Austria is a Small, Beautiful country filled with Beautiful, honest and nice people. On my first few trips, it was hard to believe such people existed in the world. When I say Austria, one default reply everyone gives is - "oh ,Australia!" (even my mum did, when I had to explain where Julia is from). Sorry, its not Australia and there are no Kangaroos in Austria!
The other popular reply is -"Oh, Vienna, the most livable city in the world!". Guess What? Graz could be better. Its a small city, cosy and feels intimate and personal, just like the Grazy Salsa Festival!
This year was my 3rd year at the Festival already! Its always happy to be part of the festival be it teaching, performing or dancing! Every year, it only seems to get better!
The Festival is organized by Tanzschule Conny & Dado in the month of May. With Selected handpicked artists/teachers and limited Full Festival passes, the festival make the learning very effective over the 2 days of intensive workshops. All the workshops happen at their beautiful studio.
The opening party at Die Thalia, the popular weekly salsa destination in Graz turns into a festival venue inviting 100s of dancers from the city and around. I had my show on the opening night and what a pleasure to perform in front of such cheering and loving audience!
I was also happy to share some of my passion to dance through workshops and sneaked my way to the workshops of other artists at the festival and feel like a student again. Grupo Alafia, Samuel & Sophia, Osbanis & Anneta were the top invited artists this year!
The Grand Gala night on Saturday was organised at the most beautiful gorgeous venue one could ask for - the Congress Graz. It has 3 rooms to dance - Salsa, Sensual and cuban rooms, to cater to over 800 dancers from all the neighboring European countries and also to dancers as far as India ;)
The biggest Highlight of the night was the La Maxima 79 concert among the impressive shows by the artists and the show teams. The concert was so good, that I could easily argue this was the best concert of my ten years of dancing. The venue, the energy of the dancers and the whole experience added to it. Some even commented that it was also the bands best yet! The night didn't stop with their concert but kept alive and happening with the wonderful DJs who kept us dancing non-stop all night till they would kick us out after the last song! DJ Julian Duke is a genius!
The night seemed quite long with never ending music and I had no bad dances! I was telling Dado the next day, that it brought out the Dancing Monster in me that had been dormant for years. It felt good. The festival ended too soon, wanting for more but it left with a lot of motivation and inspiration ahead!
If you haven't been to the festival yet, you have make an effort next time!
For more info on the festival, http://www.grazysalsa.com/index.php/en/
