DANZA-BOXEO
THE MEDINA METHOD OF CUBAN SALSA
INSPIRED BY BOXING FUNDAMENTALS
dvd description
video type: dance demonstration & instruction
dance level: intermediate - advanced
time: 90 minutes
genre: Cuban salsa-casino
film location: La Isla De Juventud, Cuba
Dancing inspired by boxing may seem an odd combination, but
not so in Cuba where boxing is huge and dancing the national pastime.
Young Cuban boxers are trained to be high
powered dancers because the most effective winning strategy in boxing
is mastering dance moves and body rhythm to avoid being punched
by your opponent.
Geodanis Medina is a gifted Cuban boxer who after years of
thought, experimentation, and hard work, has integrated his two
great passions, boxing and salsa. Drawing from his extensive training
in boxing, he has developed a unique system of dance that has it's
own philosophy, technique, style, and beauty.
Medina's core philosophy:
"Dance from the ground up".
This DVD is for men and women who want to take their salsa-casino
dancing and footwork to the next level - solid in the basics, fluid,
complex, fast, refined, and super Cubano.
Accompanying Medina is his dance partner Yolaidis Pérez.
Part I
Dance Demonstration with Medina and Yolaidis
Part II
The Medina Method of Cuban-Salsa
Training Exercises and Routines - 24 segments
• basic steps and leads distinctive to the Medina method
• stepping practice
• developing diagonal action of feet & torso
• steps & turns with partner
• high speed foot patterns including steps inspired by mambo,
chachacha, also cross and explosivo
• desplazamiento - changing direction on the dance floor
• hand positions with partner
• dancing with partner using all the elements
Part III
Special Features
• in depth interview with Medina
• Medina shadow boxing and solo dancing
• Medina dancing rumba with his folklore group
• Medina and Yolaidis dancing on the patio
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Fabio
Boschetti - Salsaisgood.com
I think there are roughly 3 reasons why we like to watch dance
DVDs. One is to learn of course, the other one is to admire top quality
dancers and third is to see what is around and hopefully to discover some
talented and unusual dancer, someone with a style or a trick which we would
not come across otherwise. This DVD belongs to the latter group: the unusual
bit comes from a dancer with a background in Boxing, in actual fact a boxing
coach and the talent, the dancing talent, is there as well.
The DVD is about importing the footwork typical of boxing technique into
salsa. If boxing is too rough for you to watch, you may want to know that
boxing footwork requires small, quick steps, agility and lightness: you
need to be in constant motion in order to move quickly out of the way of
the attacker or to attack. Translate this into salsa, and you have a dancer
improvising rich and fast footwork, with occasional double steps and sharp
empathic accentuation of the music. Since the dancer moves around the dance
floor a lot this suits Cuban style best. This results in fairly simple partner
work, but much more freedom for the individual to express and interpret
the music... this is what we all want right?
If you think it is hard to visualize, the very first clip of the DVD clears
the mystery. In the demo Medina (the boxer-dancer) shows the best of his
repertoire, which looks like a mixture of casino style, rumba, moonwalk
and shuffling, all very sharp, very precise and very rhythmic.
The rest of the DVD is simple but cleverly organised: the footwork is broken
down from simple elements to more complex and for each footwork pattern
there is a front view to see what it is about, a back view to practise with
and extensive demonstration on how to incorporate it within dance partner
work.
Novel DVDs are rarer and rarer and this one is a very welcome exception
in a salsa community which is becoming more and more fossilised into pre-packed,
ready-made styles.
Enrico Brunori
I really liked this DVD. For me it is very good, good explanations,
rear view, and most important lots of exercises!! This is the way to learn
dancing, coreographies mean nothing, you have to repeat the basic movements
hundreds of times and then when your are dancing everything comes out natuarally.
Of course this video is for people with a good knowledge of rhythm, on beat
and off beat, all the Medina's steps are on both beat and off beat, that
is why he teaches to catch the rhythm on the tip or flat foot.
