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Archive for the ‘salsa’ Category

iResign !!!

Friday, August 26th, 2011

dear f*** salsa world!

I love you! I love you with everything I got.. thank you for the great friends i met, for the beautiful girls I led; for the great leaders I watched; for the so many great memories filled with artists and people who dance from their heart..

for those people that become true friends, who have become part of my life.. who has changed a big portion and took a big spot.

For those I ran into in the US from different cities, from different continent, from east and west.. For those that I danced with and had an instant connection like I have never met before.. For so many spiritually beautiful people.

I can’t keep count, I can’t remember names.. But they are all in my facebook, they are all in my video clips that I took, they are all in my head; listening to music, chatting while there is a bachata or merengue song, eating pizza or a hot dog after a long salsa night, and finally dancing.. Dancing On2!

Oh my! Head is full of memories, hand is typing faster than I could think; and memories are clashing in my head..

I think I know what I really want this post to be out.. I know what I want to say.

To everyone I met in my last US trip; from NYC, Orland, Connecticut, DC and Colorado.. For everyone that I met from France, Australia, Turkey, and other parts of the world in my last NYC trip.

Thank you for being part of this amazing journey. Thank you for a wonderful month I spent on the dance floor of LVG, Las Chicas Locas, Cache, Mega Club (La Nacional), Mr. Mambo, and many other places.

Thanks to.. countless names of people that i remember but can’t post in alphabetical order cuz everyone took a great spot in my memory..

Alright, time for me to head to bed before I start looking up the prices of flights to NYC and just book it anyway.

iSleep.. since Steve Jobs resignation letter did not say iResign!

Posted in salsa, travel | 2 Comments »

A day with artists

Saturday, July 16th, 2011

Where do I begin, my journey with salsa started three years ago but right now, my appreciation for the different kind of music, instruments and dance itself has changed.

When I was in Sydney Salsa Congress 2010 earlier this year, Tito Puinti Jr [http://www.titopuentejr.net/] and his group were playing.. I did not realize the chance I missed until I left, and started dancing on2. My appreciation or bands and music they play has shifted massively. I did not expect ever to be in this place where I actually look back at time and wish I spent the time looking at the band instead of dancing..

The form of art salsa bands create and form while on the dance floor is amazing. I was lucky in this trip to have done two things

1. Going to Hudson Terrace on Friday to attend New Swing Sextet NSS [http://www.newswingsextet.com]
2. Have a private discussion with Jimmy Delgado who played with so many bands and made me listen to some of his very own music and give me a private music workshop.

NSS is a great band that sang many of the songs we dance on, well – I dance on.. and met two of its key members that were very nice and helpful (Angel and George) Music is in their blood.. Artists and musicians are amazing people!

It’s time now to head back to reality, get ready for some salsa dancing for my last night in New York before I head out to DC for the big night tomorrow.

Tags: artists, musicians, salsa
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she is a “she”

Sunday, June 27th, 2010

well, those who know me for sometime by now, you know why I love salsa, you understand the basics of this universal language that I talked about earlier in (1, 2, 3 .. 5, 6, 7)

now, as any other language, people would need to communicate..

now we come to the restrictions of this language.. it’s very unlikely for two “he’s” to be communicating together in this language. it’s likely that they see each other communicating with another ‘she’ but it’s not likely to see two ‘he’s’ talking about it. at the end of the day, it’s a survival society.

One of the key things I love about salsa is the ‘she’ in the story..

There are many kind of she’s when it comes to the dance floor.. In my world, they are two. Feminine and other.

I love feminine.. It’s just beautiful, it’s just very ‘she’ it’s a girl.. it’s the beauty coming our from her inner part.. it’s the she in her that comes out..

In my humble 2.5 years of dancing, I have personally met couple of girls who are very feminine when it comes to the dance floor.. I will definitely be going through the list and I will be blogging about some of them as time goes by.. For now, I am going to start with someone that I met in the past 6 weeks. Yes, it did take me sometime to publish a post, but that’s also because it took me time to think and crystalize what I want to write about ‘she’

Her name is Abby Lindenberg. She is orginally from the US, living currently in Turkey. I must say, best thing about dancers are those who dance to express not to impress.. Where dancing is a reflection of their inner-self.. Seeing Abby on the dance floor told me a lot about her.. But enough with the talking and let’s get to action..

First, the flow.. Goes back and forth, seamlessly.. just like a woman in a relationship who adapts to her partner..

Second, adaption.. As feminine as she is, as wild as she can get…

Third, sophisticated and hard to be understood sometime..

This post has been in my drafts for sometime, that I am loosing what I want to say. I am sure I will remember more in the future and post something new.. I have a lot of new “she’s” that I dance with lately and the blog has yet more stuff to come..

Rule of thumb, at least for me, feminine is long-lasting,. sexy is instantaneous…

the rest is a sample of what I captured and wanted to share.. my wall has more stuff..

TMandou

Tags: abby l, diary of a dance floor, she
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1, 2, 3 .. 5, 6, 7

Friday, May 7th, 2010

One of the key elements for a society to survive is to communicate. Different people have different ways to communicate. If you were amongst the lucky human beings, you were brought up and could communicate with others by talking. Others are less fortunate but can still communicate with sign language. I have always envied those who spoke multiple languages. You can see them simply standing there and have the ability to speak to many people that it would be hard for me to speak with.

So I insisted on learning a language, a special language that not everyone understands, a language that is unique and special, yet universal. I was limited with my thoughts when I started.. Do I want to speak English – my second language – and maybe the second most spoken language in the world. Or continue learning French and use it in some of the countries it is limited to. Maybe Spanish, which comes from Latin origins and will help me communicate with other Latin languages – hopefully. Well, decision was very hard, I was born speaking Arabic, learned English for more than 10 years in school, French for 4 years in summer through college time, and Spanish later on while working for couple of months.

I learned and communicated with so many people through many different languages that I spoke, or thought I could speak, but none of them was universal enough to help me connect with special and unique people around the world.

Until one day, I found that language. It was different.. It had different structure, multiple yet limited number of accents, and most importantly, it was universal enough.

The language itself was unique in many dimensions. One of those dimensions is the length of conversations, the second thing was the consistency across its sentences and the third thing is, its variety.

Each conversation in this language had paragraphs, each paragraph had sentences, each sentence had exact number of words. It goes as the follow

1, 2, 3… 5, 6, 7

1, 2, 3… 5, 6, 7.. 1, 2, 3… 5, 6, 7

1, 2, 3… 5, 6, 7.. 1, 2, 3… 5, 6, 7.. 1, 2, 3… 5, 6, 7

1, 2, 3… 5, 6, 7

1, 2, 3… 5, 6, 7.. 1, 2, 3… 5, 6, 7

1, 2, 3… 5, 6, 7

Sometime, you will find sections which is only, 1, 2…….7 without the numbers in between, but that’s part of the language.

The easy thing about this language is that, the moment you understand its basics 1, 2, 3… 5, 6, 7, you can pretty much know how to communicate. At least good enough to be able to have a continue a paragraph and hopefully a sentence.

Now, I have been speaking this language for almost 2 years.. When people find out I speak this language, I feel privileged. Some of them wish they actually speak it themselves. It helped me create a huge circle of friends from around the world. I spoke it in the US, Spain, France, Portugal, Germany, Dubai, and I am sure that anywhere I go, I will be able to speak it.

In tributes for a great universal language and great speakers from around the world.. The language of salsa.. Communicating what you feel, desire, want, hate, love, fancy, dream of, and can’t live without,

Keep dancing my friends..

Dance to express, not to impress..

TMandou

Tags: communication, count, language, salsa, TMandou
Posted in salsa | 1 Comment »

when the dance floor calls for her

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

One of the reason I loved Salsa was the emotion and the connection it put between the partners. The partner work which may sound very easy but in reality could take years to learn. Rules of Salsa in my opinion is simple. It has two parts: the man needs to lead, the women has to follow.

Yet, another thing I love about dancing is the connection between the feet and the dance floor. It’s a completely different relationship that not so many people master. But those few who do, the joy of dancing is way beyong explicable, and you can actually see it when they dance.. I, simply, can give up anything for a shot like this..

This time, you will find most of Abu Dhabi Salsa Festival photos available on Facebook (click here)

Thanks for reading

TMandou

Tags: abu dhabi, classico, dancers, Festival, mambo, salsa, TMandou, UAE
Posted in salsa | 3 Comments »

“Dance to express, not to impress!”

Friday, January 8th, 2010

Todo Latino Salsa Festival, Greece, 2009

“Dance to express, not to impress!” is one of my favourite quotes when it comes to dancing.

The Todo Latino Salsa Festival took place in November 2009 in Greece. According to my instructors, James and Alex, “it’s one of the best festivals around Europe where you have instructors around the world coming to teach and perform!”

My desire for photography and people state of mind while dancing, is just a great capture of moment. I tried to do this humbly in the pictures I have taken in the festival.

Just like many performers from around the world, these two had their moment while performing in front of the big crowd of dancers, hobbyists, and judges from around the world.

A great shadow for the picture, one of my favourite shadow and effect of lighting.

Juan Matos, one of the top performers from around the world. My friend Dorsai is the best person to ask about him. The dances, the cerographs, the moves, the details, something you that are still beyond imagination. Below is a capture of one of those moments.