dvd description
video type: demonstration & instruction
dance level: beginning - intermediate - advanced
78 Minutes
filmed in Havana, Cuba
This is our latest DVD featuring salsa Cubana, better known in Cuba
as "casino". This title has four parts focusing on demonstrations
of salsa Cubana styling along with a section of dance instruction.
The stars of this project are ten dance couples who are a select
group of some of the hottest dancers from Havana. All the dance
couples are members of professional dance companies or dance teachers.
Part 1 - group dance
All the couples dance together in rueda de casino circle formation
and then split off and dance separately as couples. Live music by
"Chaguito Y Sus Timberos".
Part 2 - individual couples styling
Nine professional dancers demonstrate their personel dance styles
drawing from their own creativity as well as from traditional and
modern influences. The dance demonstrations are done at medium and
fast tempos.
Part 3 - featured dance couple
Two professional Cuban dancer-choreographers, now living live in
Europe, Luis "Nichito" Castillo (Paris) and
Yanet Fuentes Torres (London), demonstrate their unique
salsa-casino style at fast and slow tempos along with their interpretation
of salsa-rumba. web
page of Luis "Nichito" Castillo web site of Yanet Fuentes Torres
Part 4 - salsa-casino dance instruction
Many people start dancing salsa with the idea of incorporating as
many complicated turns and steps as possible. This is the dance
sport - heavy on technique - forget listening to the music approach.
There is another way. In this section Lázaro Pedroso
and Tamara Toledo teach their "No Tricks Natural Method",
a simple and fun approach to dancing Cuban Salsa using dance movements
that everyone can do. Their method focuses on dancing to the music
using natural patterns and movements that can be strung together
to create exciting dance combinations.
Lázaro and Tamara's class covers:
• dance philosophy
• body position
• traveling using basic patterns you already know such as:
walking forward, walking backward, turns, walking to the side, inside
turn women, outside turn women, dile que no (cross body lead)
• the basic patterns in combinations
• the importance of preparation and momentum
• a dance demonstration using all these methods
The entire class instruction is in English spoken by Lázaro.
Lázaro and Tamara plus other
dancers featured in this video are available for dance classes in
Havana. Contact Boogalu for more information.
Price: $32.00
"An
excellent DVD - entertaining and enlightening, instructional and inspirational....
even within the realm of Cuban “salsa” this video vividly
shows the differences in styles."
Peter Robson
view movie clip
reviews of the dvd
Eric Wilkins - Oakland, California "This is by far the best picture and sound quality of
any previous Boogalu DVD's and the dancers are just as great as before.
I especially liked the dance performances of Nichito and Yanet. The dance
lesson by Lázaro and Tamara was superb. They are right on the money
when they say that most beginners focus too much on learning complicated
moves and not enough on the basics of dancing."
Peter Robson -Salsasimplemente.spaces.live.com
"An excellent DVD - entertaining and enlightening, instructional and
inspirational.
I always tell my pupils that there is no such thing as A salsa, or THE salsa.
And even within the realm of Cuban “salsa” this video vividly
shows the differences in styles.
My first reaction on realising that the same piece of music was being used
for all the couples dancing was not good. But I completely changed my opinion.
The music itself is an excellent choice, starting slowly and gently, its
pace quickens and even includes a little timbales break allowing the dancers
another opportunity for self expression. But apart from minimising the production
costs, using the same piece of music was a masterstroke, showing how the
same piece of music can be interpreted in different ways by the dancers,
dancing both on-1 and contra-tiempo, and including rumba and improvisation.
Brilliant.
There is so much to commend this video it is hard to know where to start.
I thought that the class (segment) was very useful. Both a very good reminder
of salient points for experienced dancers and excellent tuition for novices.
The DVD has helped me by encouraging me to improvise more and include small,
but albeit important, elements of rumba and footwork to add colour and flavour
to the dance.
Favourite dancers? Having been fortunate enough to have taken classes with
some of the dancers in Cuba I am a little biased. But I can’t say
I have a favourite, they are all great to watch: the extrovert Bustamente,
ever the showman; the fabulous footwork of Roynet, the subtlety of Ranses
– I just keep watching them all!!".
