| Salsa for Animators! |
|
Why would a shy Animation artist sign up?  There are so many reasons, some of which I just mentioned. But to sum them up, it develops better team work in a fun way, it gets you out of your head, it’s a great workout and releases stress, it’s great for developing timing, it forces people out of their shell, and above all you get to flirt and be flirted with. As one guy in one of the classes said to me after I taught the girls how to turn while flirting with them: “I’ve been waiting for this my whole life!” and we all started laughing so hard (including him). For how long has this concept been running? I started the concept of Salsa for animators about 5 or 6 years ago. But I don’t create programs for animators specifically anymore because I think that it’s great for everyone to mix, especially because animators seem to be so much in their little world. I have been toying with the idea though of bringing it into studios into wellness programs and then tailoring it to reduce conflicts in teams and so on. I think that if animators could go for an hour of play in the middle of the day and release the stress, they will find that they can produce so much more and be much more in the moment and focused. But for now, they can enjoy the benefits of our programs by attending our programs after work which would still have an impact on their daily lives. Will this improve their art / timing skills or what? Absolutely. You need to learn how the music works and feel the beat and then move while keep on time. If you can feel it, you can do it, just like in animation. It makes you sharper. We use various exercises that professional dancers in Cuba learn in order to develop the ability to connect to the music and timing. The results are phenomenal. And I still use the animation techniques to teach which can help animators to learn. When someone doesn’t get something, I break it into frames in my head and I find the “bad” frame. Then I can tell them how to do it right. But truly what I love about dancing is that I am more in my body feeling than in my heading thinking. It feels really good.  Ok, but what about if I have no dancing partner?No worries. We make sure to the balance number of men and women and in a Rueda you are never teamed up with one person, you keep changing partners all the time. In the first lesson when they need to switch partners for the first time, there is this moment when they realize that they moved on and are now with a different person. They say hello and it’s like this little surprise and socializing moment. It always makes me laugh. It happens a couple of times till they all know each other and then friendships are formed. Then we start to go out dancing together. It’s great to meet likeminded people., Is there anything else I need to know? For those that are ready to get their feet wet, we have a program starting next week -January 19th, 2009. Great time to jump in and try this amazing, fun and social dance. All the info is on the site… The other thing which is important is that to learn how to dance you need patience, just like in animation. You didn’t take one term in animation and became the best animator on the planet. It’s through practice and learning and repetition that we gain the magic into our lives. It will take you about half a year of classes, once a week, to get to a place where you feel comfortable, but the gratification is huge! And you will see results after just a few lessons, so the candy is there! And one last thing, Cuba is a world that is full of magic. I dive into Cuba like the worlds that we dive into when we create a world in a TV show or a movie. I go in and study it and it’s endless. For me, dancing Cuban dance has opened this door to a magical world full of inspiration as an artist. I hope that you will decide to go deeper and find the magic too. Do you regret leaving animation? Or miss that kid world of being in the moment? No, I don’t. Animation for ever will be part of my life. To dance well, we have to be in the moment. This is also what releases the stress because you let go. If you start to think of other things, it falls apart. When you can let go of everything and just enjoy the moment and let go of any fear that you have, you dance the best and obviously feel the best. That’s when I feel completely self expressed. I love my work and I love giving something to people. I was scared of leaving animation because I loved it so much but I feel that I left a great career for an even better career. I am still a kid forever and I get t travel to Cuba all the time- that’s for me LalaLand!
|
Short Bio 
