| Atlanta Salsa Splash |
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Friday, August 24 - Arrival & Pre-Party
I got into Atlanta around 3pm. Sabrina from SalsaAtl picked me up at the airport and we headed to Marcel Sheriff’s house. The day looked beautiful; the sun was out and it was nice and warm. As soon as we got on the highway which was packed with rush hour traffic, it started to rain. Now, I know what you’re thinking, “big deal, it’s just a little bit of rain.” Well, this was not some ordinary shower; this was similar to a monsoon rain. There were times when we could not even drive forward because it was a wall of water. It was amazing, scary, and exciting all at the same time. I’m a big fan of monsoon rains. When I was younger and living in India, monsoon rains were a common occurrence and as a child I would always run outside and play in the rain. The rain that I experienced in Atlanta reminded me of the monsoon rains in India and if I didn’t have to be somewhere I would totally have gotten out of the car and gotten drenched. By the time we got to Marcel’s, however, the rain had subsided. And a few minutes after I arrived, the power went out too. So, I took that as my cue to get some rest. A couple of hours later, I got up, got ready and headed downstairs to have dinner with Marcel, his lovely wife, Teodora, Ana and Joel. After a nice dinner and some wine we headed to Pasofino Studios. We arrived at the studio around 10:30pm. Pasofino Dance Studios is a really beautiful venue. It’s very spacious, airy, nice hard wood floors and a very warm and welcoming staff. The DJ played some decent music and most people spent their time on the dance floor. I got to see a few familiar faces that I hadn’t seen in a while: Gordon Neil, Abby, Lucy Lu, Betto Herrera, Milton Cobo, Carlito, Alejandro, Laura and Jose Maldonado. I danced a few dances and somewhere around midnight there were a couple of performances. The first show was a tango performance was by TangoEvolution; it was a really nice demonstration of tango to an uncommon tango song. Jose Maldonado and Amber Cadwell closed the show with a nice salsa performance. The dancing continued until 3:00am. Gordon Neil and his mischievous ways tried to convince everyone to go to a strip club to celebrate Abby’s birthday. He did manage to convince everyone except me, Carlito, Alejandro and Marcel. So, the four of us headed home. Saturday, August 25 - Workshops & Party
The workshops were all running pretty late so the private lesson that I had also ended up being late. I had a chance to work with Toshia for a good 2 hours and that was a fun private. We both learned a lot. By the time it ended at 7pm, I was starving. Events that are packed with activities are both good and bad. They’re good because you are always doing something exciting. They are horrible for sensible eating. I ate a small breakfast at 10am on Saturday and the next time I ate, it was 7:30pm. Marcel took us for some very large burritos; it was just what I needed. We headed straight home after that and I went to sleep. I intended to take just a quick 1 hr nap but all three of us, Joel, Ana and myself fell asleep until 10pm – until Marcel called us and told us that we were being picked up in 20 minutes. We rushed to get ready and headed over to Atlanta Ballroom for the evening parties and shows.
Atlanta Ballroom was a really big and open ballroom studio. It was pretty packed by the time we got there. I had just enough time to have a couple of dances before the performances began. There were two shows: Alejandro & Laura and Salsa Heat. Both shows were really entertaining. After the shows Gordon called out all of the instructors to do a quick demo. Gordon and I had a few seconds with each other and there was a part in our dance where I actually slipped but made a really good recovery. Gordon didn’t even know it because I wasn’t holding onto him or pulling at him with my weight. Someone once told me that the secret of a good dancer is in the recovery. I guess that’s true; I’ll have to see the video first. Ana & Joel closed the dance because the song was one of the tracks off of Joel’s album. The social dancing continued after that. I had some fantastic dances with Gordon, Carlito, Alejandro, Chino, Jimmy Rumba and a few others. Near the end of the night there was a surprise appearance by Mario B, Ivona, Earl Rush and Sheila Sampath. It was nice to see Earl; I rarely get to see him anymore with my travels and such. And it was nice to meet the organizer of the Atlanta Salsa Congress, Sheila Sampath. Sunday, August 26 - Dinner and a Movie
Monday, August 27 - Rehearsal
The weekend was a very fun filled and productive weekend. Thanks Marcel and Jose for having me at your event. Thank you to Teodora, Tiffany, Chino and Carlito for being so hospitable and driving around. And thanks Gordon for a good rehearsal; I’m excited about this routine. Happy birthday Abby; I hope the weekend was a nice big salsa celebration for you. Thank you to everyone else for the dances and for making the weekend so much fun. I can’t wait for the next one.
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I had set my alarm for 9am and I really wished I had woken up to it. However, around 8am or earlier, Marcel’s son was up, full of energy and full of volume. So, I ended up waking up earlier than I would have liked to. Around 10, Ana, Joel and I headed downstairs and had pancakes with Marcel, Teodora and the kids. After breakfast, we headed to the workshops. I was teaching the first workshop at 12:00 on Spinning technique. The class was a decent size and the overall turnout for the other workshops as well as the boot camp was excellent. It’s always great to see a city where there is so much enthusiasm for learning the dance. The Spinning Technique class went very well and the students were cranking out clean doubles by the end of the class. The second class I taught was Footwork with Musicality; I taught choreography to 
Once the night ended, a small group of us headed to Merengue Club and continued to dance to salsa, bachata, meringue and hip hop until 6am or so. Everyone was famished by the end of the night so we headed to Waffle House for breakfast. By the time we finished up it was 7am. Carlito, Alejandro and Laura dropped me off at Marcel’s and by 8am I was fast asleep. Not having to teach was a nice relief and I took advantage of the day by sleeping until 3pm. Gordon and Tiffany picked up Joel and I soon after and we met up with Chino, Carlito and Lucy for a late lunch at a Peruvian/Puerto Rican restaurant and then to watch the movie ‘War’ at Atlantic Station; Hilla joined us at the theatre. The movie was really entertaining and had an interesting twist but the ending sucked; it ended so abruptly. I think the entire theatre emitted a disappointing sigh. It was about 12am and Tiffany had to work so everyone headed back to her place where we watched a few episodes of Family Guy and then crashed.
Monday was my day to work with Gordon on a new choreography so around 12pm we headed over to his place and got started. We were able to finish 1/3rd of the choreography in about 2 hours or so. I’m really excited about the end product. Our goal is to have it ready for the Stuck on Salsa All Star Salsa Cruise in December. I can’t wait. After a really good rehearsal, we met up with Joel and Chino at a restaurant called Chin Chin for some sushi, sake and Chinese food. Since the previous night when we went to the Peruvian restaurant I had been craving a Peruvian dessert called ‘Leche Asada.’ Unfortunately, the restaurant didn’t have it. On Monday, we went on a mission to find it. We ended up at a Peruvian restaurant called Machu Pichu; they didn’t have it either. I was quite disappointed. I’ll have to call Adolfo again and head out to Peruterson, NJ, I mean Patterson, NJ. We got back to Tiffany’s around 9pm. Gordon, Chino, Joel and Hilla headed out to a club; I opted to take a nice hot bath instead. The following morning, Chino was kind enough to take me to the airport and I was on my way back to New Jersey.