Its 2.30am as I am typing this... can see that I have some explanations I need to give to my students. I was supposed to perform and I know a lot of my students are very excited to see the debut of Salsa X Productions featuring Rhythm Identity Salsa and Bachata Dance School and New Star Studio doing the new bachata style coined as BachaZouk!
However, everyone will be quite disappointed as we will not be performing. My sincerest apologies.
I had a very late meeting with the organizers of the event I am supposed to perform for. They informed me that one of the main participant of the event threatened to pull out if we did our performance on Sunday. Reason being that this particular person had some issues with the management of his studio and blames me for his current plight. So I told the management that to make life easier for everyone, Salsa X Productions will pull out of the event so the management of this event does not need to exercise the rights of the contract against this particular person.
Now, allow me to set the facts straight.
Let's start with some slight history.
In Feb 2008, I took over management of a studio where there was this guy who conducted his dance classes there. Now, he wasn't very happy that I took over the studio as I was once his student. He always thought... believed... that I will kick him out of the studio and take over his classes, even though I had told him I had no intention of doing so.
There was much commotion from his side until I decided not to meddle in the management of the studio beginning mid 2008.
Sometime mid Nov 2008, I got a call from my dance studio partner that she had evicted him out of the studio due to rental issues. When I had found out about it, it was probably around 2 weeks after she had evicted him.
Now, I stress this fact... I was not involved in his eviction nor was I aware of his eviction at the time it happened. However, in his mind it was I who evicted him. And all of his students who are my friends had no guts to even call me and ask me what happened. Instantly they came to a decision that it was I who had evicted him when the truth was no where near that.
So now, I write this blog to explain to my students why the performance could not go on. I have nothing to hide especially when its the truth. I will not give some other false excuses or sugar coat everything and I will be frank and honest.
Now, don't look at this negatively... Salsa X Productions has already performed on Saturday afternoon and showed everyone the BachaZouk. It was good enough. And this also tells us all... that every student of Rhythm Identity... past, present and future... that you need to persevere and prove to yourself that you can be the best there is in salsa and bachata, that we need to stick together no matter the cost and help each other and ride through the tough times. We need to grow together so that one day we will not be that easily preyed on by people who are envious and fearful of us. Let us shine...
Feel the Rhythm
Feel the Passion
Jaxen
"Salsa Daddy"
p.s. If you are a logical person, tell me this: If I owned a studio and I wanted to evict a guy who has no contract whatsoever with the studio, do I need to wait nearly 1 year to do so? From Feb until Nov... do I need to wait so long? If you're a reasonable person, you can see the logic behind this... I guess some people are illogical and unreasonable and cannot see the facts for what they are.
There were more things that I did when I was more younger; singing, stage shows/performance, Choir and more. But this is about dancing. I would say I started dancing when I finally went out clubbing, RnB, Hip Hop and the rest. It started off as a solo dance, which was mainly bobbing to the beat or just swaying or stepping to the beat and not much more. But I always looked around and see what others are doing and then I started dancing and getting friends to dance with me.
Some friends told me to join a dance school as they need more men, or more correctly, THEY NEED MEN and since I was still single what's there too loose. I looked around, which mainly entails the newspaper and just casual asking around where and how much. But I took no action to get myself into dancing, other then Capoeira, which I only did for a month but stopped as I was not in any shape for that kind of carbio workout.
It was during a Full Moon Party when it hit me, that I liked to dance with someone rather then all by myself as there is somewhat of a courtship or 'play' going on. One of the girls were dancing in front of the DJ console and there was a whole big open space around her and there was no one dancing with her at all. I just stepped up behind her and started to 'move it'. I would say that I was envy of all the guys there cos we really did pull it off and I felt totally excited with the whole dancing with a partner thing.
After the party I met Joyce and remembered about Jackson who was teaches Salsa. Joyce told me that Jackson had a Free Trial Class and encouraged me to join in since I have an interest in dancing. I went for the trail class and later signed up for a workshop, and no it's was not a Salsa workshop, it was Bachata. That was my first official dance class that I attended, it was a whole Saturday workshop that took me from Beginner to Advance Bachata, 3 different levels and to remind you that was my first and only official dance class.
Later on I signed up for Salsa and then started my Salsa Addict life as most of you know it now.
Why I started dancing? It's just because I like to dance, it is an avenue for me to express myself as well as to release myself. I have not regretted the day when I started Salsa and Bachata, but there were time when I so wished I've'd stopped instead. But I still move on cos basically I like to dance.
When I did my first workshop in Kuantan, I met this lady named Joyce. Back then, I didn’t expect her to be who she is today in the Rhythm Identity family. It was a small workshop to introduce salsa, bachata and merengue to Kuantan.
Joyce started to come to down to KL with another of the workshop participant, Olivia for weekend salsa. And they came quite often. They were so hooked onto salsa. Imagine travelling more than 200km just to salsa for the weekend!
I cannot remember exactly how it happened but Joyce called me one day and expressed an interest to bring salsa to Kuantan on a permanent basis. We talked and I told her to come down and learn more about salsa and what is required to teach. She came and her lessons started. From there, she slowly started salsa in Kuantan and until today, she is still running her weekly classes. It has now branched off to Kemaman!
Who’d ever imagine an east coast state having salsa there?
Joyce’s passion for salsa even brought her to Australia; to the land that influenced Rhythm Identity’s growth and direction, where she learned from the best Australia had to offer. Her background in Latin and Belly Dancing had helped her salsa growth and she soon found herself performing on international stages.
The students from Kuantan, though small in number, possess a form of passion and dedication to salsa which I find many city people lack. They may not be as gung ho as the city people but their dedication to the dance form known as salsa is just as strong as anyone else.
