When we dance as if no one is watching, wouldnt it be great if we could do it as well as Alessandra Quaglia is doing behind the bar at Provence Mediterranean restaurant?
In between making a latte for a visiting reporter, shes explaining what it is she loves about salsa dancing.
You just get to feel your hips and go to the rhythm of the music, she says as her hips and shoulders start swaying to some song shes hearing in her head. Her eyes sparkle with the memory of being on the dance floor, her voice gets softer, more dreamy, her feet are propelling her forward and back. You can walk down the street like this her hips are doing a little sassy sashay but you dont get to release the feminine energy of Latin street music.
She pauses as the milk steams. In her usual day, as the co-owner of two busy restaurants with her husband Jean-Francis and mother of two teenaged boys, shes always organizing things, making sure things happen and get done. I get on the dance floor and for three minutes of each song, I dont have to make any decisions. The man is leading me, I can be sexy and feminine. For three minutes you surrender and follow. She laughs. Maybe a man would say, Yea, I get to take charge for once.
From March 7 to 10, shes helping to host the 麻豆传媒映画International Salsafestival, which will bring some of the top professionals and enthusiasts from around the world to the Westin Bayshore Resort Hotel. This is our fourth year and the excitement around it has exploded. People just love the festival. Its constant fun.
Sadly, this is also the festivals last year. We feel weve exhausted all of our great ideas so were going out with a bang.
Festival passes have already sold out but tickets to individual events are still available. The fun starts Thursday night with a Red Bull X party and competition, and continues Friday with an intense three-hour crash course followed by a World of Dance party. On Friday and Saturday there are a variety of dance classes and each night is capped with a performance and party that isnt scheduled to end until four the next morning. (Quaglia was recently at a salsa festival in San Francisco where they didnt turn off the music until 8am.)
Surprisingly, Quaglia didnt start salsa dancing until four years ago. An avid tap dancer, she and one of the staff members at Provence Mediterranean talked about trying something new. We didnt want to go to the regular clubs because I felt too old so she mentioned a salsa event at the Howard Johnson at Kingsway and 12th. Most salsa events start with an hour of lessons and even though she arrived wearing the wrong shoes for salsa you need shoes that allow you to spin and hers had rubber soles by the end of the evening she was hooked.
With some types of salsa, you find yourself with different partners throughout the dance and at one point in the evening, she was dancing with a man whod obviously done this many times before. Halfway through the dance he did this really slow dip she bends her head back and I thought Id died and gone to heaven. I thought, Where do I sign up?
She took private classes for two nights a week for six months and joined various dance groups. This will be the third year shes on the salsa festivals four-person organizing committee.
The festival is definitely for all levels, she says. We have all these people who can help you take your dancing to the next level. Its an incredible opportunity to have access to all this amazing talent.
To reserve a spot on the dance floor go to .
