The Salseros of Bermuda
A Winning Recipe of Success!
By Edie, The Salsa FREAK
Some call it Bermy Style, others call it, Berllennium Style… whatever it is, the Salseros of Bermuda GOT IT GO’IN ON. Bermudian Salseros now have so much flavor OOZING out of their pores, they are now being invited to perform all over the world. They’ve got rhythm, they’ve got style, they’ve got CLASS, and there is no stopping them. It is an absolute SHOW-STOPPING experience just watching them dance. It started back in 2001, when Al and I were invited to Bermuda to teach these wonderful people on this tiny, 22 sq mile island how we dance Salsa - our style (Millennium Style). Each year, we came back and saw their progress. Each year we witnessed how they were always eager to learn more and more. Each year we would see a few Bermudians pop up here and there at various Salsa Congresses throughout the world, learning, studying, analyzing and trying out new moves. Each year, we saw how they stubbornly stuck with it, and stuck with it, and STUCK WITH IT. Each year I was shocked to see the same faces at our workshops, even after we thought for sure they’d given up. Bermudians are the hardest working people I know. Because of their high standard of living and Bermuda’s rating as one of the top countries in the world to live, people here work extremely hard and long hours. They are used to earning and owning the finer things in life. I believe it’s their work ethic that keeps them at Salsa classes. It’s their work ethic that has refined their dancing like diamonds. It’s their work ethic that helped them withstand the endless hours of buffing, cleaning, and polishing, making their Salsa now shine like solid gold. Through thick and thin, the Bermudian Salseros have established a style they can call their very own; “Bermy Style”, the “Berlennium Way” (a spin-off from what Al and I teach as “Millennium Style”) When you visit the island, you will see that Bermudians take their Salsa very seriously. Like the luxurious lifestyles they live, their Salsa is sophisticated, funky, tasteful, and most of all, relaxing and fun. These classy people know how to move. Not only do they look fabulous doing Reggae and House music, but put on a Salsa song, and “it’s ON” – they are shak’n and bake’n all night long. The entire place electrifies with their body movements and island flavor. They FEEL SALSA MUSIC and play with the MUSICALITY of it. Bermudians now UNDERSTAND the Millennium Style aspect of hitting the breaks, and throwing in a splash of Hip-Hop and Funk here and there to spice things up a bit. Al and I have had the absolute honor and privilege of witnessing first-hand this entire country develop a style that is all their own, that they now call “Bermy-style, the Berllennium vay ‘mon”. I used to spend hours teaching styling to Bermudian women who, deep inside, already knew how to do it all – but didn’t know it yet. You know how you don’t know what you don’t know? That concept is what I tried to convey, but they were not yet ready to hear it. I had to start with the basics, and move up from there. I showed them my “Freedom Concept” of Ladies Styling Salsa (ref: Ladies Styling DVD Volume 1), and then give them the official Go-Ahead to add their own beautiful island movements to the dance. I’ve told this story dozens of times, but I never tire of bragging about it:
I’ll never forget, one night in 2002, we had just given our second workshop on the island, after an entire week’s worth of Salsa classes. At the end of the week, everyone who attended our classes went to a nightclub for our farewell party. At about midnight, the DJ put on some Reggae – House music, and I thought the floor would empty out. Instead, the floor PACKED OUT with these amazing locals gettin’ down. I shook my head in amazement, looked all around the room, and chills started creeping up and down my spine. I had to sit down. Just watching these beautiful people dance made my hair stand on end. I was getting goose bumps on my arms when I put two and two together, and envisioned a future that Bermuda would (if not, should) very soon realize. THAT is what they needed to put in their Salsa. I sat there in amazement. That’s it! THAT MOVEMENT… so undeniably BERMUDIAN!! Here I was, that whole week, trying to teach them styling techniques that EVERYONE ELSE teaches in the States and Abroad, and what EVERYONE ELSE does… without even realizing that they had their own style deep within them all along… they truly needed to keep their culture in their Salsa. They needed to develop their own beautiful Bermudian Style. Case in PointI saw it in the country of Jordan while teaching there in 1998. At the beginning of the week, the budding Jordanian Salseros