Salsa Congress... plus my spark for dance reignited!

This past weekend was the Korean Salsa Congress in Seoul. Looking back on it I can honestly say that I had no idea what I was getting myself into. At the Babalu salsa party about a month back, Spin (the Korean guy running the Congress) approached me to ask if I could "volunteer" my time to help translate a little for some Colombian and Venezuelan dance groups that they had coming in, and they would put me up in a hotel and pay for my food. He neglected to mention that the Colombians, from a group called Swing Latino, are the current World Champions in group salsa and that there would be several other World Champions there. Um yea.

So I arrive in Seoul on Thursday night after having left directly from work and after a full day of work, 2 hours on the KTX train, and over an hour on the Seoul subway I get to a dance club where I'm expected to hang out and dance until 3:30 in the morning. (Oh and this was the earliest night I had all weekend). It is important to emphasize that being the airhead that I am I had no idea who any of these people were. Anyways, so I introduced myself to all the people from the groups and I translated everything that Spin said. All pretty normal considering that I was asked to be a translator. Then I'm told I'm in charge of getting everyone settled in their rooms, getting them up the next morning - at 8AM, mind you - and then getting them all together and onto a bus for workshops.

The woman that I was supposed to be doing this with, Suk Ja, was a Korean lady who speaks some English, but definitely not enough to not make my weekend ultra frustrating. She would constantly tell me one thing and then 5 minutes later tell me another. Only to then change her mind yet again in another 10. This chick was seriously the most a-typical Korean woman I've ever met. She dresses slightly scandalously, although she definitely does not have the typical petite Korean frame, she smokes and oh did I mention, she has no grasp of logic (although that last one is actually typical of many Koreans). So basically I ended up doing her job. Not only did I translate, I was in charge of all the international dancers (not just the Colombians and Venezuelans). I had to find them food and on several occasions get them around the city. But let's not forget I DON'T LIVE IN SEOUL! Whatever! Luckily I did have the help of a Korean guy named Simon, who was the other translator, but he only spoke Korean and Spanish. At the workshops we would have to be together because the dancers only spoke Spanish and most of the people spoke Korean but some dancers from Taiwan and Japan did not speak Spanish or Korean so I would have to translate it in English. Ridiculous!

Friday they had workshops all day, a big performance that night at the Seoul Opera House and then again dancing until the wee hours of the morning afterwards. That night at the performance I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off, trying to get everyone to where they were supposed to be and find dressing rooms and get the judges to their places, it was not my job to be a backstage manager, but there I was. And I kept getting lost backstage. Ahh! But it all turned out ok. Except for the part where Spin was trying to introduce the Colombians and then he turns to the packed Opera House floor and says "Susy I need you" so there I am running like an idiot,with everyone laughing at me. So I get onstage not knowing what the hell I'm expected to do. And I ended up trying to say a few words in Korean and they all laughed at me. Oh yea... ha ha ha... laugh at the weiguk. What else is new? After the performance we danced at Club Top all night. We went home at about 5AM. But I had to get up at 6AM to wake up some of the dancers that were supposed to fly out to China. Then again at 8AM to get everyone up. Exhausting!

