Martin Reye’s Birthday Celebration

On Friday night, Martin Reyes, owner of Salsa Havana celebrated his birthday with a party at Salsa Havana. Free flow of alcohol and food marked the start of the event and yes, I was there and I lost count on how many glasses of alcohol I drank before we even started dancing.

Thank God they stop the free flow of alcohol at 10pm. Anyway, it was a great party as tons of people showed up, danced the night away and celebrated the night away.

Near midnight, the crowd stopped dancing, the announcement was made and Martin has to blow his birthday candle.

As usual, there’s the customary birthday dance where Martin has to stand in the middle of the dance floor and dance with all the girls that showed up for the party.

Apart from the dance and food and all that’s nice, we also have Martin and his band performing for the crowd! Live music of Salsa, Bachata and Merenggue for the crowd to dance to and dance we did.

Another thing I almost left out, Fasilito and Patricia gave the crowd an awesome performance as a present to Martin. Both master dancers that showed why they are one of the best in Malaysia.

At the end of the day, I was freaking tired and I had to go for another event 4hours after this party ended. You can see the rest of the photographs here.

Salsa Havana - 70s Salsa Party

The recent Saturday was a blast in a way, it's been a long while since I step into a Salsa club and finally got back to Salsa Havana and it felt good. Loads of familiar faces and guess what? People still remembers me! LOL.

The first person who greeted me other than the bouncers was Martin himself, coming out from the Deejay console just to have a quick chat with me and ask me why I've dissappeared! Well, sorry dude... work and lack of practice, am shy to dance and screw up on the dance floor.

As it was the last saturday of the month, Ritmo Latino had the theme set to the 70s Salsa Party, so everyone's supposed to come dressed in their best 70s look... except for yours truly. Yeah, I didn't know there's a theme as it was a last minute thing. But heck, it was still good.

It's been so long since I last dance that I actually felt tired on Sunday morning. LOL... coupled with the fact that I've to go for a football match that morning. It wasn't a pretty sight looking at myself on the pitch... but that's another story.

Later into the night, Martin played the Maghalena song and I got pulled onto the dance floor to start the Maghalena dance. Quite funny that quite a number of the salsa dancers didn't know this dance when it has been around for ages. And then, there was the drinking... yup.. the night's never complete without some alcohol...

Oh yeah... we celebrated Camellia's birthday then too.. so Happy Birthday to you Camellia.... for more photos, go here!

It's been awhile...

It's been awhile since I last put on a dancing shoe. Between the last time I went to the clubs to dance and my recent dance at QBa, it's been almost 2 months. It felt like ages to me as frankly I've forgotten quite a few moves, even though these are my favorite moves. Terrible ain't it?

One thing I realized since I started dancing salsa is that, when I go to the normal clubs, it looked weird to me to see these bunch of people, especially guys just standing there moving their upper body slightly and said they are dancing. LOL... maybe because I think I can dance better than them?

The Malaysian Salsa Marathon 2007 - The Aftermath

1 day after the Malaysian Salsa Marathon and I am still tired, my legs felt like it has competed in the Boston Marathon. The Malaysia Salsa Marathon, 14 hours of non stop Salsa Dancing on the dance floor. Truly a Malaysia Boleh feat that was accomplished by a bunch of fanatics.

MiSsMyNx and I stepped into the venue at 8 with the crowd all raring to go but were not allowed to step onto the dance floor yet. At 10.30, the clock was show on the projector and with the speeches over with, the dancers stepped onto the dance floor to get ready, and with 14.00.00 shown, the music started and the dancers danced for their life!

The first dance I had was with MiSsMyNx and as you can see, still fresh and hyper. My clothes are still dry too!

With 7 hours to go, the crowd was still going strong but casulties can also be seen with some participants sitting down to rub down their legs.

As for me, I'm still going strong. As you can see from the picture, I've changed my clothes! Yup, 3rd set of shirt to ensure comfort.

3 hours left and the crowd has thinned considerably as some of the dancers decide to take a quick shut eyes. Hardcore dancers can still be spotted on the dance floor.

I'm still there dancing away, and this time, with my 4th change of clothes. Eye bags start to show on some of the dancers and grumpiness sets in for those who never danced so long before.

An hour more to go! All the dancers are getting fired up again as they see the finishing line in sight. The atmosphere starts to build up again and all thoughts of weariness are put aside.

With the clock ticking down, cam-whoring was not left out as all the dancers wants to have this memorable moment on print. Yours truly didn't want to miss out on that too! and Yes, I might always be behind the camera but occasionally I'd like to appear in front of the camera as well.

