Mexico: Oaxaca Salsa & Bachata Festival
Translated from the French original — read it here.
26/03/2015
Yes, I know, all I think about is dancing.. Right, I didn't go to Oaxaca solely because of this festival, but partly, all the same :). On the congress banners it said: "La capital salsa de México"... and I thought... they're going a bit strong on the superlatives there. Well, no — nobody seems to dispute the title, and I understand why. I've done a fair number of congresses in my life, but this one is unique in several respects:
- -The age of the performers/competitors is very low; a good number of teenagers were on stage.
- The number of quality shows is very, very high!
- The venue is genuinely chingón! A very classy hotel — it's always pleasant to be at a congress where everything is on site, and the town centre was only 15 minutes' walk away on top of that.
- there was a pool party :D
This city really does breathe salsa, which explains why they start practising so early and, by the time they've grown up... well, they're seriously good...
I had a very good time at this congress. On the floor the level of the dancers was very good, and on all three nights I was there pretty much until closing; on the Saturday I even carried on to the after-party (I'm too old for this s... :D ).
Alongside that, Mexicans are genuinely friendly and I very quickly made new acquaintances, curious to know what I was doing there. As a result I barely spent a single moment on my own after arriving.
The strong point of this festival, for me, is the quality of the shows. I've been going to salsa festivals for more than 12 years now and I've rarely seen a line-up this well stocked. I was particularly impressed by Enrique y Lorenita:
There were some very impressive bachata shows too, including this one:
And my personal favourite goes to the following show — very far from the most impressive of all the ones at this festival (in terms of acrobatics and so on), but it's good mambo just how I like it. Gentlemen, if you come across Maritza at a social, don't hesitate to ask her to dance: she dances incredibly well and she's very, very nice on top of that:
Right, one last video, for the debate :D, on a style of performance fairly common in Oaxaca: the "same gender" category, where two men or two women dance together. I know not everyone is a fan, but staying objective, you can only admit... that the dancing is very, very good: