La Benedizione - The Blessing

So here we go, finally after almost 3 months I moved
here to North Carolina I am ready to write my first
blog entry on this cool website.

First of all, I have seen all the work that the
isalsa2 people have done to put in place the
organization and the events and I am impressed,
proud and grateful (in no particular order!).
This effort started long time ago when I was still
living in Champaign, and just when I left I
started seeing all the blossoming of
activities, t-shirts, performances which are amazing.
Maybe this is a sign I really had to leave for this
to happen! Since leaving the area, my friends and the
salsa community there was such a struggle for me,
seeing that my efforts to contribute to the salsa
community are not lost but indeed taken to a different
level makes me feel better about my decision!

The Rueda performances are awesome, and I am very
proudly showing them on youtube to the local salseros
here telling them: "Look at this,this is the Rueda
group I started in Illinois". So, keep practicing,
keep performing, keep posting videos
on youtube so that I can keep showing you off!

The salsa scene here in North Carolina is big and
has a lot of variety. Since we are on the East Coast
the New York influence is strong and a lot of people
dance mambo (also known as dance on 2), and
almost all the teahcers teach on 2. I am working
myself to become confortable on 2.

There is one small little group who dances cuban
salsa, so that's where I started to dance.
We meet once a week for practice and
everytime there is a social event we try to go out.
But the big problem is we have no leads.
Well, no good leads! The guy teaching us,
Eduardo, is actually really good, but that's it.
We have some guys who are learning and show good
potential but have a long way to go. And
then we have the girls who have become leaders
for lack of anything better!

The good news is that the teachers here are amazing.
Not only the Cobo brothers, who are famous worldwide
and teach at all the congresses in US and some abroad,
but some other very very good teachers, and they
all work together to have venues for the
salseros to go dance.

We'll talk about venues next time since I am
starting something locally and I want an entry
dedicated to it...

In the meanwhile, please post your blogs so that I
can keep updated on the salsa scene in Champaign,
and I am still waiting to have you all
here visiting and dancing with me!

Erika-V