Darwin Latin Dance Xtravaganza 2007
22 – 24 June 2007
The 3rd Annual Darwin Salsa Festival was amazing, brilliant, and in fact totally exhilarating. As always, the festival (extravaganza) was full of spirit and energy and after the third year running it has still not lost its sparkle. I would find it very difficult to think that anyone could have come away from the weekend without gaining at the very least confidence and inspiration for their dancing.
Thank You Joao & Barbara for making this event possible every year. Joao and his wife Barbara of Salsita Dance School are the organisers of this event and without them the
Festival would never have started three years ago. These two work tirelessly to bring the big world of Salsa to our doorstep.
Other Festival Organisers also deserve a big thank you. To all the other dance schools, suppliers, the management of the venues, advertisers, sponsors, accommodation suppliers, exhibitors, door staff, ticket sellers, promoters, guest instructors, local performers, parents, dance students and all our new salsa friends and anyone else I may have forgotten to mention. Thank you for helping to make this year’s event so special.
My Personal Appreciation is for Joao of Salsita. He is the pioneer of Salsa dance instruction in Darwin. I think his vision has always been to see the Salsa Community grow in Darwin and he has successfully managed to bring some of Australia’s best instructors & performers to Darwin three years in a row. Joao is a very dedicated promoter of Salsa in Darwin and as a past student, I would not be were I am teaching Salsa without his help. I hope that Joao appreciates that his vision of seeing the Salsa Community grow, is in fact becoming a reality, through his hard work and persistence. Thank you very much Joao for everything!
The Performances at the Cabaret Night at the Holiday Inn were fantastic. Both local and guest performers gave 100%. This year the local talent was astounding delivering performances of Belly dancing, Capoeira, Salsa, and of course my personal favourites the 4 The Love Of Dance Adult show team, salsaKIDZ & salsaTEENZ. Seeing all my students on the stage with star struck faces put happy tears in my eyes! Of course the night was topped off by the Worlds best gracing our stage with their mind blowing performances. Each of the guest couples took my breath away because their talent is just so awe inspiring.
The Workshops were so professionally run this year, yet again and the Guest Instructors were incredibly user-friendly. This festival in Darwin is the best Professional Development opportunity I get to attend every year! Where else but in Darwin can the local instructors and students mix with the Worlds Best salsa dancers, instructors and performers. We had them all to ourselves, how lucky we are! So in my opinion small festivals with familiar faces and time to get to know dancers and instructors alike are worth attending.
A well-balanced line up of Instructors made up this years festival with instructors coming from all over Australia. The obvious crowd pullers were the World Salsa Champions, Oliver and Luda, coming to Darwin for the first time. However we also had our favourites like Oren and Pascale from Sydney, Juan Rando and Amanda from Perth and another new couple to the Darwin Festival was Angelo and Stephane from Brisbane. They all wowed the students with their fancy moves, combinations, infectious enthusiasm and technical instruction.
Professional Development is important for all Salsa Dance Instructors and this year’s festival gave me the opportunity once again to receive training from the worlds best salsa instructors. I was privileged to have my Private Lessons focused purely on my Professional Development as an Instructor. I learnt so much and have also been offered continued assistance throughout the year. I have made amazing friendships with instructors that I respect and admire so much. What an exciting development in my teaching career, I feel so privileged.
Darwin’s Salsa Standard is improving rapidly. It was mentioned to me on the weekend, by a much respected guest Salsa Instructor, that the level of Salsa dancing in Darwin has improved 100%. Well done everyone. I look forward to passing on my new knowledge from this year’s festival. Next year let’s really show them what Darwin is capable of. Darwin Rocks!
The NT Amateur Salsa Championship on the very first night of the festival was very exciting and boy were there nerves aplenty back stage. I think I felt more nervous then the competitors. It was unfortunate for the only Darwin couple to be competing against a very experienced Brisbane pair but they still pulled up in second place. The winning couple from Brisbane, Vince and Jennifer, really were superb with their Pirates of the Carrabeen theme. However everyone really enjoyed watching our home grown couple place second with their brilliant and may I say pretty funky routine. Darwin was very proud. Let’s not forget the third place couple from Cairns. Harry and Jessica were beautiful to watch and they put in a great effort. It was so good to see these dancers form friendships throughout the weekend.
Social Dancing & Parties are just as important as the championships, shows and workshops. Social dancing is definitely what dancers look forward to most during a festival. It is just a pity that some new students were a little intimidated on the first night but fortunately for all hardcore salsa junkies, the after parties were a chance for them to dance with their favourite instructors and new good friends. Saturday night absolutely rocked, especially when Angelo got everyone on stage to dance the Bomba. Watch out future Nightcliff Socials, the Bomba is ready to take over.
Festival Wind Up always comes too quickly however it was doubtful that Salseras and Salseros would still be rearing for another dance party on the Sunday night. After one entire weekend of full day workshops, the event finished off just nicely with many turning up at a BBQ with the Guest Instructors to say thank you and to wind down ready to get back to work the next day. Once again when else do you get to relax and chat casually with the Worlds Best Salsa People. Amazing!
