Date: Tue, 07 Apr 1998 03:03:18 -0600 From: Bo
| Salsa! INFO Newsletter Archive | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| February-March
1998
March-April 1998 April-May 1998 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Upcoming nights | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Free Salsa and Merengue dance lessons:
9:30-10:30 pm
Cover charge: $120, one drink included. Happy hour prices all night. Salsa is the main theme. More than half of the music played is salsa of all varieties: salsa of the early years - mostly Fania-all-stars musicians, the New York era of the 60s and 70s. Then there is the salsa of the 80s, the erotic salsa and the romantic salsa of the 90s, the Cuban salsa, and salsa from Japan and from West Africa. About 20% of the music played is merengue, originally from the Dominican Republic, a cheerful and easy music to dance to. Then come Colombian music, Cumbia and Vallenato. From Brazil we have Samba, Forro and Lambada. There is an occasional old time mambo and cha-cha-cha, or a slow, romantic bolero or a bachata from the Dominican Republic. Also every now and then there is kizomba from Angola, morna from Cap Vert or even rai from Algeria. For the Spanish dancers, there may be a Spanish rumba and inevitably some Sevillanas. VICEROY RESTAURANT & BAR
|
| Salsa! INFO | April-May 1998 |
| The Lyrics of Salsa | ||||||||||||
| Lately Salsa is becoming quite a craze
in Hong Kong, and we are seeing a proliferation of both venues claiming
to offer salsa dancing and individuals who can hardly do more than a few
turns mechanically offering salsa dance tuition. None of those improvised
DJs knows how to do the simplest salsa steps, and they offer their customers-victims
a mix of pseudo-Latin music: Gypsy Kings, Macarena, Guantanamera, if not
outright disco and techno. Some of them managed to get a few salsa CDs,
usually of doubtful taste. The scene is equally lousy and amusing with
the hastily self-invented dance instructors: they command a laughable knowledge
of salsa music and its lyrics, if any at all! Just try to ask them what
a Guaguanco means, or to differentiate Guaracha from Guajira. Reportedly
someone is even using the soundtrack of a sunken ship movie to teach salsa,
as if there's nothing better than that in the whole of salsa music!
Salsa, in its music, has always had a highly elaborated complexity in the orchestral instrumentation, polyrhythmic percussion and lyrical improvisation. Often the lyrics reach sublimation. Love, or the most common fact, is always told with street maliciousness together with impressive orchestration. Here is one example of such street malice in the song called "El negrito" played by El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico:
If a black man was to steal, a chicken to throw into the pot, to make for himself a stew; and when the stew was cooked, a white man comes along does a naughty trick, eats the stew and even steals the pot! And listen: afterwards the white man claims
the chicken,
They say that the kids from the East want
to fatten up,
Chorus:
When you see a black man dining alongside
a white man
So many go to jail for stealing a chicken,
They send me to the moon, they say my visa
is good there
But even with all the evilness, let me
remind you
(translation by Marta Landazabal)
|
||||||||||||
| Salsa! becomes WEEKLY at last! | ||||||||||||
| Due to the pressing demand of our public, starting 1st May Salsa! will become a weekly event at the Viceroy. Every Friday the Salsa crew will bring you the best of authentic Latin dance music together with its sensual, fascinating dances and the most friendly, cosmopolitan and passionate atmosphere. One Friday each month will be a Late Night Salsa!, starting after the Punchline Comedy Club, at 11:30pm, with a cover charge of $99 including one drink. (The coming Late Night Salsa! will be on May 8, June 12, July 10 etc.) On all the other Fridays the fiesta will start at the usual time with a free dance lesson from 9:30 to 10:30. | ||||||||||||
| Advanced Salsa Dancers: More Salsa for You! | ||||||||||||
| Starting 22 April every Wednesday from 9am to 11pm the Advanced Salsa Workshop at the Fringe Club will welcome you with instructions on more complex and subtle dance techniques, basic Afro-Cuban percussion exercises, knowledge of the musical and lyrical structure of Salsa together with choral exercises, plus la Rueda dancing, all in a party-like atmosphere. Fee: for learners $500 per 10 hours, for repeating learners $250, voluntary contribution for accomplished dancers. | ||||||||||||
| What is la Rueda? | ||||||||||||
| Lately many of those who visit the Viceroy Salsa! nights have noticed a new, fascinating Salsa dance form: not individual nor in couple, but various couples forming a circle dancing in a synchronised way, either rapidly turning and exchanging partners or doing funny and at times hilariously moves. This is la Rueda, which means the Wheel, a typical Cuban way of having great fun while dancing to the music and enjoying the company of more than just one partner. La Rueda dancing is basically no different from Salsa dancing excepts that all dancers involved move in unison, synchronised. It gives dancers a strong sense of partecipation and unity, while improving the partecipants' skills much faster than any other way. And most importantly, like everything in Salsa, it is great, great fun: just ask anyone who has done it! Currently in Hong Kong the only instructor who is capable of teaching la Rueda is Bo. He teaches la Rueda already at the Beginners' courses, as soon as the learners are fluent enough in basic Salsa dance skills. At higher level la Rueda is often danced with improvisations: any partecipant, at any given time, can invent a certain move and all the others would follow suit. It is, indeed, a wild and profane enjoyment! | ||||||||||||
| Flamenco? | ||||||||||||
| Anyone has interest to learn flamenco dance? Pascale and friends would like to bring her former teacher to HK for workshops, shows and fiestas. Interested persons please call Pascale on 2719-3423. | ||||||||||||
| Salsa! INFO 4 APRIL-MAY 1998 | ||||||||||||
| Click
here for additional information
FRIDAY 1 MAY FRIDAY 8 MAY Late Night Salsa! from 11:30pm onwards. Cover charge $99. One drink included. FRIDAY 15 MAY FRIDAY 22 MAY FRIDAY 29 MAY |
||||||||||||
| DANCE COURSES IN APRIL AND MAY | ||||||||||||
| Former salsa learners: if you wish
to refresh your dance skills or to strengthen your basic knowledge, you
can repeat the last course you have taken paying only half the course'
fee.
Click here for additional information Hong Kong Arts Centre
Sheung Wan Civic Centre
Fringe Club
Fringe Club
Sheung Wan Civic Centre
Fringe Club
|