Clarity Of Purpose

Up until this point, all experiences with the backbeat timeline were individual. I considered it necessary, so that each participant would develop a personal understanding between their developing instrumentalism and the music.

The ethos has yielded more success than I'd allowed myself to anticipate. But I wanted more. The quality of the practice, whilst good for individual consumption, was not yet on par with my higher ambitions for them. So tonight I upped the ante.

Exercise 1: Rhythm virtualisation, boogaloo, solo
Solo, to music. Caribbean sway basic, atiempo embodiment rhythm. Single shaker, played into the opposing palm, boogaloo rhythm (beats 4 & 2). Participants were encouraged to listen to the shaker rhythm, memorise its timbre and timing, then mentally maintain it through sporadically stopping and resuming the playing of the shaker.

Exercise 2: Rhythm virtualisation, boogaloo, partnered
Partnered, Caribbean hold, to music. Caribbean sway basic, atiempo embodiment rhythm. Since they were in hold, no shakers were played; thus there was a reliance on the mental articulation of the boogaloo rhythm.

The emphasis was on maintaining the virtual sound of the rhythm in the mind. This was targeted though my calls of: "boogaloo off", when mental articulation was suspended; and "boogaloo on", when mental articulation resumed.

First Cycle Outcomes
Participants were perturbed in their personal mental articulation of rhythm because of the addition of a significant real-life variable: a dance partner.

They found it challenging to maintain the virtual boogaloo backbeat in the presence of additional noise/vibration. One participant called it a complete "eye-opener", illuminating the stringency to which Exercise 1 (above) had to be performed.

With this new clarity of purpose still ringing in their minds, I charged them to pay better attention to their execution of the solo rhythm virtualisation practice to the purpose of rhythmic resilience.

Exercise 1, repeated twice
A participant asked as to what level to insulate himself from external rhythmic input.

I iterated that the exercise was, at this basic level, to develop rhythmic resilience of the self. If that meant a complete rejection of external rhythmic input was necessary, then so be it. I cautioned that in the long-term, the rejection approach would lead to an imperative, non-collaborative, partner relationship. Hence it is necessary that all dancers become so self-resilient that they would accommodate with high levels of external noise/vibration.

Exercise 2, repeated once

Second Cycle Outcomes
Participants displayed and reported markedly less rhythmic perturbation. Moreover, they were showing signs that they were:

• negotiating rhythms with their partners, observed by the quality of establishment of partnered synchrony at early "boogaloo on"; and
• meshing the embodiment rhythm with the boogaloo back-beat into a personal compound time-code, observed through their rhythmic placement and attack, and consistency.

Conclusion
The value of any exercise lies not simply in the skills it develops, but equally in the understanding of its possible applications. This means that hindsight provides a powerful lens through which an exercise's value can be appreciated. Tonight's experience is a case in point.

The realm of instruction centres on the setting and attainment of achievable goals. One elemental question a teacher faces is, "when can we move in?"

For its ability to illuminate Clarity of Purpose, Hindsight is a potent ally.

Yeo Loo Yen

A State Of Flow

Yesterday was the first Solares after my return from the Far East. I'd been pondering the learning approach to the session, and had predicated the learning plan on the probability that the participants would have done very little practice. Hence I designed the workshop as a practice session, not as an overt learning session in a flipped classroom context.

The purpose to doing that was the removal of anxiety.

As we'd moved into investigating the domain of timelines and fundamental rhythms, solares participants are being asked to re-frame their embodiment activity as percussionists. Achieving a "state of flow" is essential to the activity's success.

According to Owen Schaffer's white paper "Crafting Fun User Experiences: A Method to Facilitate Flow, Human Factors International" (2013), there are seven conditions to be met for a state of flow to be achievable:

1. knowing what to do;
2. knowing how to do it;
3. knowing how well you're doing;
4. knowing where to go (if navigation is involved);
5. high perceived challenges;
6. high perceived skills; and
7. freedom from distractions.

