Seattle Rueda

Mark your calendars for great live music from one of the longest running Cuban bands in Seattle.  SuperSones is hosting their sophomore CD (Son Para Ti) release party at the Tracktor Tavern on Thursday, October 15th.  supersones.com

Los Flacos will open up (flacosmusic.com) and DJ Thomas spinning all genres/eras of Cuban music in between sets.

Starts 9pm, $10

SuperSones’ Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/supersones

Tracktor Tavern: tractortavern.com

1 Comment »

SON CUBANO – Instructional Dance DVD (& new Orisha dance class series…)

Jose Carrion has a new instructional dance DVD – SON CUBANO – which we filmed in Santiago de Cuba this past January. The 1st part of the DVD is instructional & focuses on the traditional figures of Cuban Son. Jose is assisted by Rachel Salas, one of Cutumba’s primera bailarinas. Rachel is a beautiful talented dancer and a joy to watch. The 2nd part of the DVD, Ernesto Arminan’s lecture “Raices de Son“, presents a clear concise history of Son, tracing it’s evolution from the original nengones to the more modern conjuntos and orchestas. Ernesto is the choreographer for Ballet Folklorico Oriente as well as the artistic director of the Tropicana in Santiago; for many years, he was also the choreographer & lead singer of Cutumba. The 3rd part of the DVD features performances by Cutumba. The DVD is in Spanish with an English voice-over, and is available through our website, CD Baby and Descarga.com. (You’re also welcome to pick one up directly from us if you’d prefer.) To see clips of the video, you can follow this link to our YouTube site:

1 Comment »

Friday Night Sept 25th – DJ Baracoa

Musica Cubana y mucho mas

Come and Enjoy The Dance Floor is Open and Ready !!!!

The Best Mojitos in Town  NO COVER

Great Sound, Awesome Space, Ambience, Good Drinks, The Hot Night Spot In Seattle !!

MUEVETE w/DJ Baracoa is back
An Evening of Cuban Flavor

The place is Mojitos Cafe
5253 University Way NE Seattle
This  Friday Night 10pm till 2AM 21 w/ID

No Comments »

Here’s a Cuban couple transitioning in and out of son and cha cha cha with a live band (in Havana).  Food for thought for those of you who are attending Ann’s workshop on 9/24.

4 Comments »

4th Annual Latino Heritage Celebration is Saturday, Oct. 3 at the Seattle Aquarium on Pier 59.  Live music by Grupo Ashe in the beautiful main room and DJ Thomas in the second room. 

Program Agenda
8:00pm  Doors Open, DJ Music, and Food Served (while it lasts).  No-host/cash-only bar.
8:30pm  Presentation of Latino Heritage Award
9:00-10:00pm  Salsa Lesson in main room, and DJ music in back room.
9:00pm-12:00am Aquarium Tours (20 minutes tours)
9:00pm-1:00am  Grupo Ashe in main room, DJ Thomas in back room.               

Tickets are $25 if purchased before 9/25, and $30 after 9/25.  http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/79580

No Comments »

Hi gang!

Sharing some photos of the highly anticipated Peace concert in Havana. I’d heard about this Peace without borders concert that Juanes was leading. Then a friend forwarded this to me today (I’ve been known to listen to a lot of Juanes), so I thought I’d share with you.

Seems there might have been some big names, including of course, Juanes.
Here is a photo of the crowd at Plaza de la Revolución (and links to more photos directly below):

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/8265995.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8265177.stm (with clips of the concert)

and a pre-concert article on the criticism and heavy opposition Juanes was getting for organizing the concert:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/21/peace-concert-in-cuba-drawing-heat/
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/08/12/cuba-concert-for-peace/
http://www.newsok.com/rocker-juanes-hoping-to-have-peace-concert-in-cuba/article/3390861

1 Comment »

Candela! is the name of our newest performance group.  Pulled together with a moment’s notice, they are hard at work rehearsing 2-3 times a week to put together a rueda that will clear the floor on Oct 9^th.  

The intent is to showcase our established, local, Cuban dance instructors.  To excite the crowd.  To get new and veteran dancers to fill their classes.  To continue the momentum that is taking Seattle Cuban dance to the next level.  AND through ‘the wheel’ to inspire all of us to extend beyond the wheel, reaching back to the roots of salsa and reaching out to other communities.

The reality is that with less than 4 weeks to make this happen, busy schedules and a lot of ground to cover, they had to pull in some veteran performers to fill the shoes of those that couldn’t join just yet.  

You will recognize their faces and when this group claims the floor on Oct 9^th -

                                  Rumbanana Beware!

