Korean Job Discussion Forums

[wanderingsalsero]

[Colleen]

Hello,
I have yet to experience the Salsa scene in Korea, but am keenly interested to do so. I used to love going to Salsa bars in Toronto, although I'm definitely not an expert. Is there a salsa scene in Suwon?

Colleen

[wanderingsalsero]

Hi Colleen:

Just saw your message and I think you definately need to join our Meetup group at http://salsa.meetup.com/343/ , AKA Korea Carruseles Meetup
Group.

If you like to salsa then you'll definately like Seoul but, to my knowledge, there's no salsa going on in Suwon. But maybe you could start something up there?

But, regarding Seoul, it's definately world class in terms of the clubs. Some of the dancers are very good. Koreans are all ate up with the "L.A." style stuff and the biggest problem they have is that they're too mechanical and it seems that many of them don't really dance on time.

Point is.....they're really into 'tricks' and when they dance with somebody they don't know and who hasn't been to the same classes they have theyh often are totally lost.

But there's at least 10 great clubs in Seoul. The newest one, where I happen to be hosting my Meetup group now, is Top Salsa Club in Apgujeong. Check my blog too for some videos ( http://koreacarruseles.com )

Back to Suwon, I was there for an orientation seminar put on my Gyeonggi-do for high school teachers. Suwon is pretty good size...I think. And I think it perhaps could have a scene.

My suggestion would be that you join our Meetup group and we'll do what we can to help you establish a Korea Carruseles Meetup Group down in that area. I'd say that you probably could find a club down around there that would play some salsa music for you one night a week if you'd promise to try to get some people into the club. That's what I'd do.

Assuming you can dance reasonably well, you'll find that Korean guys will ask you to dance. Lots of them are shy about asking foreigners to dance but the guys who aren't shy are very bold and aggressive in asking you to dance (if they see that you can).

As for your potential friendships with Korean salseras, most of them are very nice and you'll probably find a few you can relate to if you spend some time trying to do so.

As to where you'll find locals vs. other 'foreigners' (we're considered foreigners here in case you have figured that out yet ......just about the only club where you'll find foreigners for sure is Caliente in Itaewon and Macondo in Hongdae. At Gachi there's a slight possibility and also at Bonita. At the other clubs, it would just depend but the odds would be slight.

If you want some assistence in getting injected into the local scene my other suggestion would be to fly with me some night when I'm going dancing. I'll dance with you so everyone can see that you can dance and then I'll introduce to you anybody else I know in the club and try to help you break the ice.

Feel free to give me a call anytime at 010 9122 0895.

Best regards,
Art Williams
the WanderingSalsero