UofC Ballroom now in Chinese!

So I was doing a search and I found this site:

http://tw.youtube.com/uofcballroom

Taiwanese youtube! With our performances! We're officially international now =)

(I think this works for every language, but I think it's pretty funny that google gave me the tw.youtube site instead of just the regular ol' youtube)

Summer Workshops & Open Salsa!

We are pleased to announce that we will host Salsa Workshops this Summer Quarter.

First, we are offering a joint Continuing/Intermediate Workshop, every Monday night at 7pm followed by Open Salsa at 8pm, starting June 30 at Ida Noyes Cloister Club. These are an excellent way to be introduced to new styles and particular techniques that will make your dancing easier, and more enjoyable.

The workshops will be taught by many of our instructors and are open to anyone who has completed Beginning Salsa I & II or with instructor approval. In case you have not completed the requirement or feel a little rusty (but still have some Salsa experience) we will have a 2-hour 'leveling workshop' on Thursday, June 26 at 7pm in Ida Noyes to get you in salsa shape and ready for the workshops.

For complete Beginners, we'll have a Introduction to Salsa workshop on Thursday, July 3. Depending on the attendance, we will consider having more Beginner's workshops

The cost is $5 per workshop.

The schedule so far is

- Thursday, June 26, 7pm: "2-hour Leveling Workshop" with Felipe & Anne
- Monday June 30, 7pm: "Musicality" with Pranjal & Rie
- Thursday, July 3, 7pm: "Beginner's workshop" with Stephen & Rie
- Monday July 7, 7pm: "Dips" with James & Rie
- Monday, July 14, 7pm: TBA
- Monday, July 21, 7pm: "Cuban Salsa" with Alberto & Anne
- Monday, July 28, 7pm: "Salsa on-2" with Alex & Mary
- Monday, August 11, 7pm: "Rueda Style" with Felipe & Sheila
- Monday, August 18, 7pm: TBA
- Monday, August 25, 7pm: "Jumbo sequence & Styling" with Felipe & Sheila

For the specific schedule of instructors and topics, please visit our Google Galendar.

Any questions please write to bldapresident@uchicago.edu, bldatreasurer@uchicago.edu or salsa@uchicago.edu.

Hope to see you soon, and keep dancing!

June 2008 Salsa Party Pics!

We had an awesome time dancing Salsa, Bachata, Merengue, Chacha, Bolero, Reggaeton at Barlett! To see the pictures click here. Enjoy!

Latin Dance Party!

Good evening everyone,

I just wanted to remind you all that on tomorrow (Saturday the 7th), we will be having our last Latin Dance Party of the quarter.

It will be located at 5640 S. University Ave. there will be signs pointing you to the correct room.

The Schedule:
5-6pm Latin Night Club Dance Workshop (Salsa, Merengue) with Sasha ($5)
7-7:30pm Free Bachata Lesson
7:30-11pm Latin Dance Party! Refreshments provided. Raffle for a surprise CD! ($3)

Hope to see you all there,
Gal

New Website!

We'd like to announce that we are renovating our website, to make it more modern, interactive and fun. We released the beta version at

http://ballroom.uchicago.edu/beta/Ballroom/Home.html

Please check it! The new features include:

- A brand-new Blog, where you can subscribe to get the latest news, pics, reviews, and videos! and you can comment and give us feedback!
- Pages for our Ballroom Team and new Salsa Performance Group
- New albums in our Pictures page. Please send us yours too!
- More links and a list of our new awesome instructors and TAs!

Bookmark it, along with our blog, since it will be where we will put our latest news and announcements.

Please let us know of any comments, suggestions and ideas to bldawebmaster@uchicago.edu

Enjoy and keep dancing!

Actividad Cultural Credit

From now on, students taking Spanish 101 through Spanish 203 can get one cultural credit (Actividad Cultural Credit) for taking our classes (sequences).
You will get only 1 credit, regardless of how many classes you take.

The classes that will count towards Actividad Cultural are all levels of Salsa, Cuban Salsa, and Rueda, as well as Merengue, and Bachata workshops.

All students who wish to get credit need to sign in with the tabling person during the first week of class and provide:
1) your name
2) the Spanish course you are currently taking
3) your professor's/instructor's name for this Spanish course.

Enjoy!

New BLDA Salsa Performance Group!

