Prague Latino Festival 18-20 May 2012

TwoLeftFeet said:

Its true I bailed! Shame on me! we will dance soon though I hope!

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z_zapper said:

Sounds good, LG! I look forward to meeting and dancing .

(Are you going to be there all three nights? I may just come in for Saturday/Sunday.)

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londongirl said:

June 24th, SOS??

There is this on the Saturday 23rd, might make a trip down more worth it? (sadly I cannot make this too though)
www.facebook.com/events/369725413078820/

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• This was a congress of two halves.
• Everyone seemed to be in agreement that the workshops were amazing; great teachers, inspiring and very varied and different to the norm for most congresses .
• But the parties were not so hot, especially the Saturday party which was terrible.

• http://www.praguelatinofestival.cz/en/prague-latino-2012/workshop-program.html
• I thought this was put together by someone with imagination and a passion for the dance, the music, history and great teaching.
• There was something for everyone, but also lots of options other than just partnerwork.
• I liked that there were multiple classes from the same teachers; personally I like the fewer but better approach to a line-up.
• The idea of having musical theory classes was great.
• I tried rhumba, cuban chachacha and son for the first time, and loved them all

• Great organisation, clear info, quick processing, helpful and friendly.
• Free snack (donuts, cereal bars, fruit etc) each day, plus free coffee and tea – so lovely! Plus bar selling water, drinks and other snacks all day (cheap).
• Workshop rooms were mostly the right size with good floors, mics for teachers, and decent enough sound.
• Nice number of classes per day, I liked that they offered classes on Friday, and kept Sunday shorter and in the afternoon.

• Mauri (Amsterdam) – he knows how to play for a mixed crowd, great sets.
• Oz (UK) – some nice stuff, kept people dancing.
• N-Rike (?) – Cuban style. Did not know how to play for a mixed crowd. If I say he played that Yellow Submarine salsa version once on Friday and again on Sunday that should give you a pretty good idea about the type of DJ he is. Totally killed the dancing with his choices, even at times the Cuban dancers were not getting up.

• In the main hall of the workshop venue.
• Good space, nice floor, plenty of seating round edges.
• Lighting was not great, sometimes too dark, or rapid changes of colour making it hard to follow, also some flashing lights in eyes.
• Cheap drinks and snacks at the bar.
• Small number of shows so more dancing time. Party went on till 4.
• Stars were out dancing, I easily got all the dances I wanted.
• Dress code - white for linear, black for Cuban, red for Bachata meant it was easy to spot people to ask. This was a neat idea!

• The worst congress party I have ever been to. Also one of the worst salsa nights I have ever been to period. I have never been so happy to leave a salsa night before, I managed to stay till 2 but I should have left early as it was crap. I think it went on till gone 4 or 5 am.
• In a club (usually a disco) in a converted church.
• It was still open to the general public, and as was in the middle of the old town tourist drinking area, so drunk guys everywhere, trying to imitate the dancing sometimes crashing through people on the dance floor, and slopping beer onto the floor, inc dance floor, groups of tourists wandering across the dance floor with backpacks on!
• People smoking plus smoke machine making horrible atmosphere – I now have a bad cough.
• Flashing lights in eyes, stone floor, small space (half size of Friday).
• Lots of sofas and space around the edge, so local dancers spent a lot of time sitting and talking to their friends or people were hanging around the bar and was hard to tell who was a dancer or not.
• Didn't seem to be any new dancers I hadn't seen or danced with on Friday. Plus now, very hard to spot linear dances as no dress code like Friday.

• In a restaurant by the river, lovely venue, nice terrace outside.
• There was a grill and people had dinner and chatted before dancing (no shows).
• Two dance spaces, very chilled atmosphere, not so many people though, but a nice way to finish up.

• I thought the standard was pretty low, at least for linear, Cuban seemed much more popular and better.

• Workshops: 5/5
• Organisation: 4.5/5
• Parties overall: 1.5/5 (though I think the Cuban dancers probably had a much better time than the linear ones)
• Saturday party: minus10/5
• Value for money: 4.5/5

• I would go for the workshops, and probably skip the Saturday party and go out in the town instead.
  
• It was a cheap full-pass, about 80 euros at the time I bought it, and hotel accommodation, food and transport were all cheap (vs Western Europe) – so I thought value for money was good despite the parties.

• The majority of dancers danced Cuban style, so would fully recommend this congress for any Cuban dancer or people who dance Cuban and linear.
• Most of the pros were teaching several workshops, so if you are fans of a particular teacher, it’s great because you can take multiple classes from the same person.
• But, imo, do not go to this festival just for the parties if you are a linear dancer, you will be very disappointed. Unless you are a massive fan of one of the pros because due to low number of linear dancers present you will be able to get your dances with the ‘stars’ in easily (I do not think this is a good reason to go to a congress btw).