Da:ns Festival's Footwork Workshop: Salsa Hip Hop

The one-off "Salsa Hip Hop", one of Esplanade's Da:n Festival's Footwork workshop, coincided with Nike + Human Race 10K in the same area so we found ourselves in the unlucky position of a jam, hoping against hope, that we'll make it to the workshop in time.

And true enough we did. We came in just in time as the instructor, Yenny, from LA Dance Connection was going through salsa moves, which was a relief for intermediate salsa dancers like us.

And soon, we were doing the salsa moves to salsa hip hop music which was cool, until she came to the hip hop actions. Then oh boy, most of us collapse into giggles as we strive to achieve fluidity with the actions that was demonstrated. This was followed by intense stetching exercises that had me groaning as my muscles appeared to be at breaking point with each "flex and stretch".

The cool part, somehow the difference between salsa and hip hop rhythms is resolved through learning the cheoreography and the hip hop drawling gait is incorporated into mambo steps which is uber cool. The 4 coolest moves I've learned? The diagonal body roll, shoulder-rolled "Michael Jackson"'s moonwalk and hip hop arm waves and body rolls. I'm not sure whether they can be incorporated into smooth and sexy salsa but they sure look fun. :p

The Hip Hop culture appeared to be infused into the littlest component of the workshop, from the attire of the instructor, to her hip hop drawl, the music that permeates the dance studio and the casual (but gruelling) culture in learning the cheoreo. For this particular workshop, Hip Hop is fun! (But tiring! As evidenced by the immediately post-adolescent participants' profile and our need to massage our feet before we attempted to walk out of the theatre after the workshop.) Yenny herself is also a fun and cool babe. As an instructor, she opened for clarifications periodically, seamlessly stitched in new moves progressively, linking with the previous point in the cheoreo we had practiced to music and add on optional styling into each dance move to achieve that hip hop feel if she feels we're comfortable with the move while emphasizing that knowing the footwork is the foundation, a competent and clear instructor overall.

Based on the 2 Da:ns Festival's Footloose workshops I've attended, they are great, inexpensive opportunities to experience different dances by doing the cheoreo. You could try attending the workshops belonging to the genre you are interested in exploring further before deciding whether or not to try out the dance long term (with the participating dance studio or with others.)