The east coast region of Malaysia is a tough place to start salsa; mainly due to the conservatism and some say the lack of young blood there. Despite these issues, the Kuantan salseros has certainly proven that salsa can thrive in any place and with anyone. And now with Kemaman to add to the list, certainly it has proven that salsa has an appeal wider than anyone ever expected.
Care to salsa?
Jaxen
“Salsa Daddy”
Since this is the first time I am blogging, I feel compelled to write about the history of Rhythm Identity. Now, Rhythm Identity is new and young and there really isn’t much history to it but I am hoping whatever story that lies in here will inspire future salseros and bachateros to pursue their dreams and work together towards a better salsa and bachata scene in Malaysia and improve themselves by maintaining an open mindset.
Rhythm Identity started sometime 4th quarter 2006. I was semi-retired, or you could say I was not active in the salsa scene anymore. After a glorious 2005 which was a year of victory, I had slowed down all salsa activities. Until I went for the 1st Malaysian International Salsa Festival in Cherating did the fire in my swell up to a supernova level.
It was by luck then that my salsa sister, Sanddie (we tell people we’re really brother and sister even though we don’t look alike and people really believe us) came to me as there was a studio looking for salsa instructors in TTDI and that person approached us. So I arranged with that person to meet the studio principal. Joanne of Joyclub Dance Academy.From there on, Rhythm Identity started. Sanddie and I started our first class there and our first batch of students was a nice group of 10 students. They basically came from a friend of mine, Vanessa who worked for Nestle. She brought her friends and they brought their own friends and the class started then.
Sanddie would teach the ladies aspect of salsa and I would run the men’s department. Things were working well, or as well as can be. We had some discussions… arguments is more like it, about the syllabus and how things are to be done but all was well.
It was hard to grow at that time; the student level never exceeded 15 students in total. We were struggling for quite a while. At one point, a group class consisted only of 2 students!!! It was more of a private class then!
But we never gave up. Even when total student headcount dropped to less than 10, we persevered. We kept each other motivated and we worked on routines for performances and kept coming up with ideas on how to market our salsa classes. In times like these, we needed to keep each other motivated and keep each other going strong.
I was very thankful to a few students who kept on staying with us even though their class shrunk to about 3 students. It was their faith in us that kept us going.
I knew what I learned from my previous few instructors was not enough and I needed more to grow Rhythm Identity. I was following too much of the style and the way I did salsa which was influenced from my few previous instructors.
I then had the opportunity to take up lesson from Jaime Jesus from Latin Dance Australia who was one of Australia’s top salsa instructors. I asked him about how he conducted his classes and what are the things he did that made LDA so successful. LDA is famous for their strong and smooth lead/follow techniques as well as in the execution of moves and how they teach the breakdown of salsa moves.I brought whatever I could learn and incorporated it into Rhythm Identity’s syllabus. The classes grew from there. Things got better when I went to learn from one of the pioneers of LA Style salsa; Francisco Vasques of Los Rumberos and all these went into Rhythm Identity and to the students.
About 1 year after I started teaching, Rhythm Identity finally stabilized and the student base grew. I felt that everything I had done and how my sister and I persevered through the hard times was all worth it. The journey was indeed a priceless one.
Sanddie is no longer active in Rhythm Identity classes and activities and I am left with just me and my precious “children” who are the reasons why I keep on going and going even though things are down. Probably that’s why they call me “Salsa Daddy” as I treat my students like my children. They are my salsa children.
And from the salsa children came the bachata children. I must say that the growth of my bachata and to the creation of my own style of bachata which I coined as BachaZouk is contributed mainly to Nestor Manuelian of Modus Vivendi Salsa Productions, Australia. He had taught and guided my bachata development (and also on salsa) until I reached a stage whereby I was confident to accept Nestor’s invitation to perform at the Sydney Bachata Festival. The other contributing factor, though to a lesser degree was from Inaki Fernandez; dubbed UK’s Bachata King, who had showed me a whole new world of bachata style.
Bachata is no longer about walking like a crab from left to right which is what most people do in Malaysia. It is a lot more than that. Many ladies feel they don’t have to take bachata classes as they only “follow” but now things are different. There’s a lot for ladies to learn. Believe me. A lot.Bachata has reached a new level and a whole different world of fun. Rhythm Identity is now moving foward with its bachata classes… the BachaZouk!
Now, 2 years after the formation of Rhythm Identity, things are looking much better. I am proud to have my salsa children with me and because of them, I will never give up salsa… nor bachata!
Viva La Salsa!
Viva La Bachata!!
Viva La Rhythm Identity!!!
Jaxen
“Salsa Daddy”
When my students asked me to open a blog, the first thing that came to my mind was “What to blog about?”
Now that Rhythm Identity’s blog is officially up, I have to think about what to blog. As this is Rhythm Identity’s blog, I hereby invite all Rhythm Identity students and friends to come in and blog about their salsa and bachata experience, how and why did they get into this saucy dance style and how has it changed their lives.
Anything on salsa and bachata is welcomed here.
Feel the Rhythm. Feel the Passion.
Jaxen
"Salsa Daddy"
To make things simple and not go into a historical thesis, Bachata songs are mainly categorized into two: - When you fall INTO Love and When you fall OUT of Love.
Personally I feel that the songs are more expressive and there's more 'feel' to it. The steps are simple 'crab walking' from left to right and back again, with simple turns and loads of hips movements. I prefer the Bachazouk style that we are currently learning as the lead is much easier when you are using the very very very close body position, cos you lead with your WHOLE BODY rather then just your hands.
This is just a test post cos I'm just too lazy n hungry to type a proper write up :รพ