I'd like to announce that in view of the success of our performances and the interest of many of you, we have decided to form (or better, formalize), our own Salsa Performance Group. It's an opportunity to learn new and more advanced moves, perfect and polish the known ones, and showcase your talents to your friends and fellow students. The goal is to learn and prepare performances to be shown mainly on our salsa parties but also in events such as OLAS, ManosUnidas, Dance Marathon, where people can learn more about our club and join us in the fun of dance!

What is the format? Starting on the Fall, we'll meet once a week to learn the moves, sequence them and getting them ready to be performed by the end of quarter salsa party and in the winter quarter. In the winter, we'll start preparing the sequences for spring quarter. Also, more dedicated dancers can work in parallel performances.

Who can join? Since it is a more advanced class, we'll accept people who has attended & completed our Intermediate I & II Salsa sequences. People who has not attended this but wants to participate will be evaluated in an audition during the Fall or the summer. Let us know if that's your case. Since we will go in a faster pace and it is a group effort, you are expected to commit strongly to come every week.

How can I join? We will start lessons formally in the Fall Quarter, so you can join us there. However, we'd like very much that you can tell us if you are interested in attending, so we can have an idea of how many people are involved. Let me know at fmarinp at uchicago dot edu. Also, if you are going to be here during the summer, tell us, and, depending on the audience, we can start in advance in polishing technique and new moves.

Write us! In summary, write me (fmarinp at uchicago dot edu) if you are interested in participating with us, and whether you have completed Intermediate level, and if you'd like to start rehearsing during the summer.

Thanks, and looking forward to dance with you!

Felipe Marin
BLDA Salsa Chair

Amanda & Rie's Choreography at OLAS!

See Rie, Pranjal, James & Felipe's performance at the OLAS Show!



If you can't see the video, click here to go to the original page

Sean's Choreography at OLAS!

Watch our own Anne, Danielle, Alex & Stephen at the OLAS show!



If you can't see the video, click here to go to the original page.

Election Results

I would like to begin by thanking our outgoing executive board: Sasha Belyi, Danielle Zheng, Felipe Marin and HQ Han, for leading our club wonderfully throughout the year. Danielle and Sasha, your presence will be missed.

I would also like to say farewell to three of our board members: Matt Holden, Pranjal Patel, and Danielle Zheng. We will miss you greatly as you move on next year; please make sure to come back and visit us.

Our Results for this year's Executive Board:
President - AnnMarie Micikas (rie@uchicago.edu)
Vice President - Gal Oppenheimer (blda@uchicago.edu, gal@uchicago.edu)
Treasurer - Anne Clark (aclark2010@uchicago.edu)
Secretary - Gal Oppenheimer
Salsa Chair - Felipe Marin (fmarinp@uchicago.edu)
Team Captain: HQ Han (ballroomteam@uchicago.edu, hqhan@uchicago.edu)

Our Team Board:
Rookie Captain - Anna Scott (aascott@uchicago.edu)
Competition Coordinator - Sheng Wang (swang1@medicine.bsd.uchicago.edu)


For all general inquires regarding the Ballroom and Latin Dance Association, please contact me at blda@uchicago.edu. However, over the summer, as I will not be in Chicago, for inquires specifically related to summer classes please contact AnnMarie, Anne, or Felipe. Otherwise you can email me and I will forward them onwards as necessary. For all general questions related to the ballroom team, please contact Anna. Additionally, as HQ will be abroad fall quarter, the Rookie Captain, Anna will be Acting Team Captain in her absence. Therefore, during the fall quarter, please contact Anna for all questions regarding the ballroom team. For all outreach inquires, please contact Sasha Belyi at ballroom@uchicago.edu.

Thanks,
Gal

A letter from Sasha

Dear all,

This is my end-of-the-year letter to all of you. Please read it and think of it what you will. I’ll be happy to respond to any comments and thoughts you have about it.

First, to throw this out there, this is probably the last e-mail you will be getting from me, as I am not planning to run for President for next year. I would like to thank everyone who has been supporting me throughout the last couple of months while I have been making this decision.

