San Francisco Salsa Congress 2009
 
San Francisco is a special salsa congress for us because:
  1. ★we see our salsa acrobatic friends Ava & Rudolfo of the Latin Symbolics
  2. ★we see our salsa acrobatic friends Alex Lee & Kim Nodora
  3. ★we get to watch one of my favorite salsa events in the world: the Jack and Jill, salsa style!
 
This year, it was going to be especially fun because Alex, Kim, Zoë and I decided to do our comedy salsa act that we debut in Sydney Salsa Congress and again in LA Salsa Congress.
 
 
Paradizo Dance Blog
Monday, November 23, 2009
Another highlight for me was the professional Jack and Jill.  It is rarely done in the salsa world and is truely a unique test of salseros abilities to improv with a random dancer and put on a great show. The best part is Albert Torres making hundreds of jokes, commenting on the great, the bad, and the ridiculous.  The winners were David Stein and Jorge, who managed to do 3 intermediate level tricks despite not knowing each other, and showing the best leading, following, and style of any of the couples.  It was great to see international instructors be playful with each other, all for fun.
I have never had so much fun choreographing before and  the result of our four minds collaborating was a great comedic salsa show!  If you have not seen it, imagine both couples battling their best moves, stealing each others partners, and then the climax, Alex flying over my head in a lift!  The show rocked the house, with the audience standing throughout the show, and then giving us a standing ovation.  It was immensely fun, and an honor to share the stage with one of the world's great salsa acrobatic couples.
We didn't get to see many of the shows, because we arrived Saturday evening after competing in the Cabaret division of the Virginia Swing Open Championships the previous night.  Of the shows we saw, we loved Alma Latina who had a huge production including 20 plus dancers combining many interesting dance styles in one show.  Junior and Emily closed the Saturday show with a brand new routine that hopefully will bring them a first place price next week in Greece at the European Chamionships.  Hache y Machete performed a quartet which always brings a unique and earthy style to salsa, and we applaud their consistent creativity and originality in their choreography.  And yes, we also had the chance to see Grupo Melao, a Colombian couple who also rocked the house with great footwork sequences. This couple is very talented and a lot of fun to watch!
 
Our show went very well.  We did the extended version of “No Air,” the first piece we did for America's Got Talent.  Many people commented that they loved the transitions in the show and that moves were mesmerizing.
The hardest part of the weekend was finding out Kim Nodora will be retiring from her dance partnership with Alex Lee.  After a year of a blossoming partnership with Alex and Lee, we are devastated to loose Kim to family commitments that are understandable.
 
 
We love you Kim, and will miss you and all of your fun-filled spirit tremendously!  
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Dave, Zoë, Kim, Alex
Our last performance together :(
Dave & Paula, our new circus/salsa friend we met at Hamburg Congress who currently lives in SF.  So fun to catch up with friends when we travel!
Kim Nodora hanging out after the show with Alex’s baby girl