With 5 minute on the clock, I took to the dance floor for the final dance with MiSsMyNx and with the final 10seconds being counted down (While we danced), The crowd cheered, Mission Accomplished! The deed has been accomplished! And certificates was handed out.

And I have my certificate to proof that I've done it! Now, I need to go rest my legs...

Oh yeah... pictures! It's never complete for me if i don't put up pictures of the event I attended and you can this one here!

Malaysia Salsa Marathon 2007 - an hour later

Just reached home from the Malaysia Salsa Marathon held at Impiana Hotel.

It was a tiring 14hours of non-stop salsa dancing but this feat has been achieved.

The certificate to proof it is here. Now, I need to get some much deserved sleep and rest my tired legs. I'll post up the pictures and my experience once I'm nice and ready. In the meantime, for those of you who didn't go for it.... you've just missed out on a piece of Malaysian History.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz.....................

Tuesday @ SalsaJay

Jeamie (instructor) leading the new students in the basic footwork

Over the last 3 weeks, SalsaJay has merged the previous batch of Tuesday 8pm students with the 9pm students thus freeing the 8pm slot for people who would like to come in and give it a try aka newbies.

New Students having a go at the footwork

I decided to drop by after work as I have some time to spare before heading back to the office again and so witness the birth of a new group of students taking shape.

Leading the beginners in the 1st Set of Footwork.

Reflecting back as well, it felt just like yesterday when I first took my first step in salsa way back in December and I can say that even though I'm no expert, yet, I have come a long long way from having two left feet on the dance floor to being able to strutt my stuff.

Of course, looking at the progress of the 9pm's group also impresses me as it was only 2 months ago that most of the students started learning and now, they have started going into doing group footwork as well as more complex moves.

Imagine 3 months down the line and how far these guys would progress! More pictures over here!

Salsa Cabana

Thursday night, got off work quite late into the night and head over to Salsa Cabana with Ru Yee. The occasion? To celebrate the birthdays of 4 August babies. Of course, the whole thing is a big surprise as the email circulated indicate that the occasion was to have a last party before the Malaysian Salsa Festival.

The Birthday Cake

Did the Surprise went off successfully? I believe it has as even one of the birthday girl thought that she was here to celebrate the birthday of another person. Anyway, Salsa Cabana has been operating at Coco Lounge in Sunway Club for about a month now. As the Lounge is located at a club, in term of parking space and security, it is good. The August Babies are Jac and Reuben, Lena and Adrienne. Happy Birthday you four!

The Birthday Girls (R-L): Lena & Adrienne

The space within the lounge is good as they have 2 area for people to gather. The main dance floor at the main room that you see as you enter the place and a pool area with 4 pool tables and places to seat. The drinkers got themselves seated in that area for most of the night while the dancers took over the dance floor. Crowd turn out for the night was good as there are alot of dancers on the dance floor whenever the music is playing.

The Birthday Boys (R-L): Jac & Reuben

Music wise, the choice of songs can be improved as there are several songs that is nice to listen to but isn't danceable. Also, the deejay don't have to introduce songs as it killed the mood several times through the night where the momentum just drizzled out as instead of heading into the next song, the deejay start talking. So hopefully Tim could do away with the talking and just keep the music flowing.

Did I enjoy the night? Yes I did, it was a great stress reliever for me as the whole week has been hectic for me. As usual, I got my hands on a camera and snap quite a few photographs which you can view here.

Mrs. Lebosse's Birthday

Friday night, we celebrated Zai aka Mrs. Lebosse's birthday by holding a Surprise Birthday party for her at Salsa Havana.

Must say that the organizers did a fine job in getting all the arrangement done with the cake specially made for her. The poem on the cake was written by Jacque himself for this special occasion. Now, what went on that night?

Stephanie and I along with Val went into Salsa Havana around 9.30pm to a quiet place, with only Derek and his ladies as well as Greg around to keep us entertained. Now, as the weekend is also the weekend of the Latin Congress in Port Dickson, 90% of the Salseras and Salseros of the Klang Valley is out of town so leaving Salsa Havana for us to be utilized to the max. With the congress being held elsewhere, one of the thing that went along with Martin (the owner of Salsa Havana) is his huge collection of Latin songs. After doing a quick check on the CDs that is left, I told Greg that, "We better get more CDs in as there's not enough songs to go around or the crowd's going to start hearing repeats of songs over and over again throughout the night."

One thing to note, Deejay Xavier and Martin wasn't around, so Greg as well as some of the staff who knew me told me to take to the Decks and do what I can with the CDs I got. So this is one of the rare nights in Salsa Havana that I didn't dance a lot as I spend 70% of the time behind the Deejay console getting the songs cued and played depending on the crowd's mood. To the people who was there that night and didn't like some of the song selection I came up with, all I can say is ... I'm sorry, I can only play with songs that is available to me at that time, if I knew in advance that there's no deejays and not songs to play, I'd have brought more of my collection to be played there.