RE-CAP OF THIS YEAR:
Well, this is it, the end of the 07-08 year. We have had a bumpy, nevertheless, a very successful year. We almost doubled the number of classes offered. We increased our teaching staff. We successfully performed at OLAS show, IHouse Festival of the Nations, Manos Unidas Party, as well as cooperated with UBallet, RBIM, UofC Spanish Club, Dance Marathon, and Kuvia Winter Festival. We have successfully competed at a number of collegiate competitions in the Midwest area, placing in the finals every time. We have worked a lot on our Salsa Curriculum, updating, revising, and bettering it every quarter. We finally wrote and ratified a Constitution for our organization. Also, we produced To-Do’s and Team Manuals, in efforts to ensure smooth transitions in the future.

Personally, I have learned a lot this year, so have everyone at the BLDA, and I hope all of you as well. I was very happy to observe many of you in classes, and see you progress with every week.
Looking back at my three years with BLDA, we have improved and grown a lot since I came to UChicago. For this, I would like thank all of the people working with me on the Board of BLDA, as well as all of you, our students. Without you, we would not have a reason to exist! Without you, I would have nothing to do! I am also grateful to our advisor for always finding time to meet with me, listen to my complaints, and help me solve problems.

NEXT YEAR:
Next year promises to be even more exciting! We will continue offering our Beginning I through Intermediate II sequences, as well as Rueda I through IV and Cuban I though IV classes. We are hoping to have beginning Ballroom classes for all 20 Ballroom dances (Latin, Standard, Rhythm, and Smooth) as well as fun dances. We will also have intermediate Latin and Standard classes and weekly workshops covering nightclub dances such as Merengue and Bachata.

Of course, as always, there is room for improvement, as well as for other projects. In the past few years, we have been working with South Side schools, bringing dance to students as a part of their schools’ after-school or Saturday programs. One of my personal projects for next year will be work closely with various community service organizations on campus, as well as the Chicago’s program “Having a Ball” to formally establish a well-organized outreach program from UChicago to for all CPS students. I’ll also be working closely with various University bodies and student dance groups to improve overall quality of dance programming on campus.

PRESIDENCY:
Executive Board Elections will be taking place this Sunday, June 1, and before this date I would like to announce that I will not be running for re-election. I have had three wonderful years with the BLDA, starting out as a regular instructor and quickly rising up to the leadership positions of VP last year and President this year. I am very grateful to everyone who has been supporting me during these three years. Thank you all!

Right now, I believe it is time for me to step down and let others take charge of the organization. This decision was not easy for me to make, but ultimately, I believe it is the right one. In the next few weeks, I will be working with the newly elected Executive Board to ensure smooth transition. Next year, I will still be around, teaching Salsa and Ballroom and being otherwise involved with the dance scene on campus, however, I will not be playing any role in the administration of the BLDA.

CONTACTS:
Some names/e-mail you should be aware of now are:

Gal Oppenheimer: gal@uchicago.edu – will be the contact for administrative matters of BLDA
HQ Han: hqhan@uchicago.edu – will be the contact for the Ballroom Team
Current team captain should also be reachable at ballroomteam@uchicago.edu
Felipe Marin: fmarinp@uchicago.edu – will be the contact for Advanced Salsa/Performance matters, as well as any new instructors interested in teaching for us
The new president chosen on Sunday will be reachable at blda@uchicago.edu
All outreach inquiries should be sent to me (ballroom@uchicago.edu) or to the new president
I will still be reachable at ballroom@uchicago.edu and abelyi@uchicago.edu, but again, I will no longer be involved with the administration of the BLDA.

You can find all our up-to-date contact information on the ORCSA website: https://studentactivities.uchicago.edu/php/public/detail.php?org=54
or on our website: http://ballroom.uchicago.edu/docs/contact.html

SUMMER 08:
The new president will announce our summer classes in a couple of weeks. Watch your e-mails and our website: http://ballroom.uchicago.edu/docs/lessons.html.

Do not forget about Summer Dance in the Loop: http://www.ChicagoSummerDance.org

AUTUMN 08:
BLDA will have a welcome-back party on Saturday, October 18, from 7 to 11pm at Ida Noyes Hall 3rd floor Theater.

I hope everyone had a good year, and I am wishing all of you a great summer and a great 08-09!

See you on the dance floor!

Sasha
President
ballroom@uchicago.edu
May 30, 2008

Stan's Salsa Performance

A performance by our President Emeritus Salsa Stan, now in UPenn:

Click To Play

If you can't see the video, click here

Welcome!

This is the first post of the UofC Ballroom & Latin Dance Association. Enjoy!