got in trouble for his arrogant
attitude did get a second chance as his dancing
is truly exceptional. Time stops when he dance and
we are completely drawn in, which is a quality only
great dancers have. Certainly, there is a very personable
and charismatic Ryan who rocks the crowd and who
has no formal training. Certainly he is fully aware
of this shortcoming and he seems to be willing to
put in lots of hard work and it shows. There is
no doubt that these guys will get very far. So will
Russians Artemis. Female selection is unfortunately
not that charismatic with the exception of Snow
who seems to have it all and she as well could be
a possible winner.
And as they say, onward and upward. As always things
will work out and we will continue to inform you
about the people, places, events and serve as your
consumer guide. We thank you all for this 3-year
loyalty and for sticking with us, for sharing your
comments, wishes and aspirations. We hope it continues
and that we will have more of great salsa and great
experiences!
With many more years
to come we bring you as a special treat exclusive
Monchy and Alexandra interview and some clips of
the past So You Think You Can Dance shows.
And if you like to revisit events that were fun,
check out the picture and video gallery of our past
events.
So, let's get your fingers dancing!
INTERVIEW: MONCHY
& ALEXANDRA
SalsaSPOT exclusive: Learn more about the
masters of bachata. Are they good dancers,
married and what are their future plans. Enjoy,
click
here
SALSASPOT
PICTURE GALLERIES
History in pictures. Enjoy and remember
where were you three, two and one year ago!
2002 SalsaSPOT party picture gallery, click
here
2003 SalsaSPOT party picture gallery, click
here
2004 SalsaSPOT party picture gallery, click
here
2004 SalsaSPOT party picture gallery 2, click
here
SALSASPOT IN MOTION
As you will see, out party performers are
now local and international celebrities.
2002 SalsaSPOT party video gallery, click
here
2003 SalsaSPOT party video gallery, click
here
2004 SalsaSPOT party video gallery, click
here
SO? YOU THINK YOU
CAN DANCE?
Hope you are enjoying Fox series. Enjoy
pictures and videos from the past show.
Picture gallery, click
here
Videos, click
here
MEMBER FORUMS
Give and seek advice and enjoy some juicy discussions.
There seems to be feather flying when it comes to
attitudes in socializing, click
here
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