Mambalsa Dev w/s #2

Just about recovered from the second Mambalsa development workshop on Sunday 30th Nov.
Sorry if this comes out a s a report but ideas have been buzzing around in my head since the moment it finished.

Notable highs for me were:
People came! and more than the first w/s. It was good to see Fliss and Leigh from London Salsa there both nearly recovered from ruptured Achilles tendons. Yves Salmon popped in to take some professional pics

Everyone leading:
I structured the partner dance exercises so that everyone had to lead and follow.
This changed the dynamic in a very positive way. It appeared that all the experience of the advanced female salsa dancers flooded into the room and a new level of equality and support was found. It felt more like a team than a group of students.
I'm convinced that everyone learning both leading and following skills at beginners level will get more people to a higher level faster than learning one roll first.
It will solve the problem of ladies moving through the levels faster than the men leaving a shortage of ladies in beginners.
It also will mix and mingle the group avoiding the 'them and us' cliques, and even help with outdated attitudes e.g. 'good dancers shouldn't dance with beginners'. It's hard to play the 'dance professor' blame game when your in a teacher to teacher relationship.


Contradance
This was my big idea for this w/s and I'm pleased it was a success.

I could have used English country dance or American line dance but I chose contradance as it connected Mambalsa to the time line of Latin dance (see earlier post). I used a You tube clip of a seventeenth century dance but modified it to get everyone dancing simultaneously and added Mambalsa FWS. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zjf8vp8_54Y
The next clip shows us our first go at contradance. Don't expect baroque polish! Later in the clip it's beat boxed hip hop and then trance versions of Pachelbel's Canon http://youtu.be/hBpexZYMviY


Bolero

Miranda was there and she's into bolero like me.  Just after we broke for coffee I played "Dos gardenias"  sung by Ibrahim Ferrer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zT5cNct4sgE
It felt so easy dancing Mambalsa to bolero which is no surprise as the FWS is almost identical as bolero was the inspiration for Mambalsa. http://youtu.be/xH4OE-ySs0Q

Flash mob
I divided the group into two and set them the challenge of creating a beginners grid. Grid is my term for a set piece pattern like line dancing. There were five people in each group and the creative juices flowed,  different solutions came forth and we selected one and rehearsed a flash mob. (can't wait for next year)

Partner work
My focus was not on partner work but we still did a fair chunk. Two versions of cbl.What was significant was how much easier it was on the second w/s now the terms are familiar to me and most of the group.