Saturday was about the same thing. Workshops all day, but this time they said the bus couldn't come to get us so I ended up having to get them to Club Top for the workshops on two taxis. For the record I hate being in a car in Seoul. It's just not worth it. The subway is sooooo much faster. But at least the taxi ride was entertaining. The driver had a crush on Marayud and he kept saying to her "yepouda" which is Korean for pretty or beautiful and he made them give him their autographs. It was pretty hilarious. He said his name was Mr. Moon and he kept shouting their names so they would shout his back. It was a pretty fun taxi ride. Then that night they had another performance, only this time no one had given me a schedule, no one had prepped anything. I saw right it before the show was about to start. None of the dancers had even seen it. It turns out that they had Billy and Katie performing less than 10 minutes after he had finished judging for a routine that is so extremely difficult (well you guys can judge: it's just below). So I had to run around and get the Suk Ja to change the show order. At this point no one has even collected the dancers music, so I'm running around trying to explain to the DJ how to play the music (keep in mind, none of this is my job). Only at that point the judges were supposed to be going out to the judging table. Well since I was trying to do the music, I couldn't do it, seeing as I have not yet developed the ability to be in two places at once. No one else even bothers to think "oh wait, we're starting and the judges aren't out." So I realized this and I run backstage and I tell them we have to go. At this point Spin is all pissed off because one group already went and the judges didn't see it. I ended up fixing it and luckily the dancers realized that it wasn't my fault. I felt like it was a great compliment when Billy and Katie told Spin that "[I] did a great job and next year he needs 10 of [me]." Seriously, I got to the point where I was getting really stressed out. I was really annoyed that I was completely in charge of all that stuff. Who the heck am I, seriously? Anyways, after that performance we headed to the club again and I had to stick around until all the dancers left. So I didn't get to sleep until 5AM.

By Sunday I was completely drained what with less than 8 hours of sleep pretty much. But when I got up I had to meet with Spin and Marta to translate and then Spin tells me that the bus isn't coming to get us. So I tell this to the dancers. Then Suk Ja calls me, I tell her what Spin said and she's like "No no no, the bus will be there." So I tell this to the dancers. 5 minutes later she calls me again so tell me that the bus can't be there until later so we should take the subway as I had initially planned... this process went on for a little while. Needless to say I was getting a little peeved. Plus if I keep telling them different things then I'm the one that looks incompetent. In the end, I was like, "No that's it. I'm taking them on the subway." AAAHHH! In the end I took them on the subway, we got there on time, and everything was ok. I ended up leaving at like 4PM on Sunday even though I didn't really want to go, and the dancers wanted me to stay, but I knew I had a long day on Monday and I needed to sleep. I had even lost my voice. So I came back to Daegu.

Overall, it was a pretty draining weekend. Nevertheless, all of the petty annoyances were completely outweighed by how great of an experience I had with the dancers themselves. I spent the whole weekend with several dancers from Swing Latino (Kevin, Cristian, Nilson, Saray, Eliana, Deisy, and their director Marta), Grizzly and Marayud (a Cabaret salsa couple from Venezuela), Anya and Luis (one of the best-known On-2 salsa couples from New York), Victor and Burju (who are another On-2 couple from Boston who go by the stage name, Hacha y Machete), Olliver (an Australian guy, who is the current On-2 salsa champion with his partner Luda - who wasn't able to make it because she's on the Australian "Dancing with the Stars", Aki and Yasue (a couple from Japan), and Billy Fajardo and Katie Marlow (a couple who have been salsa champions forever, he is currently the head judge at the World Salsa Championships). I feel so priviledged to have met these people. The thing is that being as who they are, they could have all been total a-holes to me, but they were all the absolute nicest people ever. They even invited me to come hang out with them when they go to World's which are this December in Orlando. How cool is that?

The truth is that I didn't really realize the full extent of who most of these people were until I got back to Daegu on Sunday night. It turns out that I was dragging Billy Fajardo, the HEAD JUDGE of the most important salsa event ever around the Seoul Subway system. God I'm an airhead sometimes. But it all worked out ok. And all in all I feel pretty lucky.

And here are some videos of the dancers that I met:
This is the championship routine for the Swing Latino dance group. This is Cali style salsa from Cali, Colombia. It's pretty ridiculous the synchronization that they manage to have with their stunts and complex footwork.


This is Luis and Anya at the NYC Salsa Congress performing one of their routines. They are awesome!


This is Oliver, with his partner Luda, performing their championship routine at the '06 World Salsa Championships. They are fantastic!


This is Billy and Katie performing their best known routine "Conversation with a Snake." Keep in mind as you watch this, he is 51 and she is in her forties. It's absolutely amazing!