I was back from few festivals in Asia in November 2015 and it was pretty dead class in Chennai that weekend, especially after the floods that stirred the city and I had some time by myself to train and ended up working a new shines which ended up being the Salsa Madras Shines of the year which was performed and danced in many festivals and countries!
FEBRUARY
As we celebrated Salsa Madras 2nd Anniversary celebrations at NOVOTEL Sipcot (Chennai), we showcased a part of the routine at the pool party but it was only a teaser of the routine as we were still training on the whole choreography
APRIL
As most teams in Asia were either couple teams or ladies team, it was a challenge and an opportunity for the good leaders in Chennai to make a heads turn. We finally showcased our first debut at the Grand BAILAMOS festival organised by the one and only NEERAJ MASCARA. It was an honor to be able to perform at the Festival as it has most phenomenal showcases I have seen at any salsa festival! This is also probably the only time, I performed with my core team dancers all together!
Festival: Bailamos, April 2016
Dancers: Arun Srinivasan, Richard Pereira, Bonny Avanoor, Manasir Hussain, Vijay Balaji.
MAY
A month after the Festival, I had to leave to Europe for summer for 2 months. Excited with the new routine, I recorded some practice sessions in parts with Julia in Graz and Vienna.
Dancers: Arun Srinivasan & Julia Pauer
Places: Uhrturm, Graz & Parliament, Vienna, AUSTRIA
JUNE
In the Mean time, Manasir Hussain from the team was in Vietnam and since I couldn't be there at the Vietnam International Latin Fiesta in June 2016, organised by the beautiful and talented friend, Lucerne Ngo, I had asked Manasir to represent SALSA MADRAS and showcase the routine with dear friend Marta Bartosz (Poland). Marta had the challenge of learning the routine within few days and this is the first time, my choreography was represented in my absence.
Dancers: Marta Bartosz and Manasir Hussain
Event: Vietnam International Latin Fiesta
JULY
After I am back from Europe, we left to the 1st Afro Latin Invasion Asia, organised by Azamat who I met in April 2016 in Kuala Lumpur and hence decided to go. We had performed with so much cheer in front of a super fun Asian Audience! Ideally the team performing the full Routine out of India for the first time at Langkawi and it was very humbling to get the feed back of some of the leading artists in the world present at the festival! We not only performed but also took time to record our demos in parts in the beautiful backdrop of Langkawi each time! And it is also special for me as I perform with my boys for the first time representing India.
Dancers: Arun Srinivasan, Vijay Balaji and Manasir Hussain
SEPTEMBER
The big event of SALSA MADRAS, for which we work all year round, the Latin Festival Madras showcased the team of 7 dancers performing the routine.
Dancers: Manasir Hussain, Richard Pereira, Paul Vidyasagar, Bonny Avanoor, Viajy Balaji, Jayavarma Jeyadevan amd Julia Pauer
Event: 3rd Latin Festival Madras 2016
NOVEMBER
After a brief break since the Festival, we attended the South East Asia's Longest Running Festival, Salsa Bangkok Fiesta in Thailand. The Festival is one of my personal favorites and is highly recommended! And we had the opportunity to showcase once again the shines routine with much love and cheer! It was amazing to see how each of the dancers have improved over time within a year! And I very proud of my team and students!
Dancers: Arun Srinivasan, Manasir Hussain, Paul Vidyasagar
Event: Salsa Bangkok Fiesta
The choreography is a Salsa on 1 Intermediate level group choreography that can help you work on many details in your dancing having elements from different areas of salsa and can be really fun to learn and perform. I am also looking forward to teach and train other cities/countries who might be interested in learning this fun Routine!
And this has given more motivation to work on on more new challenging yet fun routines and looking forward to showcase more with my team!
Cheers
Arun Srinivasan
