SHOW UP ft. Natasha Barrera

This very special episode of Salsa Kings Live is all about how you can apply dance as well as the lessons this podcast gives about dance to your daily life. Andres is joined by fellow dance teacher Natasha Ferrera. Natasha is a second generation ballroom dancer with twenty-six years of dancing to her name and is versed in twenty-nine dances as both lead and follow.

SWAGGER

Today we’re going to talk about attitude and style in this podcast, or to use a particular term; swagger. Yes, it is time to talk about the ineffable quality that you bring to the dance through attitude and confidence. It’s not something you can quantify, but it’s something you can always tell when somebody has it. This ties into a previous episode and the concept of juice. What does it mean to have swagger? Dancing will always have some form of swagger, a little bit of showing off.

FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH ft. Jose Luis Gutierrez

The Fountain of Youth was said to be in Florida, where Ponce De Leon searched for it. Today, Andres is joined by Jose Luis Gutierrez to discuss their own search for the fountain of youth, metaphorically. Jose Luis has spent twenty years owning a dance studio and teaching dance and seventeen years as the founder of the Orlando Salsa Congress.

SOUL VS. EGO

In this episode Andres explains the difference and conflict between soul and ego. Where is your dance coming from? Your soul or your ego? Which one is your dance feeding? And what is the difference? Psychologically, these are generally referred to as the Superego (the soul) and the id (ego). Note that Andres is using a different, more vernacular definition of ego than the psychological one.

SABOR LATINO TV ONLINE ft. Jeannette Fiallo and Andres Fernandez

This episode, Andres welcomes guest Jeanette Fiallo as they talk ‘Spanglish’, the amalgamation of the languages of two neighboring nations that created its own culture by mixing. A good deal of this episode mixes both those languages as many hispanic people who have been born in America do.

SEASONS IN SONG

Today, Andres is going to talk about song structure and how it relates to your dance and enjoyment. He refers to the patterns in songs ‘seasons’. Much as a year has a cycle of change throughout the year, songs will go through changes as they play. Recognizing these seasons and moving with them are key to dance.

CLARITY ft. Mari Martinez

This episode has Andres welcomes Mari Martinez to the podcast. They discuss the subject of clarity. Mari is a dancer who owns a studio and comes from the competitive world. Mari discusses how once she was into competition and took it very seriously, before realizing it was negatively affecting her path through dance. She decided to focus more on the parts of dance that offered her joy.

WHO ARE YOU?

On this episode, Andres is accompanied by Mari Martinez to talk about self-awareness and knowing who you are. Who are you? There is nothing more fun or effortless than being yourself, so the best way to have a blast on the dance floor is to do that. Too many dancers try too hard to emulate other dancers, try to copy their heroes rather than excel at that. You’ll never be better at being someone else than they already are, but nobody is going to be as good at being you as you are. The biggest way to be the best at dancing is to make it easier, to make it feel more natural. That’s best accomplished by being able to feel comfortable in your own skin. You’ll also have more fun by not being so self-conscious.

MIAMI BUSINESS ft. Andres Fernandez

This is, of course, a podcast about salsa dancing, but Andres has been on other podcasts as well. In this episode, Andres shares an interview by Wilson Alvarez of Miami Business with him and his own experience in learning to dance. It all started when another man danced with Andres’ girlfriend in high school. Motivation can come from all sorts of places, and the need to impress your girl is no different. This is what lit the fire for Andres to finally start learning how to dance. The things that start your careers, huh? That being a motivator was far from something that diminished dance for Andres, however. Far from it, it made him realize the value of being able to share such an artistic experience with his partner.

JUICE!

Are you thirsty? You need the juice to get your dance going. Andres talks about how he himself never got himself a playlist of his favorite music: the thing that gets you the juice, that pumps you up for your performance. Andres asks you to, if you haven’t already, to make a list like this for yourself. Once you listen to these songs, you should try and connect to them, to see what emotions these songs instill in you, the kind of energy -the juice- it gives you. Many of you have probably already done that, but when you listen to this music do you have to work to connect to the music or do you feel connected to it immediately?