Around 11ish, in walks Mr. and Mrs. Lebosse and the guys start to reel Zai to the center of the dance floor with her not knowing what is going on. So with a loud Happy Birthday and a song, she finally realized that we were all there to celebrate her birthday. During her speech, she mentioned that she thought she was there for someone else's birthday! So Jacque, you did well to pull it off. Up til the final minute she still didn't know it was her birthday party. So with the cake cutting done with, the Must Have dance with the birthday girl was next, with Jacque having the first dance with her and all the other hungry wolves guys lining up to have a dance with her as well. 12min 34sec was the time it took Zai to dance with all the men in the club with the final dance being a show-piece of showmanship between JamesQ and Jacque battling it out to get be the last man dancing with Zai.

The dance floor opens up again after that with people dancing the night away until 2am and one by one, couple by couple, the crowd start to thin as people with tired legs start to head on home. I played the last song at 2pm and had my last dance of the night with Zai before packing up and heading home. Tired, legs aching but I had fun. For the people who has not seen me spin before, I hope you guys enjoyed the songs and yes, I don't like to speak on the mic when I'm deejaying. I rather let the music speak to the crowd and watch people dance to the music I play.

Salsa 101 @ KL Hilton

I am suspecting the 101 in the Salsa 101, is representing the number of hours you'd be spending in bed trying to recover from your sore leg, after the event.

The whole event was amazing! For a person who has never attended a Salsa Festival or Latin Congress, this first time experience was a real eye-opener. Arriving KL Hilton at 5.30pm, met up with the rest of the SalsaJayers at the registration counter, collected our goodie bags consisting T-shirts, pamphlets, a small bottle of sampled perfume (tried it on Rueben) and some drink coupons. The next task after registering is to find a 'camping spot' to keep our bags.

A good 15 minutes later and we heard Gupson (Attitude Dance) announcing over the sound system that the first workshop was about to begin. The first workshop taught us body isolations and styling. Boy, we got down "dirtayyy" and "naughtayyy" (Our fellow english salsaman would be delighted to show you how ...), it was a good laugh with him telling us the best way to remember the sequence ... "Just make loads of grunting sounds like these ... UHHHH... AHHHH..... OOOH.... wasn't so hard, was it?"

Patricia from Ritmo Latino KL was up next and taught us the Casino Rueda on Salsa Timba. She mentioned the word "SETEH" (not sure if I recalled it correctly) meaning Seven and Coca Cola. Unfortunately I can't really remember the sequence.

The 3rd instructor was Salsa Sam who gave us tips on 3 sexy moves and a dip called Rumba Wena. Among the 3 moves, my favorites were the 2nd and the 3rd (this also means I forgot the 1st...). In the 2nd move, you wrap your hands around the lady while the 3rd is to get the girl to caress you while both if you go around in a circle. And the last thing he shared was the Slow Dip.

At the end of the workshop, the played a movie about the birth of Salsa ... from Son to Salsa ... and eventually it was dinner time. We went to KFC ... excellent choice with excellent selection of food. Bon Appétit !

By 9.20pm we're already back at the ballroom, dancing shoes back on and hitting the dance floor to DANCE! Oh yeah ... all SalsaJayers take note. You might appear on Channel [V] as the crews were trailing us all night long .. from the workshops to the dance floor. (Eddy from Channel [V] ... thanks for your coverage).

There were also dance competitions in the mix with 3 couples performing with each performing a number with their own dance partner and another number with a different dance partner. The winning prizes were given to the best individual male and female dancers. At the party, we also managed to watch performances by Gavin and Sally as well as Gupson and Patricia. The crowds were practically cheering their heart out at the couples. Besides these couples, Fahmy and gang also performed a Casino Rueda piece which was excellent !

After 6 glasses of Mojito (double shots), 2 Perriers later and countless number of dance, we ended the night on a high at 3am by heading off to the mamak for some drinks. With this over, there's the Latin Congress and MSF coming up. For those that has attended this Salsa101 and is going for the Congress or MSF for the first time, well, imagine, you'd be doing this same thing over and over again for a few nights and yes, the next day, your legs will feel like it has run 3 ironman events back to back and you just want to stay in bed the next one week. I can't wait to do this again. :D

Salsa 101 was an eye opener for me in terms of experience (as well as a great night for me as I met up with quite a number of my ex colleagues from ASTRO as well as from my freelance TV days)