Ok, for all of you salsa folk waiting to hear what salsa in Alaska is like...here goes!!
The festival certainly wasn't as hardcore as what we're used to in the uk, lessons on the friday and sunday started at 4 in the afternoon and it was only saturday that had a full day of workshops. Probably a good thing for us really as we were still quite tired from travelling! We were so lucky to be staying with Sheli who dropped us off when we needed and then picked us up at all hours of the morning after the parties...I heard they went on a lot longer than advertised but wasnt going to miss a lift home and have to walk for an hour in the middle of the night...that said theres only about 3 hours of proper darkness from about 1-4am!!
Anyway, the workshops were really well taught, however we found the salsa ones all a bit too easy as there weren't any levels advertised so u got a real mix of abilities in each class. The bachata dips and the footwork class taken by Jorge Contreras were brilliant...he moves just like Mauricio!! There were some interesting classes like 'how to look like a pro' which had us all practicing facial expressions and posture as we paraded out in front of an imaginary audiance!! There was a good range of teachers from all over the US including Duplessy Walker who is the niece of the famous Eddie Torres!! Sooo many performances each night! Will upload them at some point, they seemed to go a bit for quantity over quality in some cases with only the saturday night shows being anything like what we're used to seeing at home...however there were a lot of amateur shows, dance groups etc which were really well put together and as this is the only salsa festival in the whole of Alaska its great that they have this opportunity to perform.
The dancing itself....we both found that in the main it was a little odd until u got used to it, the leads are very heavy and they dont seem to do some of our basic moves like walk back into flair or touch and go and they especially dont like to let go of the lady and do shines!! It is mainly crossbody On1 with a little bit of cuban (there was an awesome rueda show) and a sprinkling of On2. Andy had some nice things said about his leading and his awesome/crazy dancing lol and i was complimented on my following on several occasions. One of the dance group performers (who actually had the loveliest lightest lead out of everyone) said during one of the lessons that he had heard from various people that i had been the best follower of the night on the sat!! Major blush/big head moment!!! On the Sunday Dj ATM aka Jose from Fairbanks said how well we danced together as a couple as he'd been watching us on and off that night. So the compliments are down to the fab instructors we've had back in the UK, Thanks guys!!