Candela! is also the current name of an emerging dance collective dedicated to promoting Cuban music, culture and dance in the Pacific Northwest.  It was inspired by all of you, and is taking form under leadership of ‘the instructors’ with the help of those thankfully more organized than me!   

For those of you who are asking, that is what Candela! is today.  What it will be tomorrow and the day after?  That has yet to be determined.  Fortunate for us, a wise woman once wrote ‘The greatest heights are reached when the destination is yet To Be Determined.’ 

Join us for their debut on Oct 9^th and help make it true!

No Comments »

Hello Everyone,

I have to say last rueda practice was off-the-hook fun. It was awesome to see so many new people and how synchronized we were on some basic steps. Can we do an encore practice?? Last week we did the following rueda calls that are beginners steps:

Una con una , una con dos, dos con dos, enchufla pa’rriba, adios, adios con la hermana, sombrero, sombrero com mambo, enchufla con mambo, vacilala, vacilence los dos, enchufla con el uno y el cinco, un fly, un hi-5 a la vecina, un fly moderno, setenta, suena, suena con bulla, enchufla pero no, llevale pa’bajo (abanico), dame con guaperia, caminamos pa’rriba, exhibila doble, enchufla y recoje’l quilo, and enchufla y llevala’ peluqueria, el uno, el dos and my favorite…. dame loco.

The intermediate step that we have been practicing the last few practices was kentoqui a lo cubano and noventa, arco iris(although I am not good at doing that one), and control. Please chime in, rueda teachers, who had been teaching moves at practice.

Here are some intermediate moves that we have called and tend to be called in our last hour of rueda practice: caracol, dedo, juana la cubana, setenta corona, enchufla pa’l medio con dos–con 22 or la flor, el beso, balsero, el space needle, patin con la familia, …anyone want to chime in here and share more intermediate moves we do?

I’ll be at practice today and I really want to throw in more coca colas, both without hands and one-handed coca colas and throw them into the ends of calls like adios co la hermana, kentoqui, sententa…etc. So expect me to teach coca cola’s for the beginner’s circle. I would like to clean up our sententas and the dame con guaperia too.

Lastly, in our new moves section of rueda practice, I want to start adding the dile que no’s style move Ryan & Sidney taught us last week at their workshop, which is “el chivo,” and then enchufla con ponche, chequendengue and ponche con salsa. That way everyone gets used to dancing on the “son” beat and then changing to salsa on 1 again and we switch back and forth.

I really want to hold off teaching any kind of fancy long moves until we get the basics down especially if we have a lot of new folks, so please don’t ask me to teach any long moves. We have a lot as it is and its about having fun, right? Last week we had a blast! Let’s do that again!!! See you at rueda practice!!!

2 Comments »

France:

2 Comments »

From the Seattle-Cuba mailing list:

Roberto Borrell will be coming to teach in Seattle at the end of October for a very limited time. Four days of classes in AfroCuban folkloric dance (particularly Yoruba), popular dance (danzon, danzon-cha, son, son montuno and cha cha cha), and the lecture-style listening classes where he explicates popular dance song structures with his students. If you are interested in Cuban culture and history and want to learn more about the roots of timba, rueda and salsa from one of the masters, stay tuned for locations and times!

October 26-29, Monday through Thursday

For info, contact Heidi 206/353-3527 or mowimbale@yahoo.com

Roberto Borrell learned traditional and popular Afro-Cuban dance, percussion, and song from master musicians and dancers while growing up in la Havana Vieja, Havana, Cuba. He is a respected dancer and percussionist of Afro-Cuban Yoruba, Abakua (Calabar), Rumba, Arará (Dahony), and Palo (Congo). He also a master dancer and teacher of Cuban popular dance styles such as son montuno, danzón, and cha cha cha.

Mr. Borrell led the Afro-Cuban folkloric group Kubata in Cuba for 10 years before coming to the United States in 1980, where he founded a new company under the same name. Kubata, then based in New York City, performed Roberto’s productions for 10 years in many major East Coast venues, such as the Smithsonian, Lincoln Center, and Carnegie Hall. He also was founder and musical director of the famous New York-based Son Grupo, part of Kubata productions. 

Borrell danced in the front line of the Folklorico Nacional de Cuba for several years and, in major United States venues, has performed and recorded both as a dancer and percussionist, with legends such as Tito Puente, the Machete Ensemble, Chocolate Armenteros, “Cachao” Lopez, and Richard Egües.

Mr. Borrell was the co-founder, percussionist and musical co-director of the 11-member Orquesta la Moderna Tradición, one of the only ensembles in the United States that is dedicated to the performance of classic Cuban dance music: son, guaracha, cha cha cha, and especially the lilting grooves of the danzón.

1 Comment »