In practice, these were satisfied within the exercise of: generating shaker tones synchronised to the audible tones of the conga's tumbao moderno, while performing salsa's atiempo embodiment rhythm, to a salsa track.

Conditions 1 & 2
were met through revision of exercises one through three from the last session (see: http://salsadiary.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/percussion-concept-attack.html).

Condition 3
was fulfilled by the short impulse sound of the shaker, providing immediate feedback on quality of performance.

Condition 4
largely irrelevant, was met by self-determination in the direction of the rhythmic walk.

Conditions 5 & 6
were satisfied by the as-yet undeveloped proficiency in the synchronous performance of two timeline rhythms: back-beat and embodiment; to a qualitatively stringent level (less than 40 milliseconds).

Condition 7
was met by the studio environment (privacy), exercise design (solo practice), and unobtrusive support (subtle remedial intervention).

Three common states disrupt the maintenance of flow:

• apathy - low challenge level, low skills level, engenders a general lack of interest
• boredom -  low challenge level, high skills level, causes a distracting search for higher challenges
• anxiety - high challenge level, low skills level, creates a feeling of uneasiness.

The latter is why the session was planned the way it was; to maximise the possibility of achieving the state of flow.

It succeeded.

At just before the workshop's mid-point, it was observable that each participant had entered (albeit inconsistently) entrainment. (See also PDF on entrainment by the Open University: http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/experience/InTimeWithTheMusic.pdf). As proficiency increased, so did the need for challenge to maintain interest for flow. Adjustments to only three parameters were necessary:

1. variations in tempo,
2. quality of shaker tone, and
3. fine synchronisation between timelines.

This was the first time I'd seen solares' participants enter the biomusic state of flow, and it heralds an exciting threshold of possibilities in the workshops.

Loo Yeo

A Positive Move To Rhythm

I've decided to leave the story of torneo incomplete.

Last night, solares participants finished the session looking absolutely spent. They were physically drained from the struggle of maintaining a single pivot point for extended periods, and for providing the constant drive for turning. The sustained concentration on kinesthetic input was intense, made more challenging for the dizziness that the advanced choreographic element can create.

They were valiant in their resolution; they understood its value as a move in itself and for the skills it develops. But at the end of the workshop, I looked into their eyes and asked myself "did they have enough in the tank to take another four of these in a row?" They probably did. But was it worth the learning harm?

I beat down my inner completionist with a big stick.

Since the beginning of the year, solares' learning themes have been to do with the Caribbean capsule vocabulary, and the torneo as a 'stretch' element. I've been wary that that emphasis was disrupting the equilibrium of development; favouring move vocabulary over quality of movement, and decoupling movement from rhythm.

It's time to restore that equilibrium, perhaps to dedicate a good portion of the year's remainder to articulating a capsule vocabulary of Caribbean rhythm. I, too, am looking forward to learning more about the preferences, the dispositions of the regulars whom attend solares.

Loo

The Capsule Vocabulary

Last evening was our first Solares for 2016 and we started with the building of a 'capsule vocabulary'. I developed the idea out of Susie Faux and Donna Karan's concept of the capsule wardrobe.

For external consumption I define dance's capsule vocabulary as:

"A collection of the fewest, simplest, most representative movements and moves which convey the essence of a genre's embodiment."

For internal consumption, I would define the solares dance capsule vocabulary as:

"A collection of the fewest, simplest, most representative movements and moves which convey the essence of multiple related genre embodiments."

The capsule vocabulary is intended to provide a portable context for the development of skills; my answer to encouraging psycho-motor manipulation (see earlier post). The word 'portable' is in there because it has to be a vocabulary which encompasses the majority of genres in the Caribbean and Latin America, including: the son rhythm group, merengue, and bachata.

