It was salsa on the eve of the Summer Solstice Sunday 20 June as the 4th Toronto Dance Salsa Amateur Competition wrapped up with the 2010 Finals. The five finalists --
Couple 1 - Jamie & Steve; Couple 2 - Elise & Olivier; Couple 3 - Joanna & Orlando; Maysa & Omid; Joanna & Orlando; Elise & Olivier; Couple 4 - Maysa & Omid; Couple 5 - Julia & Miroslav --
ramped up their game for Sunday Night and the crowd loved almost every note!
Many of the competitors included tricks, lifts, and aerials to their choreographed routines. One competitor when asked about where they picked up some of their patterns simply said everywhere. In reality, they did their homework, taking lifts and tricks workshops at the March 2010 March Toronto Salsa Festival and Oscar and Tania's April 2010 Lifts Workshop, bringing them home and working them.
Choreographing a competition routine is fraught with decisions. What music to choose; what turn patterns and combinations and what order to execute them to work the music to its max; go crazy with complex aerials - or - go conservative with less complex tricks but effortlessly executed.
In the end, it wasn't just lifts and aerials, the six judges carefully evaluated the competitors on how they worked the music or musicality, timing not only to the beat, but were the turns and turn patterns finished on time, not late or early; technical aspects as in how cleanly and smoothly the turn patterns were executed, lead and follow; showmanship as in how the couple engaged the audience and 'brought' the audience into their routine.
The couples who executed 'clean' routines, engaged the crowd, made the fewest visible mistakes, smoothly and effortlessly executed the fundamentals - turns, lead and follow, synchronized movement on shines/solo work made the top three.
The very dapper and polished MC George could make a lot of money working the MC circuit. His stature alone captures and keeps the crowd attention. And that's before he utters a single word.
The competition and the shows portion of the evening ran like a well oiled Swiss watch. Not a second wasted as the competitors were brought to the stage and introduced and performed.
Not a second was wasted in staging the performances for both locations in Six Degrees, the stage and the floor.
When the dust settled and we mean when the dust settled after five engaging and entertaining competition pieces and eight performances, the moment of truth came. Which one of the five competing couples would take first place?
The Top 3 of the 4th Annual Toronto Dance Salsa are: First - Elise & Olivier; Second - Julia & Miroslav; Third - Jamie & Steve.
Congratulations to all of the competitors for their hard work and bravery for putting it all out before a huge crowd and having their routines being judged.
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