La Luna All Stars Dance Party and Workshops

As promised to my vast numbers of readers (I think it's about 5 people now) here is a little review of my experience at La Luna's All Stars events this weekend.

If you did not go this, you missed something. I bet this is not done in too many cities...getting almost all of the local instructors together to give a performance and a series of workshops. I really like the community aspect to this. Also, I do think it is important for a student to venture out of his or her home studio and meet other teachers and students. You meet people and you get more dance partners when you are out there dancing.

Sonya Elmore deserves BIG thanks and admiration for getting this all together. On Friday night, she gave awards and thanks to the many people who have been on the Philly salsa scene from the beginning and their contributions to it. It is really cool that she thinks it is important to honor the major dancers who have made the Philly scene. Eli Torres could not be there and I really missed him! Mike Andino, as his usual gentlemanly self, made sure that Sonya was recognized and thanked, also. Her contribution is HUGE (not to mention Salsafest, among other things).

The workshops on Sunday were cool because it was like a mini-congress. There were 5, 50-minute class segments. In each segment, you could choose which of 4 workshops you wanted to take. And, if you were smart, like I was (for once), you would have bought your tickets way back in early February when you could get a ticket for $50. So, I got a deal because this came to $10 per class. If you waited and paid at the door, it was $85, or $17 per class.

I chose to take the rumba class with Darlin Garcia, On2 with George Dennis, On1 class with Raul Santiago, Cha-Cha with Victor Colon, and Bachata with Joe Figueroa. You also could have taken classes with Sonya Elmore, Kat Eccleston, Amber Rawls, Mike Andino, Ashley Knecht, Star Seguinot, Jose Maldonado, Noel Rodriguez, Vicky Woods, Barbara Capaldi, Christy Kam, and Henri Velandia. Jessica Rodriguez was out for the day with an injury, unfortunately.

When I go to congresses, I usually don't take classes with the teachers at my "home studio" (or 2 studios, in my case - Estilo and Mambodelphia). I make an exception for On2 with Big George because my main focus as a student is On2. So I try to take any On2 class that I can. If you don't dance On2, even just a little, you are missing something, by the way. (Sorry, I had to get that On2 plug in there).

Darlin Garcia's Rumba/Afro-Cuban class TOTALLY ROCKED! It was worth my $50 right there. Now I just gotta practice because my shoulder isolations ain't so good. And I was delighted to see George Dennis' On2 class very well attended. I had a hard time finding enough space on the floor to learn the shine. Seems like we are getting some On2 interest 'round here (despite the skepticism of some people).

I got to sample some teaching of other teachers and I learned something from every one. Raul Santiago kicked my butt. Victor Colon had really nice cha cha patterns, especially the shines. And Joe Figueroa is a darn good teacher. I ended up in his Bachata class by mistake. I am not a big Bachata fan and I thought he was teaching a salsa class. I didn't want to be rude by leaving after I was already paired up, so I stayed. Joe apologized for perhaps giving more theory than he thought people wanted but I, for one, learned a lot. I will now stop popping my hip so much when I dance Bachata and instead "collect" (yep, Joe, I was listening). And I learned a lot about connecting to my partner and just making my Bachata better. I like it more now. I left early though (sorry, Joe), because I was just plain exhausted. And I had an hour drive home.

If La Luna does this again next year, don't miss out. Buy early and take advantage of how much you can learn in 1/2 a day. You will be really, really, tired at the end.  Hot and sweaty, too. It's a good day.

So, there you have it, dear readers. My La Luna experience. Thanks for reading!