First Professional Development Day at UK Salsa Congress on 12th October 2007
Written by Lindsey
Thursday, 25 October 2007
This was the first Development Day to be held at Congress and was chaired by Paul Young, salsa promoter and organiser of the UK Salsa Congress. It provided the opportunity to hear first-hand from some of the world’s leading artists in this industry, offering chances to meet, ask questions, network and to joint venture with other teachers, dancers and promoters.
Delegates learned about their colleague’s business strategies, successes and mistakes. The day was an invaluable chance to meet like-minded people and draw from their experiences and on their business acumen in order to further their own development.
There were 5 seminars in total, the first was led by Mike Bello, an LA mambo instructor who heavily emphasizes hearing the rhythm of the clave and tumbao in the music and holds regular workshops on these subjects.
The workshop was interactive and de-mystified musical interpretation, giving greater understanding of the clave and its relationship to the music and the dance. It outlined major rhythm patterns of salsa music instrumentation and its relationship to mambo through the clave. It also explained what happens musically when the clave change occurs and the differences between forward clave and reverse clave.
The second seminar was entitled Running a Successful Dance School. It was a fantastic opportunity to learn from successful salsa teachers like Dessy Ohanians, Irene Miguel and Jamie Jesus and to see how they have achieved their success, albeit in different models. The topics covered included how they set up and structured their dance schools, a debate on dance studio vs club scenario and on courses vs drop ins, creating a successful teaching model and how they financially structured their dance schools.
I was impressed by their candour and openness and their sheer willingness to share their experiences and give advice in order to help others in this industry achieve greater success. Sadly, this workshop ran out of time and we didn’t get to cover 2 of the proposed topics on the agenda which were how to recruit and keep great teachers and what the biggest challenges in running a dance studio are. Paul Young adhered to the strict timing schedule that had been laid down for the day’s events.
The third seminar was entitled How to choreograph great shows and make it big. Guest speakers were Burju and Victor (Hacha y Machete), Eric Llalta and partner (Salsa Dance Squad) and Jamie Jesus (Latin Dance, Australia). This session looked at where to begin when wanting to choreograph routines, the secrets behind great choreography and asked if you have what it takes to achieve this. It also dealt with finding the right partner and team members. All involved were open and frank about the highs and lows in creating their shows. Insight was given as to whether it is the idea or the music that comes first, and the ideal structure for a great show. The topic of performing shows for congresses and competitions was also touched on which was interesting and informative but again, sadly, was curtailed by the timing constraints placed upon the day.
The penultimate session of the day was with Edie the Salsa Freak and Tony Lara and was entitled “The secrets of teaching and performing on the congress world circuit”. This session looked at how and where they started, how they moved from there to the next level up and how they both achieved their goals in the salsa world and more importantly how they have managed to stay on top over a prolonged period of time. This forum gave advice on how to stand out from the crowd, how to successfully market and promote and how to make it on your own without a salsa partner, it also looked at the major challenges and the highs and lows in travelling around the world and drew on their personal experiences. Both Edie and Tony gave the delegates food for thought - as well as causing much laughter with their related experiences and frank answers to the delegates’ questions.
The last session of the day was hosted by Diego Berea (organiser of Salsorro 2008 Salsa Festival in Spain), Stefan Elekov (organiser of the Bulgaria Salsa Festival) and Birmingham’s own Mauricio Reyes of Latin Motion. This seminar dealt with how to organise successful events, examining different marketing strategies and what has worked well for each of them and highlighted key ingredients from finding the right venue, investing in their teams to putting processes in place so that events run like clockwork.
Having spoken to other delegates who attended, suggestions for improvements included better control of temperature within the conference room used (at times it was very chilly) and provision of refreshments in the room itself rather than having delegates queuing downstairs in the café during the break and coming back to the room after seminars had commenced.
Delegates were able to choose whether they wanted to attend all 5 seminars or they could elect to attend any 2 sessions of their choice, thus providing the opportunity to tailor the day to suit the individual’s own requirements. Several delegates commented favourably on the discounted “early bird” price on-line for those who booked their places in advance.
The overall feedback gained from delegates was positive although the overwhelming consensus of opinion was that more time would have been liked for each session, as an hour simply wasn’t enough! Here’s looking forward to the next Development Day.
