I have a severe problem....

P

peachexploration

There is no Salsa community in my area and I'm going completely bonkers! :headwall: Well, not the Salsa community I crave. There's an illusion of Salsa here (read rip off studio) as I just found out but I am a seasoned student (read studio hell and back) and know full well not to even go there for their sake. ;)

Although, I am contemplated moving again. (Shh, don't tell my mother :lol: ), I am tempted and inspired to build a community. I am by no means a teacher and reall don't want to be but I am good at organizing. Aside from the teaching, how would you go about doing it if you were in this situation?

Signed:
Lost and terribly ripped from Salsa Bliss a.k.a Peach :lol:
 
Hey Peach!

Just thought I'd give you an idea...

MOVE TO MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA! :D

Then you can join Chinita, myself and others... For such a small city (in world city terms), I think we have a pretty happening salsa scene with some reasonable teachers around...

;)

Mistertaz.
 
alright here is the scoop,

first thing find at least couple more people who are willing to work on this idea ( is time consuming and at times disheartening and you will need these other people to carry on when you need a break)

find a club that is in need of customers, or select a night that they are not busy, talk to the owner and offer to bring some people to their place of business if they play some salsa music, provide the music ( we pre burn the playlist and then we can let the cd run and put a new one every hour or so, 4 cds will be plenty for the night) offer to give a short class before the night starts

Make sure you get a couple of leads, so they will keep the ladies entertained during the night, provide training if need it.

talk to the local YMCA, Spa, and offer to give salsa classes.

check out the local ballroom, swing and other dance communities, some of them are interested on learning salsa, so go to their dances and make friends

find the local radio station that plays jazz or latin music, give them a call and ask them to announce the "latin salsa night"

encourage the people to buy drinks/water/soda and make a point to tell the club owner that you are doing that, that way the owner feels that you and her/him are in the same page "business wise"

We are a town of 30k people, with a local university and a few of us know people who are interested on partying, the first night we had some 20 people I think, 4 weeks later we had about 40 to 50 people, then school ended and we had only 6 people, we have climb to 10 to 20 nowadays

Dealing with the club owner can be a hassle, people complaining about the playlist is another, having to teach when you could be training yourself is right up there.

take pictures, setup a website, print flyers.

delegate responsibilities, marketing, playlist, classes, should not be done by a single person as it can be quite overwhelming

is rewarding but at times it can be stressful, I almost end up hating it because every Wednesday I would be freaking out that not enough people will show up to keep the nights going. Eventually I decided to take a break and lucky the other two people took over the helm, while I just supported their efforts.
 
Terremoto said:
That sounds like a lot of work! I had no idea :shock:
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Yes, and particularly if the Salsa community is almost non-existant. :? My area has no latin community whatsoever as it relates to Salsa. No latin radio stations, no latin venues and virtually no interest in even the music. It's all about hip-hop here so I'm starting almost completely from scratch.
 
yap that is how it was here too, luckily the radio of the university had 1 hour of Latin jazz, but i think the impact of them was very minimal in the development of our scene.

I lived here for 9 years and the only think I saw was hip hop, the fact that this is a university town help since that brings young people willing to try new things.

After opening our latin nights, now the main hip hop club is talking about adding salsa to their playlist, we will see what happens.

All this bring me to the main reason why we want to create a scene, at least in my case was, so I can dance. Creating a scene it seems, was probably the hardest way to accomplish this, I think now, if dancing is what you want, then train hard at home and travel to other cities once or a month and enjoy an established scene, and more important quality dancing. it gets quite old having to dance with all the beginners who will constitute 90% of your salsa scene at the beginning.

As a long term effort I think creating a salsa scene is worth doing it ( increase diversity, contribute to cultural awareness, bring dancing to the people, etc)
But to keep your salsa needs fulfilled you may need to find some other venues in the mean time.

Now days I continue to support our salsa scene here, but I always look forward to the weekends when I go out of town, get to a club and only worry about my timing
 
Yeah, I have a concept that I think might work but it going some time and money which is the main thorn in my side right not BUT I think it's doable including some of the items you've suggested. I am still contemplating moving so it's not carved in stone right now. Just need some ideas and inspiration to do whatever when the time comes. :D
 
The person who has really promoted salsa in our city conducts walk-in classes every Saturday. They are held at local arts organization center that allows the use of the room for 50% of the donations she receives each week. She advertises in the community activities section of the weekly shopper news. Inviting anyone interested in learning latin dance. The ad explicitly states that lessons are free, but a donation of $5 or so is gladly accepted. At the lessons, she emphasizes that a donation is not expected as she wants people to learn to dance salsa even if they have no money.