I reckon that it will take about three months to learn the capsule, barring interesting detours. Many elements of it could be found also in British salsa as it was danced pre-introduction of the cross-body style, in what Rondón (2008) refers to as 'salsa of the South'. Consequently the framework of the dance is based on the Caribbean sway, and not the international salsa/mambo step.

Loo

Rondón, César Miguel (2008). The Book Of Salsa: A Chronicle Of Urban Music From The Caribbean To New York City [El Libro De La Salsa, English Translation]. USA: University Of North Carolina Press

Cultural Mark, Social Brand

There's nothing like a hard deadline to focus the mind. And with our commitment to launching our Latin dance social event, there's been a lot of focussing lately. I don't think Esh, Steve and I have been in such sustained contact, ever!

Apart from the bringing together of materials and investment in capital assets i.e. the operations facet, the most important long-term decision is, "what to call it?" It has to have the opportunity to grow into a name of social meaning, to reflect the uniqueness we feel the night can (and should) be. Yes, it will be a brand, but it'll be less the values of Monsanto and more Rainforest Alliance. Or maybe Eataly.

Whatever it is, I have a few parameters.

Alliterative
The word or phrase has got to have a nice internal rhythm to its pronunciation, to make it an easy handle to grasp

Cultural Dimension
I would like to see this as a place where both Latin Americans and locals alike feel comfortable. It has to have elements of cultural grounding in the Caribbean, and hence have 'authenticity'.

Pan-Latin
As I envision the music policy to be broad, encompassing such like: vallenato (for Colombians), gaita (for Venezuelans), cumbia (for Chileans, Mexicans), bachata (locals and Latins), merengue (for Latins), timba (for Cubans, Cubanophiles and Casinoholics), and a main staple of salsa (from romantica to dura); the symbol must have a dimension which crosses the Caribbean and South America.

Unique
It should be one that has not been seen before in the local environment, in this context.

'Empty' Term
I suspect my co-partners would want to go with something which has 'salsa' in the title. I feel that whereas that might help us get up and running quickly, as people hearing it would think they know what to expect, it is that same expectation which would hinder the brand in the long term. The better, (albeit harder) way is to choose an 'empty' term and imbue it with our own meanings, rather than try to adapt one with existing meanings.

Pronounceable
This is a concept most immigrant parents or those of different cultures face when choosing names for their children. A good number of them choose names which are pronounced similarly in both (or more) languages.

Social Dimension
Wherever and however the mark is derived, it has to convey a strong social dimension which I feel should be the core of what we do.

So, all in all quite one of the easiest things to do. I already have a few candidates.

Loo Yeo

The Right Feeling (re-found in Barcelona)

Over the past few years, my re-acquaintance with a long-time friend has led to an increased return to the social dance floor at venues across the country. I'm struck by the heterogeneity in customer experience - in the music played, sound quality, lighting ambience, hospitality, venue setup, dance surface...

At the risk of wearing out my rose-tinted glasses, I recalled promoters putting more effort into their offerings. I put it down to a time when the salsa scene was niche, and, with the actual dance population being small, salsa nights had to have the capacity to 'fascinate' the larger non-salsa audience and draw them in, since they had barely a sense of what salsa was. Now that the salsa-experienced population has grown to a significant enough size, it seems that that attention to fascinate and welcome has drained away.

On more than one recent occasion, I found myself paying to dance in a box.

I've wondered, "has the salsa experience become commoditised?" "Would we, as first-movers in a fledgling salsa scene, have been able to grow it to what it is now by offering today's kind of experience?"

I was saddened. But at the same time, I realised that there was something in it. You see, two friends had been bouncing around the idea of starting up a salsa event with me; and I was only going to commit if the night came from the right place: from the heart. It had the right feeling.

And it just so happens that I'm in Barcelona with them.

They'd never been to the great Catalan city before, and had always wanted to see it. So I let myself be cajoled into being their guide, and I was keen to give them a touch of the Barcelona lifestyle they would treasure.

And it was in 'El Xampanyet' that they experienced the right feeling. 'The Champagne' is one of the city's finest bars, run by the Esteve Family for three generations.

