Bali Salsa - Part 2

The salsa band in Obsession.

Salseros chilling out at Obsession.

Now, the Salsa Fiesta only started officially on 6th March which was a Friday. So all of the participants were there by then. When Inaki Fernandez, UK's King of Bachata walked in... this is what all the girls did...

Well, its Inaki... he is the one who shaped UK's bachata scene with his unique style of bachata which we here at Malaysia (and also some other parts of the world) fondly call as Inakichata. He is currently attached to UK's Latin Dance Academy, owned by Suzana Montero and Super Mario (not the Nintendo game character but the Million Moves Man).

Ok... I have the same reaction as the ladies.

But it was Suzana Montero who shaped my dance life. She taught and inspired me to move my body and it was also her who showed me what the Inaki style bachata was like.

I danced with her and she was so happy that I could dance like Inaki and her comment was that my lead was good.

With those words coming from someone like her, it meant a lot to me.

At night, we had a party at Wina Holiday Villa (which was the official event hotel we stayed in). A huge marquee/tent was erected and we danced to the open air. Despite the ventilation, the weather was still so humid even at midnight that sweat never stopped rolling down my head.

Tsu Yee, James, Cecilia, Jaxen and Adele... all wet and still sober, all high from dancing and partying. Every night was just sheer fun to be spent with your friends and also strangers who seemed to be closer to you as a friends than you'd ever expect.

We had a full day of workshops on Saturday at Wina. There was a morning samba by Gupson, and then in the afternoon I missed 2 workshops due to the tech rehearsals at Sector Club which I had to attend. I missed Anup's Stealing & Hijacking Workshop as well as Nestor/Lidia's Partnerwork Workshop.

I managed to catch Nestor/Lidia's Shine Workshop and also Vali/Oliver's Zouk Workshop. I had to sacrifice Inaki/Suzana's bachata for Zouk but it was definately worth it! Zouk was so nice...

I missed Gupson's Tricky Turn Pattern Workshop as I was too tired and needed the time to prepare for the performance that night.

Here's a photo of me, Nestor Manuelian, Cecilia and Lidia McMahon. Nestor and Lidia are from Modus Vivendi Productions Australia. Nestor is also the one organizing the Sydney Bachata Festival. This nice man has helped me alot in shaping some of my salsa as well as bachata skills.

Me and Cecilia will be performing at the Sydney Bachata Festival end April 2009 and I will also be conducting a workshop there. wish me luck!

All performance was at Sector Club. There were 21 performances. I was number 14. What a good number... The Indonesian performers were great. They had some of the best performances I have ever seen and some of their rueda team really gave new meaning to the term rueda. Their performances was superb! I believe Malaysia have a lot to learn from them. Top of the Indonesian performers was Reyno and his Salsa Fresca team. They did a total of 4 performances!

Suzana and Inaki did their bachata routine and Nestor and Lidia had a new bachata routine. I was quite nervous performing another bachata routine in front of these bachata masters but as the sole representative from Malaysia, I am glad to say Cecilia and me did Malaysia proud. Nestor and Lidia liked the routine and they hope I can bring that to Australia. Suzana also gave good reviews and all around the others also gave me a good pat on the back.

Other notable performances were from Nestor and Lidia's salsa performance as well as Suzana and Inaki's salsa performance. Suzana and Inaki's shines were really quite different from the usual shines I see performers do. Csaba and Vali from Latin Motion Australia did a good salsa routine.

One of the best was actually Oliver Pineda from Latin Motion. The 5 times World Salsa Champion did a solo shine which was simply incredible! His movements were so in tuned with the song that you could feel his every move. And Oliver also did a Zouk routine with Vali. It was a Latin Motion student choreography that they used but it really felt like an advanced choreography. It was so beautiful.

Now I can't remember anything else but that...