Well, let's start from the beginning. We arrived to sunny and chilly Amsterdam on Friday morning and found our way to our hotel. It was one of the official festival hotels so transportation between different venues was pretty easy with a shuttle bus. We spent the day wondering around the city and returned to the hotel quite early since we didn't have any information of when the Friday's party would start. We soon realized that getting the information wasn't that simple and easy as we thought, but after all we found ourselves in the party venue, Amsterdam Convention Factory. The night started with some great Salsa and Zouk dance shows, in total 17 of them. The Zouk shows were from Gilson & Natasha and Willem & Sacha. It was well past midnight before we headed to the dance floor for some social dancing.
I was amazed when I saw all the Zouk dancers in the dance floor. The Zouk parties I had been before were nothing compared to that! I knew no one so I got really nervous, because that's just what I do when I dance with new people for the first time (yeah, I still haven't grown out of this weird habit of mine). However, it wasn't possible just to stand next to the dance floor and watch peoples' zoukking because the leaders were actively asking everybody to dance. Already my first dance proved how beginner I was. I struggled to follow everyone, even Michaelo, who tried to ease off my nervousness. Nevertheless, I tried to take the most out of it and learn as much as I could. It was quite a shock for me though, and I was ready to go back to the hotel as soon as Michaelo suggested going to sleep.
After a short sleep and big breakfast it was time for Saturday's Zouk workshops. Pasty & Josta started the workshops at 11 am, followed with Dani & Leticia. After a lunch break we had three more workshops from Willem & Sacha, Kadu & Larissa and Gilson & Natasha. All workshops followed the same structure: a warm up, learning a figure and a Zouk demo from the teachers. The workshops were for all level of dancers and we had constant rotation of dance partners. I liked some of the workshops more than others, but all of them offered something new. A negative thing was that the place, MuzyQ room 1, was a way too tight for all of us, and Zouk naturally takes lots of space. I got a sharp hit to my nose already during the first warm up! The beast teachers were (naturally) Kadu & Larissa, and I felt like a teenager when I went crazy with Michaelo whenever we saw a glimpse of them. I must say that they are simply amazing and inspirational not only as a dance couple but also as teachers. During the lunch break I got to know some Polish zoukkers with who I really enjoyed dancing (too bad they skipped the last party!).
After the workshops we had quick dinner and nap to gain some energy for Saturday's party. The party started again with some shows but this time they were simply amazing and even better than on Friday. I fell into tears when I saw Pasty & Josta's Zouk show, and even thoguh I had seen Kadu & Larissa's performance beforehand on YouTube, it was so much more powerfull and influential to see it live. The Salsa shows were also spectacular but I had a feeling that the crowd cheered more to the zoukkers.
Here's Pasty & Josta's beautiful performance from Saturday:
Saturday's social dancing part started off well. I had a great feeling to dance and my nervousness was gone after dancing with many leaders in the workshops earlier that day. The big dance floor was full but you still had enough space to dance. I didn't have half as much difficulties to follow as I did the night before so I could already see the workshops' teachings working. After dancing a while Michaelo insisted me to go and ask some of the teachers to dance with me. I hesitated but he didn't give up; after all, how many times I had this kind of possibility to dance with professionals? So bravely I walked up to Dani - a dancer I should have not picked up from all of the teachers. Frankly, it was horrible. Our dancing just didn't go together. Not too surprisingly, I overreached really badly and felt like my world just crashed. I lost my dance feeling for the rest of the night and swore I'd never ask any professionals to dance with me anymore. Rationally thinking I knew I was just overreacting but I couldn't help feeling down.
Fortunately my bad feelings were gone the next morning. Sunday's workshops included Zouk lessons from Gilson & Natasha, Ray & Pauline, Dani & Leticia and two lessons from Kadu & Larissa (yay!). The workshops were pretty advanced but offered great figures and ideas. We definitely have lots to work with when we start practicing again with Michaelo! Here's some videos from the Saturday's and Sundays's workshops:
The festival ended with Sunday's dance party. First we saw some dance shows again, and I was really surprised to see Kadu & Larissa performing not Zouk but Samba de Gafieira! The social dancing started a bit earlier than the previous nights, but unfortunately it was a lot less crowded than before. However, there were many good leaders and there wasn't any dance where I would have struggled with my following. It is amazing how much you can improve during one weekend! After I had recovered from my unpleasant experience with Dani I was encouraged to ask Kadu for a dance. I am so glad I did: he was the perfect leader and I felt like flying during the whole dance! His leading was so soft and uninterrupted, and he reached to everything I did (oh and you should have seen Michaelo's face after dancing with Larissa: like a little boy in Christmas!). Later I danced with Pasty which was super fun experience with his sudden decision of pair changing in the middle of the song. I had a great dance feeling for the whole night and could have danced all night long if my body wasn't that exhausted after all the dancing.
So, what are my feelings after the festival? Well, it was definitely worth going there. The weekend showed me how much I still have to learn to move up from my beginner level, but also gave me so much motivation to improve and continue zoukking. I am going to miss the parties where I had a constant chance to learn something new and experience intense feelings of both failing and succeeding. I cannot wait for my next Zouk festival in two months in Prague, and I have already been looking for a summer festival where I could go. Warning to all of you who are planning on going to dance festivals: this is highly addictive!
No comments:
Post a Comment