Traditional, yet trendy

El Xampanyet's appeal lies in its dichotomous encapsulation of Iberian values (above). It's both old and new, trendy and traditional, a place to stay or to pass through.

Everyone creates the spectacle

The tapas bar, well-oiled with the elbows of locals, serves a mouth-watering array of fresh local produce and canned seafood in the Catalan tradition. The important thing is, that both the patrons and the staff, together, are involved with creating the spectacle (above). El Xampanyet's staff know this; that people inherently know how to enjoy themselves, and that all they have to do is to help.

A sense of place

Blue Iberian glazed tiles jostle for space on the bottle-lined walls with an eclectic mix of antiques. You know you're in El Xampanyet (above). There's a feeling of place. There's also a sense of timelessness; it doesn't occur to you to think about how long you've stayed.

A feeling of generosity

The offerings are always good. Everyone will prefer some things over others, but it's always good. And most of all, there's a heartfelt feeling of generosity (above).

People come back for friends

It might be the reputation, the drinks, and the pintxos (tapas) that draws you first time through its doors, but in the end, everyone comes to El Xampanyet to be with each other, be they friends or friends not yet made.

So there you have it. What a fledgling salsa scene once had, and lost. And perhaps what it might have once again.

Loo Yen Yeo

14th September 2012 SalsaWorks @The Engine Shed, Wetherby

Closure is about beginnings.

Twelve months ago when the Pipers and I left the Engine Shed at the end of the night after Palenke's gig, there was no inkling of the turmoil which would buffet the venue, SalsaWorks and the lives of those involved. The Shed's unfortunate closure removed a salsa landmark from England's North, leaving a vacuum which many have since tried to fill. With true doggedness the SalsaWorks team continued to put on the same schedule of attractions - performers, teachers, and disc jockeys - re-homed at York's Holgate Club. But the Engine Shed's uniqueness, the atmosphere, the friendliness, the feel, the spirit, remained elusively... unique.

Then when Tony told me over the phone that the Shed was to open its doors, still as a dance venue, once again; and that SalsaWorks was back in Wetherby, I felt it was time for closure. That I had to be there for the re-opening, to put to bed the awful sadness of having been there when the sight and sound of the doors drawing shut could have been for the last time.

In the early afternoon, Tony picked me up from York station and delivered me to Piperland where, over cups of tea, our chins wagged and we put our kitchen skills to use on the night's buffet. Dusk was ushering in the night when I was chaperoned speedily south along winding country roads. The Engine Shed's front doors were shut exactly as I remembered them, but this time, signs of life on the other side cracked them open and I stepped through to a flood memories painted from her best of times.

The forms of Lorraine and Les of Mancuban were in the far corner, pacing out the content of the night's coming lesson. Alfie, I surprised with a generous hug and a bottle of champagne to commemorate what I hoped would be the closure of an uncertain year - I didn't make an effort to conceal my disappointment that Christine could not be there.

As salsa played, the main salon began to fill. A quarter of an hour later than billed, the pre-club lessons fired up: Lorraine and Les leading the main group downstairs, with Alfie upstairs introducing newcomers to possibly the most profound change in to their lifestyles. The main session's pacing was deliberate (I would have taught a classroom session at a quicker pace, but a club session in the same manner) with frequent partner changes, breaking the ice for everyone to meet each other.

Tony and I skulked about in the shadows rigging the video equipment, receiving the performers to their dressing area, and taking photos.

SalsaWorks bill this as a salsa night and are true to their word - only two bachatas, two bachata-tangos, and one kizomba dotted the un-apologetically salsa playlist - with Lorraine, Les, Alfredo and Tony alternating thirty-minute sets. Space on the dance-floor was tight but not un-navigably so; more than two hundred dancers had travelled from as far as Hull, Newcastle, Preston, and Sheffield to participate in the re-awakening.

