With the coming of spring and the warm weather of summer just around the corner, a Toronto dancer’s mind turns to thoughts of outdoor dancing. Toronto is among the best cities in North America for its outdoor festivals, with each weekend following the “official beginning of summer”—Victoria Day—featuring multiple cultural, arts, drama, and you-name-it festivals….
Last week, I wrote about how to great great collaboration between followers and leaders on the dance floor. The more experience you have, of course, the better you’re able to do this. But what if you’re not as experienced as someone else who has been dancing for years? Is it still possible to create great…
Those of you who follow me on Facebook will likely know that I co-facilitated a session for the AM/PM MBA program at Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto this week. The program was designed by my friend, Dr. Edy Greenblatt who is an adjunct professor in the Desautels Centre for Integrative Thinking at…
What a fun class last week as we began the first of our two-week bachata workshops. For many students – especially those who are less experienced dancers – bachata is considerably easier to learn than salsa. The basic steps, for instance, are pretty basic. If you can count to four, you can dance bachata. This…
With a popularity that almost belies its lower-class origins, Bachata has become a popular social dance and best-selling music genre. Fifty years ago in Dominican Republic – bachata’s home – the dance form was considered low-brow and vulgar. It was relegated to the barrios, among the brothels and bars, where it grew in popularity among…
For both Christians and Jews, this is the holy season. For Christians, this week leads up to the seminal event in the history of the religion, celebrated as Easter. For Jews, this is the week of Passover, celebrating the exodus from Egypt that led to the creation of their nation in biblical times. As the…
“Just follow my lead…” Sometimes, that’s easier said than done (but makes all the difference in the world, according to Ed Sheeran). Being effective in following a lead means that each partner – both lead and follow – are connecting in the three ways that we covered in the prior three newsletters: to the music,…
In previous weeks, I discussed aspects of the first two types of connection in partner dancing: connecting with the music and connecting with your partner. This week, let’s look at what it means to connect to the floor (which, in the list of three, many take as an expression of my oddball sense of humour)….
Last week, I discussed some elements of the first connection in partner dancing, namely, connecting with the music. Today, we move on to the second connection: connecting with your partner. In a similar way that some people dance to the count in their head rather than to the music, some salsa dancers will dance patterns…
You’ve probably heard me say that, in partner dancing, you connect three ways: You connect to the music, you connect to your partner, and you connect to the floor. And you can’t miss on any of them (especially the floor!). 🙂 In this edition of Mark’s Lead, let’s focus on the first connection: to the…