Korean Job Discussion Forums

[wanderingsalsero]

Hi Salsa Fans:

I was in Seoul last night (Wednesday) and found a poster promoting something called "2007 Asian Latin Culture Festival". Sounds sorta contradictory doesn't it?

Anyway....this is what's called a 'congress' in official, English speaking parlance. It's basically a weekend of hot dancing and workshops and contests (or some combination thereof).

The official website is www.asianlatinfestival.com but there's not a whole lot of content there.

All I know is that it kicks off with a big dance at Turn (salsa club) in Gangnam tonight. If it's anything likek the states, there might be an increased admittance/cover charge at the door but I won't know til I get there. I'm sure it'll be packed though. Most if not all of the performers from the congress will be there.

I don't remember what's going on Friday and Saturda night. Usually on these types of things there's a series of shows early in the evening followed by a dance starting later and extending into the wee hours of the morning.

I'm coming into town this evening for the dance at Turn and plan on staying in a jimjilbang. I've got one class here at school in Namyangju at 2pm Friday so I'll come back for that, then go back to Seoul later for whatever is going on Friday night. Then I plan on staying in town, again probably at a jimjilbang again, then participating in whatever is going on Saturda....and the same routine into Sunday. According to what little info I could discern from the website, the actual 'workshops' are Sunday. Usually, in the US, there's two days of workshops but here.........whatever.

Thought ya'll might like to know. If any of you would like to rendezvous with me so we could hang out at the event together, let me know at 010 9122 8095.

Also, FYI, I stopped by Maconda (salsa club) last night (I finally found it). One of the reasons it's so darn hard to find is because the sign isn't lighted (at least it wasn't last night). According to what I read on galbijim.com it was supposed to be open but apparently that info is no longer accurate.

So I started wondering around that area and I stumbled across another club I'd read about called 'Boston'. It's just down the street about a blog. It's a small club and there was a lesson going on when I was there. The teacher didn't seem very friendly but everybody else was. Majority of the students were beginners.

Then as I was walking along the street on the way back to the subway I noticed another club I'd read about called Bahia. It also was small but they let me peek in to see what it looked like and it was packed!

Eventually I'm going to get pictures and better directions to these places.

Meanwhile, don't forget that I want to put together a small but dedicated group of people who want to learn salsa, casino rueda style, together and hang out together. I've got 3 or 4 people already.

I've got a whole collection of all the classic casino rueda patterns that we can learn from plus I pretty much know the basic ones already....so there's plenty of resources for us to learn from. And lots of these patterns can be found, in video, on the net already.

Lemme know if you're interested in that.

Best regards,
Art

p.s. I'm going to start doing a regular weekly, live, interactive podcast about ESL and salsa in Korea (great combination, eh?). For now, I'll be using www.talkshoe.com. Take a look at it yourself and if you'd like to be on the 'show'.....lemme know. It'll be fun.

[matthews_world]

Love salsa on my Mexican food but other than that, you might be disappointed with the lack of interest in Hispanic dance here in Korea.

I've seen the weekly open dance competitions on TV here in Korea, perhaps on SBS Sports but from my experience there doesn't seem to be much of a market for it.

There seems to be quite a few of what seems to be some kind of Latin dance dress shops on the streamside Jeongno-3ga. Explore those shops there, bring a Korean friend to translate. Also hit Itaewon for a few dance schools strewn throughout.

[wanderingsalsero]

Hey Matthew:

Interest in salsa dancing, as a percentage of the general population, is about the same here as it is in Houston. No....I'm not dissappointed at all.

Actually the dancers here are pretty fanatic about their salsa. In some ways, moreso than in the US.

Best regards,
Art