took me out to a nightclub to kick things off. I immediately noticed the women had such a beautiful Middle-Eastern flavor in their dancing – I tried it, learned it, and soaked it all up in about an hour. I went home, analyzed it, and applied it the rest of the week while teaching female styling. I dared not spoil their generations of dance culture by coming in and forcing my own styling upon something they already had learned from their moms, and their mom’s moms. I simply ENHANCED their styling by adding what they already knew to modern-day Salsa and showing them how to fold it into their basics – giving their Salsa a beautiful Middle-Eastern flavor, without ever interrupting the lead. I taught that technique right away because I witnessed first-hand what the ladies were capable of before I started teaching styling that week. I knew that as an International Instructor, and Ambassador of Salsa, it was my obligation and responsibility to show them how to keep their own Middle-Eastern style, and never ever let it die. Salsa can take it! Salsa craves it! Salsa will eat it up! I didn’t want them to be just another cookie-cutter version
of Edie, The Salsa FREAK. I wanted them to develop the deep history they already had. I wanted them to mix it into their Salsa. I wanted to see what they could do with it! I gave them the tools, now it was up to them to take off and run with it! This concept of International Instruction is extremely important to me. I don’t know why, but it feels right. Over time, I’ve learned to trust my gut instincts, and have never been sorry. Your Culture
Who you are, your family, and your history… it’s all so precious. Your way of life; where you came from is so undeniably priceless and beautiful. We cannot ever forget that. “Edie, I can’t tell you how frustrated I am right now.” Jamal would call my cell phone in Los Angeles from Bermuda. “These people here don’t understand how I feel the music. They want me to dance a certain way, but I’m not feelin’ that way.” I understood exactly what he was saying. I could feel what he was feeling, but it was virtually impossible to show him what I was verbally trying to explain to him over the phone. I responded, “Jamal, you have to learn your Salsa basics FIRST. I was real disappointed when you missed half our classes when we were teaching the basics. Basics are everything. Watch and study our beginner and intermediate DVDs. Only AFTER you get your basics down packed, should you put your styling in – only THEN you can forget about what everybody else says. Master the foundational basics first, and THEN BLOW THEM AWAY with YOUR way.” I then sent him a few DVDs to practice. It was now up to him to figure it all out. I know, I know… easier said than done, especially if you’re a Bermudian, secluded on a remote island in the middle of nowhere, and having only seen Salsa being danced a certain way on various videos, and being forced to believe, yet unconvinced, that “this” is the “only” way to dance Salsa – when you feel the music a completely different way – your way, your family’s way, your traditional, island way. The only way you know how… I can only imagine the frustration he felt. Growing in Salsa and Developing Your Own Style
Watching the Bermudians grow over time was a lot like when Al “Liquid Silver” and I first got together as a dance partnership. Forget about being husband and wife, that part was easy. It was the dance partnership that needed work. Here’s this Pop-Locker, Hip-Hop, Gangster/Battler from Oakland, CA, who’s idol is MC Hammer, and here I am, a Ballroom/LA-style ex partner of champion Ballroom Style Salomon Rivera, trying desperately to teach Al “my way” of Salsa – without spoiling his natural God-given talent and flavor from the Pop-Locking and Hip Hop world. Frankly, he looked horrible dancing Salsa like Salomon Rivera. I didn’t want to discourage him, but I was so used to dancing a certain way, with a certain type of lead and feel… I wanted him to feel that way too… but at the same time his own natural dance talent and style just mesmerized me. I realized I, as his partner, and wife, could not teach him. Learning how to dance together was an uphill battle for the both of us (still is at times). I didn’t really quite know what to do (still don’t – but working at it). So I decided to pull an “MC Hammer” myself, and got down on my knees and prayed. I prayed to God, that somehow, some way, we would be able to just “get along” on the dance floor, and be compatible as dance partners. My answer from God: I would have to change me. I realized that I had to go back to the basics myself, and re-evaluate how I was doing things. Just how exactly, was I executing my turns, my spins… and on what count(s)? On