Dance, World Affairs, Traveling & Geek stuff from Puerto Vallarta
1.- Baila/Dance/Danse
2.- Viaja/Travel/Voyage 
3.- Trabaja/Work/Travail 
4.- Ayuda/Help/Aidé 
5.- Besa/Kiss/bisse 
6.- Cuida el ambiente/Protect the environment/Protegé la nature 
7.- Lee/read/Lire 
8.- Obra bien/Do good/Fais bien 
Continue reading “Deseos para el 2017/Wishes for 2017”
🎅🎄 I wish that you have spent a warm and cousy Christmas and that you have managed to be happy, or yet better to bring a moment of happiness to your loved ones or at least to the people around you that you sometimes don’t perceive. That was my case:
(Leer este post en Español aquí)
Disguised with some of the Santa Claus hats that I have used this year and in previous years, I went to Vallarta, Nuevo Vallarta and Punta Mita to greet some of the people that I see on a daily basis among hotel entertainers, waiters, hostesses, Trash pickers, maids, baristas and others to give them a brief surprise. I asked them to introduce their hand in a Christmas boot and take out the first thing they touched, which was a candy, a chewing gum, peanuts or a chocolate. Then I asked them to introduce their hand in another Christmas boot from where they pulled out a small toy or school accessory. (A Toy Kitten, A ball with the Avengers or Moana, Hello Kitty’s crayons, Jumping Ropes, etc.) I know they are adults and that they are not asking for toys but I also know it’s important to reconnect with our inner child. Continue reading “Merry Christmas”
(Read this post in English here)
🎅🎄 Deseo que se hayan pasado una Navidad cálida y que hayan logrado estar felices, o mejor aún transmitirle un momento de felicidad a sus seres queridos o por lo menos a la gente que les rodea y a veces ni percibimos. Ese fué mi caso:
Continue reading “¡Feliz Navidad!”
Los Orishas son los santos o deidades que se veneran en “La Santería”, religión Afrocubana. Si bien este blog no se trata de convertir a nadie en ninguna religión, es importante para todos los bailarines de Salsa Cubana conocerlos ya que es notable la influencia en la Salsa Casino de la danza afrocubana y ésta a su vez se distingue por pasos y estilos correspondientes a cada uno de los personajes (deidades) de la santería.
Hay una canción de Salsa de un señor llamado Adalberto Álvarez y su Son que me encanta para ilustrar de que va esta situación. Les comparto la canción y más abajo la letra de su rola para que bailen, se diviertan y se culturicen un poco sobre los Orishas. Continue reading “¿Y que tú quieres que te den?”
“El Respeto al Derecho Ajeno es la Paz.”
“Respecter les droits des autres est la paix.“
“Respecting others’ rights is peace.”
Continue reading “Día Internacional de los Derechos Humanos”
When I work as a dancer or dance instructor in hotels, is very common I have to wait a long time for the job to start. In one of the hotels I work on a weekly basis in Punta Mita, they have a bookshelf where Hotel Guests can leave their finished books so another one can read them. For some reason, it is mostly foreigners the ones who leave the books behinds. Mexican guests rarely leave their books behind. For that same reason, most of the books left at the bookshelf are in English, thus most of the Mexicans wandering there just leave without picking any book.
I got this habit of checking regularly there. When I find something really interesting, I leave one of my books in Spanish I read already and I take one with me. Last week, I was surprised to see that someone left “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.” This is the unofficial 8th book of Harry Potter’s Saga. It is unofficial as it was developped as an exercise by J.K Rowling, John Tiffany and Jack Thorne to imagine possible futures for Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy, Ron Weasley, Ginny and other characters. As far as I know it was not released massively as the other books. It was rather turned into a play by Jack Thorne and put on London Theaters at the end of July, 2016.
So it was extremely delightful to find this rehearsal storyline just there, in one forgotten corner at the bookshelf of the hotel. Hogwarts has been a peaceful place for 14 years. Harry Potter is reaching his 40’s and is father of Albus Severus Potter. Albus biggest problem is to deal with his fathers’ fame, and the weight of a family he never asked for. As past and present fuse in a magical way (we expected magic, didn’t we?) both Harry and his son Albus will learn that darkness comes from unexpected places.
I really enjoyed the book. Now there is a huge queue to read the book starting with my roomie Anton. In case you want to read it after, just raise the hand and leave me a comment here:
There are several ways to generate quality content on Social Media and engage with other users. One that I have used with success is Paper.li. Paper.li is a content curation service that let’s you turn socially shared content into nicely organized online newsletters. It can be configured in very few steps and it’s a powerful tool that helps you save time by surfacing content (blogs, articles, sites, video,images) and people who are interested in the same topics that you are! Continue reading “Engaging on Social Media with Paper Li Newspapers!”
Hip Hop at Los Mangos’ Library 20th Anniversary in Malecón Puerto Vallarta
Last Wednesday, was a very busy day with my usual dance classes. Plus, there was one of the activities to celebrate Los Mangos‘ library 20th anniversary at Puerto Vallarta. All the dance and music workshops were performing at the beautiful open-air theather known as “Aquiles Serdan” or better known as “Arcos del Malecón” at Downtown Puerto Vallarta.
My Hip Hop students were really motivated to perform. We did some cool bright green and white t-shirts (It reminded me of Shanti, sight!)
We danced 3 songs for the show:
1.- Schüttel Deinen Speck by the German singer Peter Fox (Song courtesy of my former German Roomie Katharina)
2.- Watch Me by the popular Silentó
3.- Downtown, a song about scooters by the Hip Hop star Macklemore.
It was the first time my students performed in such a big place. They were nervous and they committed some mistakes, but in general was a dance I personally enjoyed really much.
I invite other kids and teens to join the Hip Hop Dance Classes every Tuesday and Thursday at 7pm at Los Mangos Library, one block south of Costco in Puerto Vallarta.
Continue reading “Hip Hop at Los Mangos Library 20th Anniversary in Downtown Vallarta.”
El Día del Músico se celebra el 22 de noviembre, para festejar la muerte de Santa Cecilia. Santa Cecilia es un personaje medio legendario, mártir del cristianismo y patrona de los músicos. En el sigo XV siempre la dibujaban tocando el arpa y otros instrumentos. La celebración se empezó a dar desde el siglo XV en la región francesa de Evreux en Normandía. Despues se unieron Escosia y otros países Europeos. En Latinoamerica se celebró por vez primera en Brasil en 1919.
¡Gracias por ponerle ritmo a la vida!
¡Feliz Día del Músico! Continue reading “¡Feliz Día del Músico!”
Hoy se celebran 2 años de la desaparición forzada de Erika Cueto, (La historia se las conté aquí en el blog). Erika, está lejos, muy lejos de ser el único caso de una mujer desaparecida en este país y esta muy lejos de ser el único caso al que las autoridades le hayan dado carpetazo. Sin embargo, para algunos de nosotros es importante porque si la conocimos y fuimos sus amigos. Te invitamos a apoyar hoy de la siguiente manera: Continue reading “Erika Cueto, 2 Años de su desaparación en Puerto Vallarta”
Israel Andalón 