SALSA IN LATVIA
YEAR 2000!
On April 15, 2000 Dance Sport club Nianse organized traditional international Dance Sport competition “In the Whirlpool of Dances” at Studio No. 1 of Latvian Television. ENIO CORDOBA & TERRYL JONES (USA, Los Angeles) also have attended this event and demonstrated Argentine Tango, Salsa and West Coast Swing.
Seminars were organized a day before this event. Interested persons could learn the basic steps of Argentine Tango, Salsa and West Coast Swing. Juta Vanaga, the dance coach of Nianse, learned the teaching methods of these dances. Enio and Terrya gave valuable advices also a long time after this seminar, especially on Salsa teaching.
Remember – 14th of April, 2000!!!
That is THE BEGINNING OF SALSA IN LATVIA!
What did the press write about the development of Salsa in Latvia?
“Salsa – it is as exciting and democratic as Cuba Libre! A dance instructor, friend or stranger can teach you this dance only in one hour at any party in any big city.
Salsa – it is a sweaty face, wet back, loud breath and a happy feeling of togetherness with all other people in the dance hall, who are just the same as you and who are joined by a hypnotic rhythm. That is the joy of touches, which we know from the time of our birth. That is four hours of physical activities – still you won’t perceive it as a work not even for a moment. As Terryl has joked – “it is the vertical projection of our horizontal desires”.
Los Angeles style is very popular at USA. Santana, Jennifer Lopez, tex-mex and “dirty dances” is in top now. 200 aficionados are taught during one week in the studio of Enio and Terryl. There is a studio in Los Angeles where 900 dancers come together during one evening. What is the secret? Latin American is dancing his whole life, therefore his movements are free. He doesn’t know any figures, doesn’t know how to lead, but in his stomach a drum is playing all the time: bum-chiki-bum-bum… salsa – that is an orchestra of percussions.
There is a rational explanation for the magnetism of Latin rhythm. Once a famous musician – avant-gardist from Saint Petersburg told me: “Try to play with one hand a rhythm one-two-three-for and in the same time with the other hand – one, two, three. That is not easy. There is a feeling that your hands are bound together; one hand pulls the other hand with it as unavoidable as the Earth’s gravity pulls us. Release them. In the music of each nation is this one-two-three. It arises in the body despite the free fall. The nation is wise because of its body.”
Marija Kugeļ, Kosmetik Baltikum, 2000/3
That was the beginning of Salsa in Latvia – in the time of millennium change.
SALSA IN LATVIA
YEAR 2001
On April 3, 2001 newspaper “Dienas Bizness” writes:
“On July – the first Salsa Festival.
The second event with which J.Vanaga timely wanted introduce the readers of Dienas Biznes is the first Salsa Festival. The festival will take place from 3rd-8th July. Professionals from dance clubs of USA, Germany, UK, Netherlands and Sweden will visit Riga in the framework of this festival. Salsa is one of the most popular dances not only in Latin America, but also in Europe, where salsa is danced in special clubs and even in cafes. This dance can be taught to any amateur.”
On year 2001 press writes about salsa:
1.Vesti Segodņa “Kaislīgās Salsas virpulī” – 05.04.2001
2.Čas “Rīgā gaidāma Salsas epidēmija” – 06.04.2001
3.Neatkarīgā Rīta avīze “Virpulī iedejots pavasaris” - 09.04.2001
4.Bizness&Baltija “Padejosim?” - 17.05.2001
5.Jaunā Avīze “Kaisle dejā” - 16-21.06/2001 (attēlos redzami Nianses dejotāji) - 1, 2.
6.Izklaide “Atbrīvo latvisko stīvumu! Dejo salsu! - 29.06.2001
7.Neatkarīgā Rīta avīze “Rīgu pārņem salsomānija” - 04.07.2001