what moves? On what timing? I analyzed everything I did. I slowly examined how I could place bits and pieces of Al’s Hip-Hop and Pop-Locking moves between my own Salsa basics (I since labeled this technique “pocket-full of moves”). I would study Al’s movements and practice mimicking them on my own. I did the same thing with Al that I did with the female Salseras of Jordan. I watched, absorbed, and applied everything he did to my own Salsa basics. I felt like I was a beginner all over again. It was working. On occasion, we would hear an Old School beat someplace, and Al would start busting out Pop-Locking. He would battle anyone and anything. He even started battling this fake, life-size, electronic ET doll at the Toys-R-Us store in Times Square in New York. This enormous ET doll looked like it was hitting Pop-Locking, so Al decided to challenge it with his own popping. I just looked at them both and started cracking up. Here is Al, battling this huge, fake, electronic, ET doll in the middle of this store! I’ll never forget that night. Just when I thought I’d seen it all, we were in a subway car in the south Bronx, and these little grade-schoolers started playing their boom box and started battling each other in the railcar. Al immediately jumped in. It was hysterical. Here was 35 year-old Al, battling these grade-schoolers with a bunch of high-schoolers yelling and cheering them on. The railcar started filling up with kids. Suddenly, Al pulled me into this battle by telling me to do our King Tut moves right next to him. So, there we were, Al and I, doing half our King Tut routine in that railcar, blowing those kids minds. We had the entire railcar screaming and cheering for all of us! It was a dancer’s Break Dancing, Pop-Locking battle in the truest sense of the word. We finally got to our stop and walked out to the street, while the railcar, now chalk-full of high-schoolers who I know all missed their stops to watch this battle waved goodbye to us from the windows. At that moment, Al put me into our famous triple cartwheel, and basically tore the railcar in half with the screams coming from the inside. We won. It was definitely an evening I’ll never forget. ANYWAY, whenever Al would start busting (pop-locking), I would tell him immediately, “Babe, now put THAT into your Salsa!” “But how?” He would ask. “Stick it in-between… somehow!” I would tell him, I would try to show him, but I couldn’t do it myself. I couldn’t Pop-Lock at all, and could barely Hip-Hop… I could only Salsa. In the beginning, dancing with Al was like the Reeses Chocolate and Peanut butter commercial. He was the Chocolate. I was the Peanut Butter. When we got together, it was a big mangled Reeses Peanut butter cup mess. I could tell we had our work cut out for us. We had months – if not years, of refining to do. That’s OK, we were married, so we had time. My beautiful Ballroom-type arm, footwork, and hand styling was completely opposite of his hard Hits and body-popping. When we danced Salsa together, he was so stiff from popping and hitting hard masculine Hip-Hop, that I felt like I was dancing with a ROCK. Alma Frey (the instructor who introduced us, and his first Salsa instructor – and very dear friend of mine) used to encourage him to put his own flavor into Salsa as well, but neither of us could demonstrate to him what we meant, because we didn’t know how to describe it. We could envision it, and we could talk about it, but we couldn’t show it to him. Al’s complete and absolute LACK OF PATIENCE didn’t help things either. It took a few months before Al “Liquid Silver” finally understood what I meant. However, this happened only after I drilled foundational Salsa basics FIRST AND FOREMOST through his thick scull, by encouraging him to take privates from virtually everyone I knew (because he wouldn’t listen to me, I was his wife!), AND ONLY AFTER THAT TOOK HOLD, did we then open up his mind to add his 20-years of Hip-Hop and Pop-Locking styling to an already solid Salsa basic foundation. It finally worked. It finally happened in New York. He got it. Not only did he learn Musicality, but he also learned how to pull it all together, inspired by analyzing different dances like Swing and New York Style Mambo, and finally, by taking privates from a gentleman by the name of Eric. Thank you Eric. THANK YOU. Bottom Line: You have to learn your Salsa basics FIRST,
BEFORE putting in your styling. Even if you are learning how to dance On-Two from dancing On-One, if you skip your basics On-Two first, you get nothing but endless frustration. You’ve got to do the basics first and foremost, before the patterns, and then before the styling. Styling is last. Basics first, patterns second, styling last.
