Salsa Congress begins

TONIGHT at the Cascadia Hotel in St Ann’s, the annual Salsa Congress will open with a live performance from Juriem Lavalle at 9 pm.

The congress is a four-day event that ends on Sunday with a cool down event at the hotel, starting at 6 pm.

After the live performance, the dance competition follows for an hour then it’s party time.

One of the principal organisers, Martin Jim said of the event, “It’s a fun competition, just dance competition. The only rule is that you can’t dance with someone from your own country.”

He said some 30 people from New York, Miami, Barbados, St Lucia and St Vincent have flown in for the congress.

“We are one of 300 such congresses held in the world. We did this because Latin dance was not doing well so this Salsa Congress is to revive Latin dance and to improve the standard of dancing in the country.”

Since starting the event ten years ago it has grown, and people are now coming from overseas to participate in the workshops, Jin said.

Other members of the organising committee are Carol Boissiere and Mary Chen who own dance schools Latin Passion TT and Latin Dance Academy of TT respectively.

Collectively, their aim is to promote salsa dancing and the congress in their schools, while Jim gets people from all over the world to come to TT.

Some ten professional salsa dancing couples, who are also dance instructors and affiliated to World Salsa Summit, are here for the event and will also be conducting classes tomorrow and Saturday.

Interested participants can simply go to the party tonight, register and you can dance. Names will then be drawn from a hat, paired, and the fun competition goes on for one hour.

Jim said they are looking for ten to15 dancing couples, and after the competition they will party until 3 am.

Tomorrow, there is a ladies’ boot camp geared to improve their dance styling and technique. Jim said they must be registered for the weekend to participate.

Also tomorrow, from 11 am, there is a pool party that is open to the public, and later at 8 pm, a show at Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s, where there will be an international dance showcase featuring ten international couples, plus the best of local talent that includes Dren, Footlight Performance Group, Latin Passion, Rhythm and Style and El Mundo de Danza. An after party follows at Cascadia Hotel until 3 am.

On Saturday and Sunday there are dance workshops from 9 am at the hotel with registration from 8 am. Five workshops will be conducted on both days, every hour until 3 pm.

On Saturday night too, there will be another international dance performance at Queen’s Hall from 8-10 pm. Local performers will be featured, after which an after party will be held at Cascadia.

On the final day the workshops begin from 9.30 am-3.30 pm,