Learn To Salsa In LA

There are several awesome places to learn to dance in a variety of cultural flavors. For us here on SalsaBabe, we liked the ones listed below. Give them all a spin to see which ones can fill your niche.

 

 

Studio A Dance

This is the place to go if you want to learn Bollywood dance. That could be you in that colorful chorus line of Bombay beauties and gents. This Silver Lake studio also teaches modern dance, hip-hop and even the Brazilian dance/fight sport of Capoeira.

2306 Hyperion Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90027
323-661-8311

Walk in Dance Out

Like the name implies, these folks are great for beginners with big dreams of the dance. They host dance classes in styles like bolero, American tango, rumba, swing hustle, salsa, night club disco, Lindy hop and 2-step dancing. Locations are varied, spanning from Redondo Beach to W. LA. Their six-week courses usually include 18 hours of practice lessons for free.

310-373-8487
Various locations

Millennium Dance Complex

If you're considering going pro, the folks at Millennium can help you. Started by a pair of dancers--George Moro and Ruth Landis--who met during the Vaudeville era, they offer classes and workshops for adults and children in hip-hop, ballet and jazz dance, taught by working performers and choreographers.

5113 Lankershim Blvd.
North Hollywood, CA 91601
818-753-5081

 

New York Salsa Event

Tanora Concert

Sunday - August 16, 2009

$12 gen. - 8pm

Led by singer-songwriter
Cecilia Engelhart,
pianist Bob Karty,
and percussionist Michael Spiro,
this sextet plays a compelling blend of Latin and Brazilian jazz from their recent CD "Día Real" and new originals.

La Pena Cultural Center
3105 Shattuck Avenue,
Berkeley, CA
94705

A delectable sextet featuring some of the region’s most gifted players, [Tanaóra] offers a melodically rich sound unlike any other band around.’

Andrew Gilbert, ‘Critic’s Pick’,

San Jose Festival Draws Record Crowds

The annual gathering of the faithful was well under way Saturday as the music began at noon in downtown San Jose. We've been seeing them for 20 years now, those San Jose Jazz Festival early birds, streaming into the Plaza de Cesar Chavez with their lawn chairs and umbrellas in tow, staking out the best shady spots from which to savor the jazz wailers, the blues belters, the New Orleans rhythm kings.

Groups like the Wild Magnolias, the venerable second-line funk band from the Big Easy. They were Saturday's opening act on the main stage at the 20th annual festival, which continues today on nine stages.

The group, a number of its members extravagantly beplumed, Mardi Gras-style, was tempting the crowd Saturday with "Iko Iko," the oft-covered tune from New Orleans:

Talkin 'bout

Hey now

Hey now

Iko iko an nay

Jockomo feena ah na nay

Jockomo feena nay.

Translation: Get on your feet and dance.

Which Fred Harris, an amateur saxophonist from the East Bay who spent a year or two in New Orleans in the 1980s, was doing with half a dozen members of his extended family.