8 Week Salsa Intensive Class at Google
Have you always wanted to learn salsa?
Here is your chance – we are going to run a special 8 week salsa intensive course March 1 through the end of April. We will meet every Monday at 5 pm in the Google Dance Studio (CL 3). I will be teaching this LA style salsa (on 1) class with the G2G ballroom team – Gem, Alexander, Heidi, and Derrick! For those who have done cuban rueda salsa at Google before, this is different – we will be teaching the kind of salsa were you dance with just one partner, not in a circle switching partners.
If you’ve never done salsa before, this class will be perfect for you – we will start from the very beginning and explore the basic steps, how to lead and follow, and how to move like a salsa dancer!
For those who have done a little salsa, this class will be great for you as well – we will move beyond the basics quickly and progress through turns and spins, fun variations, shines, and even some dips! This class will be a chance to move beyond the basics that are commonly taught in drop in lessons and get into the really fun stuff.
This class will get you ready for our big Cinco de Mayo salsa party (yes, on the 5th of May). We are hoping to have a live salsa band and really kick off the dance studio here on campus. And you gotta have your salsa ready for a party like that – so get started with our salsa class March 1st.
Check the dancestudio internal link for more information and registration.
See you soon,
Anna
Latin Jazz – Bachata inspired “El Triste”
Bachata is one of the the beautiful and very sexy slow dances of the Latin world.
For latin jazz class, we’ve been using the song “El Triste” by Frenesí de Bachata to dance a bachata inspired routine.
Here are the steps:
And here it is with music (and sticky shoes that wouldn’t let me turn!):
Hope you enjoyed this new style of dance, we’ll be moving back into faster tempo next week,
See you soon,
Anna
How to Dance at a Club or Party: an Analytical Approach
So you may have heard that I’m teaching a new class at the Google Dance Studio – How to Dance at a Club or Party: An Analytical Approach. I think this is currently my favorite class, but it’s also my most challenging – there’s a lot of work involved in breaking down all those elements of movement that make someone look “natural”.
I’ve had so many friends ask me what the heck I’m teaching in that class, that I thought I’d put up a bit of my curriculum / a few of my review videos so you can share in the joy.
It’s a 7 week course, and here’s the overview of the curriculum:
- Parsing music: How to hear beat, rhythm, measures, upbeat vs. downbeat, melody and harmony
- Translating sound into movement: How to turn what you hear into dancing
- Overall Picture: Posture, Angles, Coordination, and Resistance
- Body Isolations: How to move individual parts of your body (ribs, hips, body rolls, etc)
- Male vs Female Movement, and a Brief top 10 of “Don’t”s
- How to Interact with Others
- How to Teach Yourself
I’m particularly proud of some of the segments (like how to tell the difference between “good” posture, “bad” posture, “dance” posture, and “hip hop” posture). I also get a total kick out of the powerpoint presentation and flow chart that go with the class series. Most importantly, I have seen a lot of improvement already in the 60-70 folks who are showing up for class each week (good job guys!)
I’ve been told that I ought to package the whole curriculum and sell it (in my copious amounts of spare time). I doubt I will have time, but I am considering it, and due to that I will not post all of my videos here (I am posting them internally at Google, check my internal account for all the videos and powerpoint notes).
None the less, here’s a few videos for fun:
Posture Basics:
Angles:
Coordination:
Resistance:
For the Googlers who are reading, there is only a few more weeks of class left, so come out on Wednesdays at 5:30 pm to the studio! This is a one time only class, so don’t miss it! Each class is it’s own unit, so feel free to come out even if you’ve missed prior classes.
See you soon,
Anna
Hip Hop at Google
Hey Dancers!
Sorry I’ve been so slow in making videos for our cardio hip hop class – the Google dance studio has eaten my life.
Just a brief update on hip hop at Google – we now have 5 hip hop classes per week (what???)
- Total beginners: How to dance at a Club or Party: An Analytical Approach (Wednesdays at 5:30 pm)
- Beginners: Club Zumba (Mondays at 4 pm, follow along dancing to pop / club / hip hop music, simple steps, great cardio)
- Beginning Intermediate: Cardio Hip Hop (Mondays and Wednesdays at 7 pm, lots of workout, some fun steps, short routine)
- Intermediate Advanced Hip Hop: with Arlene Lee (Thursdays at 4 pm, prepare to perform an awesome hip hop routine!)