I think the way Medina dances, putting chachacha and mambo
steps into casino, is the way Cubans dance now, or let's say that a dancer
that has a great knowledge of floklore, rumba, chachacha, mambo etc.etc
like Medina is always modern in Cuba!
Lance Lu
I found “Danza Boxeo” to be new and refreshing,
and I believe Medina’s blending of boxing and casino footwork to be
valid. His dance style incorporates elements of folkloric Cuban dance, thus
giving it a very distinct Cuban flavor. As a dance teacher, I could analyze
and figure out the material, but the method of “monkey see, monkey
do” may not work for others less experienced in dance. The various
camera angles were very helpful, as were the demonstrations.
The Medina Story
by Assistant Producer and Student of Medina
Ben Breitinger
see
Ben's videos of dancing in the Medina style
Medina, known in his town as "El Medico de La Salsa"
is an inspirational coach and mentor. What is most amazing about him, besides
the fact that he coaches for the Cuban U-14 boxing team, is that he has
invented a style of casino which is totally unique. It blends salsa and
boxing in a raw, explosive, and refined way.
Medina gets up every day at the crack of dawn to train with his kids a la
Rocky. Around 9, he takes a nap. By 11, he is at the gym where he gives
private classes or just hangs out. The gym has no AC and the punching bags
are from the early 90's. The older boxers like to workout to reggaeton.
Medina tells me that to Cuban boxers there is no difference between boxing
and salsa. Indeed the best boxers in the world have always had the best
footwork - just like the best dancers.
Medina's entry-level and intermediate classes focus on footwork. Medina
says, "you dance from the ground up". Drills include inserting
a chachacha into casino or throwing in a contra-tiempo mambo step. It is
rare to find a teacher like Medina, of a"street craft" like casino
who teaches from a lesson plan and who has his own regimented methodology.
His master level classes focus on improvisation and improving foot speed.
The classes are hard. At the end of a Medina class, everyone is sweating
(including him).
At night, people gather in La Isla's main street called "39".
Usually someone will be blasting an ancient boom box with Los Van Van or
Manolito. Depending on how much rum he has had, Medina will be seen dancing
rumba colombia, reggaeton, or chango. A true callejero, he never turns down
the opportunity to dance with 2 or 3 ladies at the same time.
The Back Story
Ben Breitinger and his dance partner Ru Dawley-Carr live in Madison,
Wisconsin, and are dance students of Medina having traveled to La Isla De
Juventud numerous times to study with him. This DVD project was a joint
effort of Boogalu Productions and Ben and Ru to document their remarkable
teacher and to make his contribution to Cuban dance available to the World.
Without their help and guidance this project would not have been possible.
Ben and Ru teach Medina style salsa in Madison. For more information on
studying with Medina or Ben and Ru
email: bbreitinger(at)yahoo.com or rdawleycarr(at)yahoo.com
class information
Boxing In Cuba
Boxing, a sport in which two individuals face each other in a square "ring"
to do battle with their gloved fists, is said to be a "team sport"
in Cuba, and it is the sport in which the island has taken home the most
medals. It's not an exaggeration to say that Cubans have dominated international
amateur boxing, winning more Olympic gold medals in men's competition than
anyone else.
"No athlete in the world lives in a place more dedicated to discovering,
nurturing and celebrating great athletes", wrote S.L. Price in his
book "Pitching Around Fidel". "If you are a dirt-poor, ten-year-old
phenom buried somewhere in Cuba's deepest backwater, you will be found.
You will win. You will be a national hero."
Teófilo Stevenson, a heavyweight with 3 Olympic gold medals, shared
his views when a match between him and Muhammad Ali was being planned in
the late 1970s. "What's a million dollars," he asked, "compared
to five million Cubans who love me?" A similar story is told about
a $10 million offer from Don King to have Felix Savón fight Mike
Tyson. Neither fight ever took place. From The
History of Cuban Boxing |
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