My Interviews - Salsa Dance Teachers

Super Mario - Million Moves Man.

The interview was conducted  at his base in London in October 2012.

I started dancing Salsa socially in 2000 and Mario was one of my first teacher’s.  Mario has a degree in Mathematics but decided to teach Salsa in 1998.  He has an impressive Biography, listing numerous awards to his contribution to promoting Salsa world wide, best UK teacher and more titles.  

Super Mario's web site Salsa 4 Fun

Bar Salsa teaching venue

Mario has taught in more than 70 countries and continues to travel abroad almost every weekend to teach Salsa. 
He teaches cross body style (New York) which is in a ballroom hold starting on beat 1 and 2.

What strikes me about his teaching is the ease in which he teaches the men's to lead.  He has an excellent grasp of the leading technique for social dancing. With no previous dancing or teaching background he is able to produce and execute so many imaginative moves and unique combinations. 

My observation as his assistant  dance partner confirms his affirmation to teach the basic fundamental steps of New York style Salsa.  His main objectives for teaching Salsa are;

• to promote and develop the social interaction through the fun element
• develop the practitioners style by encouraging them to experience and explore other Salsa dance styles, thus promoting fusion.

Mario constantly evaluates his own teaching.  He injects new found music into his club from his travels.

Mario is a seasoned interviewee and was a great respondent and we concluded the interview promptly. 

Mario the DJ, talks about what type of music he likes and plays and why,  the importance of the influence the music is to the dance in the London circuits, fusion in music, competition amongst the DJ’s and his concerns for the type of music that may be played in the future in connection with Salsa.

Mario has stated that a very small number of practitioners in the UK are not interested in knowing about the traditional dance but in his travels internationally there are Q & A sessions after every class where practitioners ask about the origins of the dance.

Marchant and Davina Birch -  Alchemy Dance Academy

The interview was conducted at their base in Winchester on 8th September 2012

Marchant is from CapeTown South Africa with a formal Ballroom dance background. 

Davina is from the UK with a dance background in ballet, jazz and tap and teaching qualifications from the ISTD.

Alchemy Dance Academy

Interview with Merchant & Davina in Salsa Mag

Together they have developed an almost unique jazz style of Salsa with a specific teaching programme at all levels from novices to performing style.  They have continued  in their endeavor to combine their individual styles. They each transfer and fuse one other’s style. Marchant is an expert in partner dancing and leading and Davina had to learn this methodology.

They are both experts and understand the history and culture with considerable knowledge of Latin Dance as well as their own dance backgrounds.  Some interesting points raised;

• ‘imitating’ one dance and another does not mean this is fusion.
• Marchant acquired the knowledge of the foundation Salsa steps known as Cape Jazz in Africa.  
• He grew up in Africa encompassing the rawness of the culture and music, plus his personality and dance expression produces a unique Alchemy Salsa dance style    
• Davina points out no one culture can claim ownership of salsa, it’s a sauce, a mixture. 
• It’s important to have absolute expertise and knowledge in the field to be able to fuse the dance styles 

They have both embraced this new style and they are focused on their objective and persist with the original foundation steps.  They are aware more trained dancers are getting involved in the Salsa scene and are diluting the traditional style by fusing their own background conditioning to a point that it has become a performance dance with more and more acrobatic moves and tricks. It has become evident in most cases these dancers lose the essence of Salsa as a social dance.  My observations in the UK show a broad split in Afro Cuban traditional dances compared to those in Cuba but with emerging professional dancers in Cuba fusing Afro Cuban 

I’ve become proficient at setting up the video equipment with ease and with preparations made the day before which include charging the battery, making sure of enough space on the SD storage card and a packed video tripod.

My interviews average three quarters of an hour because I was aware of the specialists teacher’s time.

The interviewee commented on enjoying the experience of my interview and found the questions interesting and enjoyed the discussion.  I have permission to quote them in my critical review. 

As I analysed my interviews I became aware that my interview technique could be much improved by;

• remembering the questions 
• remembering the order of the questions and looking less at my list of questions
• better articulation of questions
• not expressing my opinions 
• less fidgeting  

The interviews revealed teacher’s thoughts and expert knowledge.  Recording interviews for this project has been an important learning tool for me.  It has allowed me a deeper insight thus giving me a richer view of current expectations, participants likes and dislikes in various hub areas of the UK.

What has emerged from these two interviews is that both Salsa styles are contributing to a new style of dance and the original traditional style has been modernised with no evidence that the roots of Afro Cuban culture being offered as a subject of historical interest.
Both interviewees agree the effect of fusion today within their style of Salsa dance can be damaging to the traditional origins of Afro Cuban dance but they are adamant to keep the basic foundation step even though both interviewees express this to a different music style.

I have a further interview to analyse.