Johan Haegeman - Aalst, Belgium
"I am an amateur Cuban Salsa dancer (13 years) and musician. So when
I played your latest Casinando DVD for the first time I switched immediately
to the demos of the professional couples, in search for something new. Nice
work, clear recording. I did not watch part four (salsa-casino dance instruction)
as I was not interested in ‘yet another instruction of the basics’.
Weeks later, having nothing else to do, I selected it on the menu. It was
a VERY pleasant surprise.
This is the best and most accurate explanation of Casino in a few minutes
I have ever seen. By accurate I mean: capturing the essence of how Cubans
express their unique rhythmic feeling. If you had some Cuban Salsa lessons
and wonder why those Cubans on video look different and so much better,
don’t think its only a matter of practice. Compare carefully what
you have learned with what the teacher Lazaro Pedroso says. Maybe you will
discover that you learned some modified version of Casino, often taught
to non-Cubans. Part four of this DVD alone makes it worth buying. It can
save you months of dancing practice."
Richard
"My big essential issue about everybody who looks at Cuban dance from
outside, is they miss the point. They go in looking for: 1) "moves"
to fit in a syllabus - useable by dance schools with floors, footwear, mirrors
2) expert instructors who "know the material" in some sense and
pass it down to students in measured doses by teaching sequential foot placements...
including lessons in how to "remember to smile"... in packages
of steps and levels... that cost a certain amount of money. You get the
idea.
It's all completely wrong... compared to how it is really lived in Cuba.
Dancing is part of the culture, passed on between equals, everything is
individualized. Never is dance disconnected from music and interpersonal
communication.. Outside Cuba, it's learnd exactly like acrobatics. Experts,
not peers. Drill, not parties. Dramatics and spectacle, not sabor. Wow the
audience, not surprise and delight the partner. Repitition, not improvisation
and responsiveness.
Cubanas will tell you they'd far rather dance with somebody with good feeling
than somebody that knows lots of moves. The culture outside has no understanding
of what that might mean. Ultimately, all the dance "experts" outside
think what we do, is "improve" on the Cuban thing. There is no
awareness of what is lost. But all that is really significant is ultimately,
discarded.
SO... I liked the different feeling-based, not "move" based, approach
that made up part of the Casinando DVD. It does something towards conveying
what is lost in our 1st world "improvements". Generally I enjoyed
the DVD. Even the stuff based on "here's another move" is good
and useful when it's done by Cubans, because it still shows they do it naturally,
even as much as we try to commoditize it ! "
Fabio - SalsaIsGood.com
Boogalu Productions deserves a special place in the salsa community for
having regularly brought to us a portrait of Cuban music and dance which
is as faithful as it is instructive: while you can get a feel for NY and
LA salsa even without travelling to either city (thanks to international
congresses, instructional DVDs, local artists and YouTube), Cuba and its
dance are another cup of tea, something you can breath only locally. Boogalu
Productions is the closest you can get to it without travelling to Cuba
and to some extent it even delivers aspects that you may find hard to access
by travelling there.
As the name suggest this DVD is about salsa casino style and is divided
into 3 parts. In the first part a number of couples first perform together
a rueda routine and then each dances separately to the same piece of music.
The choice of the music is a particularly clever one, including a Guaguanco
introduction, followed by a son/salsa session which breaks into a rhythmic
session and a faster finale. This structure allows us to analyse how each
couple interprets the different parts of the song. Here you have several
models to tickle your inspiration: from very young to more senior dancers,
from very black to very white, from tall to short, from very energetic to
more stylish. There is no instruction here, so you need to watch and get
inspired or use your remote control to explore the details.
The second part is dedicated to the couple who I believe justly deserve
the closest attention and presents a simple but very elegant casino style
demonstration. Here we are offered a close view of the details of both the
footwork and body work.
Finally, the third part contains actual instruction of basic elements of
casino style. It also offers some philosophy of dancing: the teachers suggest
that we should bring our own styling into our dancing; this is so different
from the accepted view in NY and LA style salsa, which is to learn style
by imitating the latest star in fashion. The teaching does not go too deep
into this philosophy unfortunately, but covers basic steps, simple turns,
and movement on the dance floor and concludes with a further demonstrations
which includes all the elements taught.