The dance show provided a contrasting punctuation mark. Tony's never been one to shy away from controversy and has sometimes made room in the programming schedule for something a little different. True to Engine Shed form, this re-opening night was no exception, and he billed it as:

ANZHEXEN Dark Fusion Dance Troupe (Leeds)
This group of very scarey ladies is led by Beverley Spracklen. They deliver an extraordinary fusion of North African tribal styles in a deeply Gothic mood. Beverley said, ‘Our performance is designed to be unsettling!’ I said, 'Unsettle them as much as you like, Beverley!'

I found it conceptually interesting, but for me, the African tribal message struggled to emerge from the performers' strongly Gothic demeanour. Choreographically, a stronger movement style and increased floor coverage would have provided the dynamism to complement the high-contrast look.

Until it happened for real, the success of Engine Shed's re-opening was a great unknown. A number of events had sprung up in the calendar same slot - a year is a long time in salsa promotion. But whereas a number of events I've been to recently are traded as pure commodities - a 'promoter' hires a room, a DJ, and announces it on Facebook - SalsaWorks is old school. They talk to you, make you feel welcome, dance with you, listen to your thoughts, provide means of forging that most primal of social bonds through the breaking of bread together.

For the revelling faithful, it was as if the Engine Shed had never been away. "It feels as though it's just missed a week" was a familiar sentiment, so easily did the vibe come back. I felt it too, dancing the rounds, reconnecting with old faces, and beguiling the new. It's still one of the few places where I have no reservations about approaching someone for a dance.

The doors shut once again. But this time there was, is, a prospect of a second, third and fourth time.

Closure, as I said, is about beginnings.

Loo Yeo

32nd World Congress on Dance Research, Conseil International de la Danse, UNESCO

Background
The Conseil International de la Danse is the only international organisation recognised to represent all forms of dance. Called the "United Nations of Dance" it was founded within UNESCO offices, hence its acronym CID-UNESCO; and its members, institutions and individuals, represent those who have had the most significant, long-term, world-wide impact in their fields.

The people who made it possible - UFI and CID UNESCO
32nd World Congress on Dance Research, San Marino

This would be my first time at a world congress (representation by more than forty nationalities is the requisite for being called a world congress) despite being a member for nearly a decade. The timing was perfect - I'd just finished a piece of significant dance research and had a window of opportunity to travel. The prospect of returning to Italy and presenting in the Republic of San Marino proved an irresistible lure.

The Location
I arrived for registration at the sugar-white monolithic building of the Kursaal; which accommodates San Marino's state conference facilities sandwiched between Interpol's offices on one side and Radio San Marino on the other. As my security pass was being issued, I caught up on the revised schedule (I'd been travelling around Emilia Romagna with sporadic internet access) and got serious indication as to the prestige with which CID membership is regarded; the government of San Marino had not only made the Kursaal conference site available to us, and resourced it with full technical support and real-time interpreters into Italian and English, but had also reserved its historic 18th century Teatro Titano exclusively for our use over the duration.

The People
The first ones I encountered were the faces to the names with whom I'd been corresponding with for years and weeks: the organisers from CID-UNESCO and the Unione Folklorica Italiana (UFI). Then the attendees: dance practitioners - choreographers, educators, performers; and dance academics - researchers, disseminators, historians, biographers in equal measure. Their subject-matter expertise spanned from the folkloric to the modern, the sacred to the secular, the classical to the popular.

The Format
Three parallel programmes were held during the daytime.

• Dance workshops by the practitioners addressing choreography, teaching methods, dance techniques, and introduction to genre. These lasted thirty minutes.
• Dance video displays by academics and practitioners covering technical, biographical and cultural subject matter. These lasted thirty minutes.
• Dance presentations by academics on the latest research, new interpretations of existing phenomena, and previously unseen archival gems. These lasted fifteen minutes followed by a five-minute question-and-answer session.