We get anywhere from 15-50 people there every week (except July & August when lessons are suspended). It runs 2 hrs with the 1st hour for learning the basic (including side, cumbia, L & R turns) and the 2d hour is for learning basic partnering techniques (including turns, cross-body, travelling turns, open breaks; a different one each week). She also has people sign up for an email list and I think she said she had 400 names on that (she's been doing it 2-3 years) and sends out a weekly email.

On another note, if you are having lessons at a club, I think it is important to start out people with the merengue & bachata along with the salsa. I enjoy doing these occasionally, but like a lot of people hooked on salsa have lamented that a dj played too much merengue. But, the key is to get newcomers out on the floor enjoying themselves and you can do that fastest with the merengue & bachata. They will want to learn salsa, but in the meantime they don't feel so awkward and have fun with these simpler dances. I have become much more tolerant of more merengue than I would ideally like, because it helps strengthen your dance scene.

Another thing, unless you are in a big city you will need people who may be interested in other forms of latin dancing including cumbia & regaeton to help maintain the scene. I'll even dance to those myself on occasion but mostly use them as times to rest up hydrate, chat etc. Too often clubs experiment with salsa nights for just a brief period of time because it is just not profitable. Related to that (and I think someone may have already mentioned it), I think you are better off having a club that is part of a hotel or restaurant. That's because the bar is not what is supporting the business. Anything they get extra is gravy and welcomed. I think you have a much better chance of maintaining a salsa in a club this way.

Sorry to run on for so long. This stuff has been on my mind lately as we try to establish a new club to dance at in town to augment the one 25 miles away. The next closest are 80 & 120 miles (I'm going to take a beating on excess mileage when this car lease is up :) )
 
amo_dile_que_no said:
The person who has really promoted salsa in our city conducts walk-in classes every Saturday. They are held at local arts organization center that allows the use of the room for 50% of the donations she receives each week. She advertises in the community activities section of the weekly shopper news. Inviting anyone interested in learning latin dance. The ad explicitly states that lessons are free, but a donation of $5 or so is gladly accepted. At the lessons, she emphasizes that a donation is not expected as she wants people to learn to dance salsa even if they have no money.....
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Hi Amo_dile_que_no. Welcome to Salsa Forums! Happy to have you here. :D

The above sounds good being as though I don't qualify myself to teach. I have a long way to go before I can even think about teaching. And to be honest, I really don't want to teach but I think as long as I don't allow payment for teaching, I will feel much better. Also, the other option is too either allow a more qualified guest instructor to come and "reprogram" everything I've done monthly or do a crash course for about a month to get things started. I have a few in mind but it will take time and money. Still thinking... Great idea. Thanks Amo_dile_que_no!
 
peachexploration said:
Hi Amo_dile_que_no. Welcome to Salsa Forums! Happy to have you here. :D


The above sounds good being as though I don't qualify myself to teach. I have a long way to go before I can even think about teaching. And to be honest, I really don't want to teach but I think as long as I don't allow payment for teaching, I will feel much better. Also, the other option is too either allow a more qualified guest instructor to come and "reprogram" everything I've done monthly or do a crash course for about a month to get things started. I have a few in mind but it will take time and money. Still thinking... Great idea. Thanks Amo_dile_que_no!
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Thanks for the welcome!

I understand, your hesitancy to teach others when you don't consider yourself qualified as an instructor. But if there is no one else around and your trying to start a salsa scene, why not pass along what you know. In this context you wouldn't need to identify yourself as an instructor, just a lover of salsa. Maybe you coud find someone else that you might team up with so you have both a lead and follow. If you could find an instructor, maybe you could sell them on the idea as a way to create a new pool of potential salsa students.

Good luck!
 
Yeah, this is definitely worth considering. I have some other things that need to be ironed out BUT I'm feeling a little better about the teaching aspect now....Will keep you guys posted! Thanks again Amo_dile_que_no. :D Keep it coming Salser@s. Great ideas from everyone. :D
 
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