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Salsa & Mambo Video Reviews

 

Tomaj Trenda


Salsa with Tomaj - Beginners Vol 1

Level: Beginners

Style: LA

Content: Basic elements.

General Comment:In my opinion Tomaj is at his best with his beginner material, and this DVD offers the same attention to detail which you also find in his Latin Motion Demystified. Tomaj and Susie may not be flashy dancers, nor the role models you may want to aspire to in your wildest salsa dreams, but the purpose of an instructor is to instruct, not to arouse adulation, and Tomaj fills the role pretty well in this DVD. He analyses the components of the dance very well, dissecting the elements and explaining them carefully. I like his emphasis on the proper position of the body weight, the attention to the footwork and to the hand hold in order to get a proper lead and following technique from the very start.

Of course, take 10 teachers and you will be taught in 11 different ways, so no DVD should be taken as a Bible; if you decide to learn from Tomaj’s, remember that he teaches salsa on1, LA style, which makes his salsa powerful and somehow ‘large’, but if you absorb this material well, it should enable you to dance a reasonable salsa with most people you are likely to meet in a salsa club. The only drawback of the DVD: it is only 30 minutes long.. more material could have been included in it, but, at the end of the day, it is still better to have less than more, if less means accurate material, and more means the quality of the teaching is poor, and this DVD fall into the first category.

Reviewed by Fabio - Good


Salsa with Tomaj - Beginners Vol 2

Level: Beginners

Style: LA

Content: Basic turn patterns.

General Comment:As the name suggests this is the continuation of the Beginner vol 1 DVD with which it shares the approach, structure and quality of teaching. The purpose is to give you a flavour of what salsa can offer once the really fundamental elements are under control and to prepare you to deal with the intricacies of intermediate and advanced salsa to come. It does so by showing you some basic salsa shines (solo footwork), basic left turns for leader and follower, cross body lead and hammerlock, all in slightly different variations. For the students who strive for structure he also puts these elements together at the end of the DVD. Same drawback as in Vol 1: the DVD could have been longer and Tomaj more generous with teaching material, but the quality is there.

Reviewed by Fabio - Good


Salsa with Tomaj - Intermediate Vol 1

Level: Beg/ Intermediate

Style: LA

Content: Turn patterns.

General Comment:Salsa, as with many other things, follows fashion. People used to dance Colombian style, then LA or Cuban.. today if you want to be ‘in’ you have to dance NY on2. In a perfect world of perfect leaders and followers this would not matter much: you go on the dancer floor and you just dance. However, the world is not perfect, and in a world of imperfect leaders and imperfect followers dancing a unfashionable style may make things uncomfortable on the dance floor. This DVD, teaches an old fashioned salsa, the one which used to be danced in LA many years ago.. a sort of ‘early LA style’ and if you decide to follow this teaching method and salsa style it is important you are aware of this. If this is not a problem for you, then Tomaj does a fairly good job of explaining the material and how to lead it.

The DVD is suitable for a beginner or early intermediate student. It introduces some basic footwork and a set of basic turns, including CrossBody lead, inside turns and travelling left and right turns. The DVD is only 30 minutes long and surely more material could be packed in it, but Tomaj’s teaching style clearly focuses on taking you through all elements at a slow pace, something which beginner or early intermediate dancers may find comfortable

Reviewed by Fabio - OK


Salsa with Tomaj - Intermediate Vol 2

Level: Beg/ Intermediate

Style: LA

Content: Turn patterns.

General Comment:For a general comment on this salsa series, you may want to read my review of the Intermediate Vol 1. Vol2 obviously takes you one step further in Tomaj’s program. You will learn more footwork, CrossBody leads with turns, the copa (though this curiously differs from what is generally called copa or in-and-out), spot turns, wraps, hand checks and hand drops; finally a short turn pattern at the end combined with some of the basic material. As in Vol 1, this DVD is also slightly longer than 30 minutes; if you learn all the material contained in the DVD (together with Vol 1), you may expect to be able to dance a reasonable salsa, nothing fancy, but enough to step on the dance floor and feel secure. Tomaj teaches well, explaining things clearly, and the camera views allow an understanding of all details. A product for early intermediate dancers.

Reviewed by Fabio - OK


Salsa with Tomaj - Beginning Merengue & ChaCha

Level: Beg/Intermediate

Style: LA

Content: Basic Elements and Turn patterns.

General Comment:Tomaj's rationale for this DVD is as follows: when you go to a salsa club, you will hear some Merengue and some Cha Cha Cha, so you'd better know how to dance to them. It makes sense. So Tamaj assumes you already know a little bit of salsa and makes the most of that knowledge to take you quickly through the basic elements of these two dances. He does so by focussing on the basic steps and the basic body motion for Merengue and then by showing some basic turn patterns. Since this is all relatively easy, the turn patterns are demonstrated and explained directly while the couple dances to music.. I liked the idea, since it makes the DVD flow without focussing on needless repetitions.

A similar format is used for Cha Cha Cha. This is taught on2, and you will be shown basic steps, a couple of turns, a cross body lead and a couple of variations, inspired by the ballroom repertoire. If you need instruction to get going quickly into these two dances this DVD will do the job .

Reviewed by Fabio - Good


Salsa with Tomaj - Latin Motion Demystified

Level: Beg

Style: LA

Content: Body movement and style.

General Comment:If you were born in the Caribbean or in Africa, you would probably wonder why anyone should need to learn the ‘Latin motion’. Similarly, if you have danced salsa for many years, you may not even remember the days when you needed to learn how to coordinate the movement of your hips to your feet and make your salsa look natural. Still, this is a common problem for beginner dancers, as well as for many experienced dancers who simply ‘try too hard’ and end up looking ridiculous by displaying a hip movement so exaggerated that it would look bizarre even to the most flamboyant of Caribbean dancers.

Also, even if you ‘just have it’ and your dancing is nice and fluid, it may not be easy to explain exactly how you do it and to break down the movement of each part of your body, beat by beat and train a beginner dancer. I used to do it in my classes and I know it is not easy. Tomaj did all this for you and compressed it into this DVD. He shows you how to move the hips, then feet, and then knees, how to coordinate all this to the beat of the music and most importantly, how all this relates to the weight shifting from one leg to the other so that the result looks natural. Tomaj explains all this very well, and his partner Susie shows it equally well. This level of detail, as well as the content, is hard to find in any other DVD, which makes this production even more useful. I would recommend it to all beginner dancers..

Reviewed by Fabio - Recommended


 

 

 

 

 

 

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