Two bodies cling to each other, move seductively, spin and gyrate to the pounding beat of music till the room can barely take the heat. The salsa enthusiasts have danced the Latin dance in Taipei for years, and, this weekend, will be joined by the top-notch artists and instructors from South Korea and India, Senegal and Norway as part of the First Taipei Salsa Festival.
Like salsa clubs spreading across places as diverse as New York, Dubai and Japan, the event celebrates the dance form with days of workshops and nights of performances that aim to attract dancers from around the world. Invited performers will lead the crowd in thirty courses on different types of salsa from elementary to advanced levels and ignite the weekend with Latin heat at two demonstrations.
According to Jessica Ku (古婉君) of the Taipei Salsa Association (台北莎莎舞蹈文化推廣協會), the event's organizer, the Cuban dance first appeared in the city around five years ago, mostly taught by ballroom denizens and thus leaned more toward the glamorous LA style that takes in movements from ballroom dancing.
More styles - such as the New York "breaking on two" style and Cuban freestyle that echoes the daring spirit of street dance salsa - have been brought in by foreign instructors and made popular by the growing numbers of its practitioners.
To South Korean salsa artist and instructor Sol Hwang, salsa's street credit renders it a comprehensive form open to all artisans as each dancer can blend in different inspirations to express his or her ideas. A ballet dancer by training, Hwang has mastered various dance forms such as samba, capoeira and tango during his treks around the globe and created salsa moves combining materials from contemporary dance to hip-hop.
What: The First Taipei Salsa Festival
Where: Workshops will be at Soochow University's downtown campus (東吳大學城中校區), 56, Gueiyang St Sec 1, Taipei City
(台北市貴陽街一段56號).
Performances will be at Tien Educational Center (耕莘文教院), 22, Xinhai Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市辛亥路一段22號).
When: Tomorrow and Sunday workshops are from 10am to 5pm; performances are 8pm to 10pm
Tickets: Four types of festival passes cost between NT$2,500 and NT$5,000; single performances cost NT$1,600 at the door
On the net: www.taipeisalsafest.com
"Salsa is all about connecting and communicating with others through the body, heart and soul," said Hwang, who has been dancing for more than 20 years and teaching salsa on and off for the past two and half years in Taipei.
Similarly, Knzo of Senegal is another versatile artist proficient in reggaeton, ragga jam, African dance and dancehall. The world salsa champions, Oliver Pineda and Luda Kroitor, from Australia, excel at the other end of the salsa spectrum with their precise and sophisticated techniques. Adding more sass to the lineup is Luis Vazquez, one of the founders of LA style salsa, as well as karma salsa, a genre invented by Kaytee Namgyal, an Indian salsa guru.
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