That’s the winning recipe. Bermudians understand this now. Foundation is everything. It was only until after Jamal studied tapes, DVDs, and took a few trips to various Congresses, did he truly understand deep down and inside what we were trying to convey. I love dancing with Jamal now. He hits the breaks, he understands how to have what I call a “selfless” lead, he recognizes the woman’s footwork and preparation time required prior to turning her, he has a solid, tight feel, and appreciates that the dance is not all about her, but mostly about her. And now, his Bermudian styling added to all that is 2nd to none. Because of their work ethic, he and his dance group completely ROCKED the HOUSE at the First Annual Bermuda Salsa Congress. David Melendez officially invited Jamal’s men’s group to perform at the New York Salsa Congress this year. They are also invited to perform at the Salsa Summer Splash in Palm Springs, California, held the 2nd weekend in August, every year. And I’m sure they will be performing in Canada in the very near future… this is just the beginning. Another amazing individual is Travis of the Sabor Dance School. He teaches a seven-principal theory as a foundation that is structured and very well thought-out. His dance school is one of the largest in the community and continues to grow at a feverish pace. He is one of many instructors of the island, keeping Salsa alive and supportive of every Salsa event in Bermuda. He is also invited to perform at our Event in Palm Springs! We had the privilege of watching one of our best friends Antoine, mature in his lead as well. Talk about adamant. This guy’s improvement has skyrocketed just in the last few months. He is an absolute dream to dance with now. We got a chance to watch him teach his beginner’s class at the local college. Antoine is now on his way to becoming a fantastic instructor. He teaches simply for the love of it. He has an enormous solid gold Salsa chain around his neck, and the spare tire on the back of his jeep says “On-1” in huge lettering. Yup, Antoine the Salsero, is a hard-core Salsa-Holic, that’s for sure. Two other instructors, Big Duane and Steve teach lessons as well as privates. They SHOULD as I consider them both to be among the ranks of the top leads in Bermuda. They will be doing a severe disservice to the community and mankind in general if they don’t teach what they know! The other Duane (little Duane) has so much style, that whenever I dance with him, I can’t help but smile with admiration just watching him move and flow with every beat. He has such a keen sense of tropical rhythm and musicality – he feels the music from deep within. It’s awesome to watch him dance. Juan and Judy always come to our Salsa Summer Splash, and never stop learning. They take every single class! Their performance at the Bermuda Congress was awesome! Every year, they learn more and more, and this year, Juan went over the top with his lead - it is FABULOUS!! They will be performing in Palm Springs this year!! Another surprise was Voorhees. He and his wife did a routine that had everyone on their feet. Voorhees USED TO BE SHY... not anymore! His lead is awesome now, and he has so much more confidence - more so than EVER before. I was quite impressed. We invited them to perform in Palm Springs as well. Although each instructor teaches independently, they encourage and support each other’s events, and are all great friends. Any seasoned instructor knows that supporting, sharing, and learning from other instructors only proves that you are confidant and secure in your own craft. Sharing students and ideas within the community only gives Salsa a good name. It encourages beginners to continue to learn and grow – from anyone they choose. When you share events and encourage your own students to try different styles and instructors, as we do in Los Angeles, it strengthens and supports the entire Salsa community like a tightly woven basket. It’s wonderful seeing Salsa instructors work with each other to keep Salsa thriving and growing. That is why Salsa Congresses are so popular now. They bring together different styles and flavors of the dance. Events like these introduce new methods of teaching techniques, moves, leads, follows, and styling. It’s a constant and never-ending learning process. The Salsa community flourishes when instructors from different schools work hand in hand to support each other’s events and classes. At the Bermuda Salsa Congress, this was clearly evident. All the instructors grew up together – they’ve known each other since childhood. Understanding that they will probably live on the island for the rest of their lives, they recognize the importance of getting along, supporting each other, and loving each other as brothers and sisters in Salsa. They haven’t forgotten why they started dancing to begin with – remember those days? Remember how much the music and dance brought joy to our otherwise troubled and weary lives? Remember how much it made us smile? Remember the high we felt? Like a new drug, remember how we could barely sleep at night, thinking we discovered something incredible, something so amazing that we just wanted to tell THE WHOLE WORLD about it? Remember that night? We just wanted to teach EVERYONE what we discovered! That joy is too precious to forget. That’s one of the reasons why dancing Salsa in Bermuda is Paradise on earth. The people are wonderful, the dancers are incredible, and the island… absolutely beautiful. I guess the next best thing would be Heaven itself. Keep it up guys! And a HUGE “Congratulations” to the Salseros of Bermuda… YOU DID IT!!! You followed the winning recipe and did EVERYTHING RIGHT!!! Happy Dancing! Edie, The Salsa FREAK for more info on Salsa Dancing in Bermuda, look up www.BermudaSalsa.com !! |