All classes are in the new Google dance studio, except for the Cardio hip hop, which is still in B 40 as always.
I know this is *lots* of options – perhaps too many? Please tell your friends about all of the options – I think there are Googlers out there who don’t know that the right class exists for them. If everyone finds the class that is right for them, there will be enough dancers total to fill up all those classes. I hope that you will still come out and support the Cardio Hip Hop class in B 40 – I would hate to have to end the class due to lack of participation. We’ve been going strong for a year, and it would be great to keep going!
Anyways, here are the steps that we are doing right now if you want to review:
And here are the steps a little faster with the counts:
See you in class on Monday / Wednesday at 7 pm.
New Bollywood Dances
Hi guys!
Sorry I’ve been so slow with making videos – the Google dance studio has eaten my life. =)
We’ve done a few new Bollywood dances, first to Mast Kalandar from “Heyy Babyy”:
Here are the steps slowly:
and here it is with music:
The second dance we’ve done lately is Zoobie Doobie from 3 Idiots:
Here are the steps:
And here it is with the music:
Thanks for coming to class! It’s always great to see you… for those who haven’t been in awhile, the Oracle Bollywood class is on Fridays at 11 am. I have also been teaching these Bollywood routines in Around the World class at Google, Tuesday and Thursday at 4 pm. Finally, we do at least one Bollywood in Zumba class, Mondays at 8:20 am at Reach, or Thursdays at 10 am at 24 hr fitness.
See you soon!
Anna
Move it Up Reggaeton
Here’s some Zumba reggaeton steps, taken from Beto Perez and Tanya Beardsley (and some from me!). Shouts out to Mahin for requesting more reggaeton – good to get it back into the rotation.
The song is “Move it Up” from the Zumba CD, but I think the song is available in other renditions as well. Here are the steps:
And here they are with the music:
Say Hey I Love You
This is *such* a fun song -”Say Hey I Love You” by Michael Franti and Spearhead. I’d love to do a full routine to the whole song someday. Anyone interested?
Here’s just the steps – some samba, some cha cha, some jazz, some hip hop, some …?:
And the same with counts:
And with the song (yeah!!):
For those who want to put a face with the voice, this is Michael Franti….
Not bad, eh?
On a totally off topic – I think most tattoos are … well, not a great idea. I don’t know why, but a lot of colored tattoos look strange to me, like they don’t really fit on people’s skin. It looks out of place, like some doodled on them with a marker. The only kind of tattoos I even vaguely like are like these – tribal design in dark ink. Even though I’m still not a fan of tattoos, at least they look like they “fit” on the body.
All righty – back to dancing!
Latin Jazz – Que Tengo Que Hacer
Here’s a little routine that we danced to “Que Tengo Que Hacer” by Daddy Yankee. It’s part samba, part hip hop, part jazz – hopefully lots of fun!
Lyrics, with English translation are here. For once they’re pretty sweet (sometimes Daddy Yankee is pretty raunchy!)
Here it is with the counts:
And with the music:
Lirirrixa Samba
Shouts out to Kristin, hope you enjoy this at home as well as in class!
Samba steps:
And with the music, “Lirirrixa” by Babado Novo:
Not only is she a good singer, but she’s a very pretty girl….
Favorite New Style
Everyone asks me what my favorite styles of dance is. And I really don’t have an answer (really – I’m not just holding out on you!) I do really like West Coast Swing. And I’m also enjoying Bhangra and Bollywood.
But I’m getting to be a fan of this new styles, Quebradita, that I’m bringing into Zumba class. It is just so much fun! The syncopated rhythms and all the jumping around is pretty crazy – quite a challenge actually.
Here’s the steps slowly:
And here’s with the song “El Ritmo Caliente” from Zumba 22:
Some people say that each style is like a language. I like to think of different dance styles as having a “mood” that goes with them. I guess it’s not surprising that I like lots of “happy” or “joyous” styles of dance (big shocker with my personality). But I really do like the variety of dances for the variety of mood. If I only did Bhangra and Quebradita, I would get bored with all the happy (I know that sounds strange). But it’s one of the reasons I really like Argentine Tango (for it’s moody darkness) or American Waltz (for its wistful feeling). I enjoy all the dances for their particular mood – just one style would get boring.
What’s your favorite style of dance, and why? Comments below!