The inclusive nature of CID tries to accommodate as many applications for programmes slots as possible but this has a down-side; there were a a number of 'no shows' due to travel funding arrangements falling through at the eleventh hour, or inability to obtain immigration visas. This led to a fluid situation where the organisers were put under considerable pressure just to keep scheduling up-to-date. The night-time hours belonged to performances at the fabulous Teatro Titano.

The Experience
The scheduling was kind to me. Either that, of I was rewarded for being organised by being scheduled to present in the first session of the first day; other people know who you are and what you do right from the start. Also, it allowed me to relax for the rest of the congress. The presentation itself was thoroughly prepared, and contrasted greatly with the majority which followed because of its pure science approach to the research, as compared to a social science one; and the large data sets involved.

The majority of the congress attendees were dance practitioners; 'do-ers' who preferred to spend their time in the more practical workshops. That's not to say that there was such a distinct segregation, a handful of us spanned both practitioner and academic arenas. I personally elected to spend the first two days supporting the lesser-attended lecture presentations, attending the workshops during the 'no shows'. The most notable workshops for me were: Karen Smith's "Give my regards to Broadway: choreography for musical theater"; Marco Santinelli's "Lyrical Contemporary Jazz"; and all of the ones on Turkish folkloric dance.

Tamalyn Dallal in Teatro Titano, San Marino
32nd World Congress on Dance Research, CID UNESCO

The theatre performances were a privilege to experience, with top billing going to all of those from the two Japanese sections who'd travelled a long way to put on a superlative expression of art. Their power and precision would have been culturally expected, but it was their expressiveness which was astounding. Also spectacular were: Tamalyn Dallal's entrancing "Middle Eastern dance performance"; Daniela Morais of Luís Damas Dance Company's fluid "Invocation"; and Nalini Toshniwal's near-spiritual "Kathak: Indian classical Dance".

And the after parties... boy, were there after-parties as only a group of pure dance professionals can have them.

But then, that's where the real value of going to a congress like this is, in the connecting of people - lunchtimes spent talking about the healing aspects of dance with dance therapist Özlem Lale Kaleli and Islamic African rhythms with Tamalyn; bad behaviour with contemporary dancer Ana-Maria Bogdanović and contact-improvisation specialist Bruno Couderc; strolling the walls with Luís Damas.

But quite ironically, it was my handling of the unexpected which left a greater mark.

The Impromptu Lesson
I'd earmarked two workshops in the morning session of the second day 'must gos'; they were on 'Cuban Salsa' by Cubans Pedro Ricardo Henry and Felix Ricardo Lopez Valdés. I turned up to the dance hall to find a rather forlorn bunch of (non-salsa) dance teachers. On asking, and after a search around the Kursaal, it turns out the Cubans were no-shows. I was crestfallen. It was the looks of disappointment and resignation that did it.

I told Marilena (Caponis, one of the organising members) that if they really wanted a salsa lesson, then I'd be happy to conduct one off-the-cuff. What's the point in being a salsa teacher if you don't teach salsa when you could? Their eyes brightened.

Now I was under pressure. The music which I'd hoped to use (it was part of my previous day's presentation) was on the slide-show laptop which was in use. I explained the situation, asked for their indulgence and said, "we'll have to do this the old-fashioned way".

I knelt down on the floor in the middle of the circle and drummed the tumbao moderno on my thighs; getting them to feel the groove, and asking them the vocalise 'gung-gung' with the double open tones.

Then I brought in the concept of call-and-response, and introduced the three beat salsa dance rhythm as a response to the 'gung gung'. At this point, with everyone present being dance educators, I explained the difference between acquired (walk-based) and learned (using structured basics) Cuban dance.

By asking my colleagues to help me by continuing the event- action (vocal cue-dance rhythm) practice, I was freed to vocalised montunos over their rhythms to provide a broader musical context. They began to get into the swing of things, especially Ingo (Guenther, master of baroque dance) who was happily 'gung-gung'ing away. They were partnered up into dance couples to increase interaction and reinforce each other rhythmically.

