Bollywood Medley at GoogleMela
Special thanks to this awesomely fun group of dancers who dedicated so much of their time to learn this long and challenging choreography. The performance at GoogleMela was well received, and I can’t believe you learned so much in just 5 weeks.
I enjoyed laughing with the dancers as we figured out the King and Queen lifts for Marjaani, how many times to run in a circle for Aaja Nachle, helping me understand the lyrics to Desi Girl, learning how to jump and push your hands up for Mauja hi Mauja, and such enthusiasm for the ending of Deewangi Deewangi. You guys were a really fun group to work with – looking forward to many more fun evenings of poker, monopoly, movies, and food!
Zumba class performs at GoogleMela
Every Friday at 5 pm I teach a Zumba class (latin cardio dance mix) at Google.
I was super proud of these 5 ladies who were brave enough to perform a cumbia from class onstage at GoogleMela! As part of this International Cultural Festival they were representing Columbia / Venezuela – the home of cumbia.
Particular thanks to Susan for dealing (repeatedly) with costumes, as well as Debby and Katie for making up a partner dance part when I never gave you one! Thank you to Minya for dancing in multiple numbers and helping keep the group together, and a particular thank you to Zhongli for being so brave to perform.
See you all in class!
Gita and I dance at GoogleMela
Gita Hodell, you’re my hero!
It’s so great to work with a professional who is such a talented dancer, choreographer, and all around fun person to work with. If you want to find Gita for private lessons, please contact me and I can get you in touch with her. Or you can find her through Cheryl Burke / Starlite Studio.
I hope you all enjoyed watching our Afro-Haitian inspired Salsa, here it is again in case you missed it:
We mixed two songs together for this number, the first is “La Medina” off of Rumbagitation by Fatal Mambo, the second is “Elegante” by Orixas.
Thanks, Gita, for rehearsing with me so that we could dance at GoogleMela!
Want to see it again? Comments below!
Bolero Latin Jazz routine
Hello Dancers!
Thank you all for tackling this new and exciting latin dance form – Bolero – with such good humor and grace! It is such a different dance from the others, slow and controlled, balletic, and yet full of so much movement. Really a great workout.
Here are the steps we’ve done so far:
And here it is with a little music (Paxi ni Ngongo):
Apparently this is from an artist called Bonga, who is a singer from Angola. I got the track from Afro Cubano, a dance compliation, hope you enjoy!.JPG)
Rumba Steps – Just in Time!
Soo… yeah… Rumba should be easy, cause it’s slow, right?
Well this choreography is not so easy. But it will certainly give both your brain and your body and workout.
Your body tones differently when you practice eccentric contractions (moving slowly) so rumba can be a great workout – hope you come out on Friday to Reach to try it again!
Here are the steps slowly with explanation:
And here’s a little faster with the counts:
And here’s with music!
For more on rumba, check this out. Joanna and Michael are two of my favorite dancers, and she knows how to move (not so sure about her explanations, but whatever). These are many “basic” International Latin patterns, but they dance them so fully they look like amazing.
