February 02, 2005
From my Inbox : For love and cumbia
by Liza Sabater
This has got to be the CUTEST, and I mean GLOD FRUCKING CUTEST email I have received in a loooong time. It just made me cry.
Here's my situation. I am quite sweet on a girl I met recently. She is
intelligent, beautiful, and of Columbian, Mexican, and (go fig) Jewish
descent. We work together so I am trying to cultivate things slowly
and wisely, though with each passing day I become increasingly
enamored. I recently asked her if she likes to dance. Of course, she
replied, and we started talking about our various experiences with
different styles. Personally, I think I have far more rhythm than your
average white boy, but my hips have never been challenged by a latin
style with enough frequency to become, let's say, "unstuck." I have
long wanted to learn how to salsa and tango, but have not had the
opportunity nor an overwhelming motivator. Since I have met this
motivator, I have been introduced to Cumbia - as yet only the music,
and not the dance. I seek your guidance on where to learn more about
both.[...]
AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! THIS IS SOOOOO CUTE!
I want to make it known to the world the resident gringo did go out of his way to learn how to dance. He comes from people who are rhythm challenged, notwithstanding U2, Elvis Costello and Chieftains. I mean, have you seeen Bono dance?
He did not learn how to dance salsa, which IS the adopted national dance of Puerto Rico (since it was born here in NYC). Mr. Man went out of his way to learn MAMBO. Not just learn it, mind you. Every Tuesday and Thursday, for TWO AND A HALF YEARS STRAIGHT, he would go out to his lessons with Jimmy Anton and then to dance for free with his classmates at the various restaurants that had live music at the time (this should have been around 1990-1991).
Did it work? You betcha.
You could check with Jimmy Anton and the people of Salsa NYC and see if they have any information. But, given a lot of my friends in the blogosphere have a life, I am putting this out to my peeps : Does anybody know of a good place in NYC to learn how to dance cumbia?
And for some of the best Rock Latino that incorporates traditional sounds like cumbia, you've got to get the one and only, Carlos Vives.
Now, if only my Mr. Man learned how to speak Spanish ...
Posted by Liza Sabater in Culture, Dance, Education, Life, Mail, New York City
Permalink |
Comments (0)
| TrackBack (0) | Technorati Cosmos
Trackbacks
Trackback for this post:http://www.culturekitchen.com/cgi-bin/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/2702
The following blogs make reference to this post :