I swapped their partnerships often, mixing up the content with salsa walks and basics.

Then they started asking about quality of movement; so I explained the key features of East Cuban and West Cuban movement to música bailable (this was billed to be Cuban salsa after all), demonstrated it, executed it, taught it; and they all learned it, replicated it and then interpreted it - an reminder that this class comprised an altogether different standard of attendees.

Then came the obvious question, "When and why would you use which quality?"

I thought to myself, "erm... now how do I explain that?!" Then it came to me.

With my colleagues dancing salsa using Oriente (East Cuban) movement, and vocalising gung-gungs, I sang sones phrased to son clave with traditional intonations and attack. We then did the same using Occidente (West Cuban) movement, as I sang rumba-derived timba songs to rumba clave. There was even time to do a cross-comparison, which they all experienced as very valuable.

Eighteen minutes was all that I had had: from the delayed start, to the next scheduled workshop. And I made it with time enough for remedial work and to engage with some penetrating questions.

Jumping in to provide the lesson allowed me to connect with my fellow CID colleagues in a personal manner, making me a more 'known' and hence 'comforting' quantity. I left the hall having a different stature to that of when I entered. I was no longer simply an academic subject-matter expert; I was now also regarded as a dance practitioner with performance-level abilities as an all-round musician and singer; and an educator who could answer the "whys" and teach the "hows".

The Enduring Memories
The 32nd World Congress on Dance Research was declared a success despite the low attendance (earthquakes in the region a weeks prior put paid to that), and I agree. To be privileged enough to have effectively private viewings of world-class performances in a beautiful theatre, to be able to exchange ideas with people at the very top of their game, to laugh with new friends, and to dance a dreamy bolero under a vault of stars in a Sanmarinese piazza. What else could one want?

Loo Yeo


To visit Loo's Facebook photo albums on the '32nd World Congress on Dance Research, Conseil International de la Danse, UNESCO' and San Marino 2012, click on the links below.

Part One: 
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151094558390555.502507.668465554&type=3&l=594f82a341

Part Two:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151159507785555.509703.668465554&type=3&l=85010e4583

Why Men Shouldn't Count

That's the title of the dance research paper I'd submitted for presentation at UNESCO CID's 32nd World Congress on Dance Research. And it's been accepted. That's why I've been as quiet as a mouse recently, and I will be for another month - the congress in San Marino and apart from preparing the presentation, I'll be taking the opportunity to talk dance with my colleagues in the International Dance Council, travel the Emilia Romagna region and an cap it all off with a return to beautiful Rome.

I'll cover the congress experience in a post or two, with photos, when I get back. In the meanwhile, here's the summary of the paper to whet your appetite!

San Marino, Baby! Loo Yeo, Conseil International de la Danse UNESCO

[quote]

Why Men Shouldn’t Count: Designing and assessing an event-led multimodal approach for the learning of salsa

By Loo Yen Yeo, Salsa & Merengue Society UK.

Summary
The conventional verbal approach to the teaching of salsa dancing was investigated and results indicated a bias in favour of females. A nonverbal event-led approach was developed and assessed for success rate and sex bias. Both pedagogic systems were compared and their neurological bases were discussed. Results imply an increased transfer in the burden of learning from student to instructor using the event approach. Extrapolation from neurophysiological studies leads to the hypothesis that sustained deployment of the conventional approach yields a cultural bias favouring salsa’s European component over its African influences. Exciting avenues for future research arising from salsa’s continued transnationalisation are indicated.

Keywords: dance – neurology – pedagogy – salsa – sex bias – cultural bias

[unquote]

Joy

This classic vid is one of my all time favourites because it has what every good salsa must have: Joy.



David's Bio:
http://english.cri.cn/4406/2010/08/03/2381s586404.htm

I waited years for the full-length video to be reposted on YouTube. And now it has. Hallelujah!

Loo