Absolutely incredible. What an amazing night. I am forever a student and forever an acquirer of knowledge. A few of the many gaps in my base of knowledge was filled tonight. I have 3 people who I consider the most influential in my dance development. And the first one, in chronological order, is a man by the name of Garry Johnson in the Bay Area. He, along with Isabel Rodrigues, taught me the basic step when I was 13. I went to pay Garry a visit tonight, to pay my respects, and to ask him the many questions that I had about salsa, his current thoughts about things, how his development came about, etc. Incredible knowledge was past down to me tonight... knowledge I personally hold a lot of value to. This man started dancing in 1993, competed in the Mayan competitions in the mid 90s, and had a hand in teaching literally thousands of students over the years. He was personally trained and mentored in danzon and son by a man named Roberto Borrell, a Cuban dance master. He also learned from and competed with Alex Da Silva, and hes also an accomplished musician. I cant post everything in detail, but Id like to share a few of the many things we discussed: He started out the gate with What is LA style? I still dont know what that means. Please, you tell me. A lot of topics were discussed, like the origins of various styles, his views on terms like salsa and casino, the relationship to the music, the dance for son-montuno, and when the slot was popularized in our dance. Apparently the inclusion and standardization of the slot in salsa is a recent phenomenon that happened only 15- 20 years ago. And hes very surprised at how quickly it spread and was adopted throughout the world. This is pretty amazing to me. Also, another interesting fact was how folks in the early 90s danced to music that was modern at the time. They danced to stuff from the RMM records. No one played the old Fania stuff. This re-popularization of old school music, follows congruently with the popularization of slot On2. Another key take away was something Ive never heard of before - vernacular jazz. Many of our basic shines/footwork in the salsa repertoire comes from African American vernacular jazz. Things like the suzie q (actually called the suzie q), cake walk, charlston, the behind essence, James Browns camel walk, mash potatoes, all come from vernacular jazz. And many of the steps in Yoruba and folklore were incorporated into vernacular jazz from way back. My follow up question would be, at which point did some/most of the Black American vernacular jazz footwork get popularized/incorporated into salsa dance? And then the conversation went to music, as a good song was being played. A modern Cuban cover of a 1926 son was playing. And he pointed out the guaguanco section. Then how it flipped, out of nowhere, to a 6/8 rumba pattern, then the bells, and so on. And at the end of it, he told me, this is son, sure... but at this level, how do you classify it? There are too many different things going on. Its too complex to even start to categorize. His complexity in describing the music was way past my pay grade for sure at that point anyway. But this was a perfect way of describing our dance as well. And at the end, he dances his way. Hes coined it freestyle salsa. But that being said, if a girl is dancing on 3,4,5, like a boxer, hell counter punch and dance on that count. His personal philosophy is to shape and mold himself to nurture the best out of the girl from what shes already working with, from where shes coming from. And hell switch timing and beats and play with rhythms and whatever he feels like at the moment, based on how hes interpreting the music. And it made perfect sense to me - once youve mastered all timings, every which way, why restrict yourself within the one song? Why not consciously, and within reason, adapt and change and morph to your liking? I dont think I would have agreed or would have understood if I was presented this knowledge a few years ago. I felt pretty selfish after hearing his philosophy hahaha... But to imagine... what an incredible leader. To nurture growth from another person from deep within, spontaneously, at that very moment in time on the dance floor. That was very deep for me. And he left me with a quote that will surely be with me for a very long time - Art, at a very high level, is not just one thing. Its many things. At that level, the lines are all blurred.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 10:04:46 +0000
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