It felt like a dream… One minute, emails were being exchanged… The next, I was chatting to the world-renowned Magna Gopal over Kofte Kebabs. It was fun, scary, exciting, crazy, and damn exhausting. This was my roller coaster of a weekend, but would I do it again? Absolutely YES!!! Magna Gopal left London this morning and has imprinted a long-lasting impression on me and all those that came to the workshops danced with her or had the pleasure of speaking to her. She is truly an inspiring dancer, a fantastic teacher and an amazing person.
But now that I have finally started to recover, I want to let you see what goes into these events, and let you see things through my eyes…
CONTACT
My first contact with Magna Gopal was through her website: www.magnagopal.com. She responded within a few days, and we talked about her coming to London. We talked about potential dates, workshop structures, pricing and logistics.
This lasted for about a month before we agreed to bring her over on the weekend of the 13th Oct 2012, this date was chosen to avoid all major events, and was sandwiched by the Berlin Salsa Congress, and Tony Lara’s Sexy & Sensual Festival. We did clash with Gil and Shelley’s Pexava event, but after discussions on the Promoter Collaboration Facebook group, Shelley did not think we would clash as their event was in outer London, Northfields I believe.
All details were agreed upon and contracts signed. We gave ourselves a total of three months to promote this event.
LOGISTICS
After which came the booking: transport, workshop studios – we had trouble finding a single venue for the whole weekend as this date was approaching the new year and the most popular performance months (think Xmas parties), party venue – we initially wanted the Boston Music Room in Tufnell Park, as we wanted a small but cosy affair but didn’t get it so took The Dome (upstairs), updating the website, setting up PayPal and putting out a Facebook event.
PROMOTION
Most of our advertising was done through Facebook (Facebook runs the Salsa community), and I came up with an interesting way to get taste buds going, I created an event with the following name: TNT Dance Presents ???, and with the picture being a black silhouette of a lady. Then I posted videos with youtube clips showing the top Salsa dancers in the world and said that the female artist was among them. This really got the ladies excited and once bookings were opened, the Bootcamp sold 30 out of 50 within the first week and the remaining were sold within a month or so.
We also got our team, close friends and partner promoters to help us push the workshops and also the Magna Gopal London Soiree.
THE LADIES STYLING BOOTCAMP
I am the most critical person I know, especially when it comes to Salsa and especially when it comes to teaching. It is my belief that teaching is much more than demonstrating the move of the week, a cool arm movement, or what I refer to as salsaficial things. I believe that the key to teaching is to focus on details, quality, and philosophy, and to inspire your students to think more about what they are doing. The keyword, THINK, too few teachers go into the details.
Magna Gopal’s Ladies Bootcamp was exactly what the doctor ordered. A focus on stepping, weight distribution, momentum and natural movement. Things that if you pay attention to, you will see your dancing improve drastically. The only two female teachers that I have had the pleasure of watching teach (who go into this detail) and I am not biased, are Tina Stamou (Pilates instructor, who will talk to you about anatomy, movement, posture, control) and Angelique Sinclaire (Jazz trained, and UK salsa veteran with endless knowledge of Eddie Torres Style Salsa). Throughout the Bootcamp, I caught my students smiling at me when Magna told them something that I have instructed them on and reiterated again and again.
MAGNA GOPAL LONDON SOIREE
The night of the lady’s styling Bootcamp, we had planned a small but intimate party but since we had The Dome (capacity 400), we thought that we would push and give it a go. The first thing was to find the DJs for the night, we always go to our regular DJs at first and then outside afterwards. As such, we got DJ Jamil Bacha (TNT Dance Resident DJ and Music Director), Julian Summers(Voted London’s Top DJ) and Sassia Michel (TNT regular DJ and a Parisian with an abundance of funk and groove).
We initially sought the services of Otradanz for performance and potentially the TNT Dance Ladies Performance group, but in the end, there were no performances scheduled on the night. Flyers were created and handed out outside major Salsa venues. Most of the time this was done by the TNT team, as that gives a much more personal feel than a random person.
Another nice treat was Ilker and Moussa (former TNT students from Turkey and France respectively) coming to London to enjoy the night with us.
THE WORKSHOPS
Three workshops were planned: Musicality, Shines and Cha Cha. I will not go into the details of these workshops but the same traits were present: a clear explanation of how she interprets music based not just on her dance, but personal philosophy, shines choreographed to music as opposed to counts (exactly the way we teach Shines at TNT on Tuesdays) and the Cha Cha was fun and flavourful.
On a personal note, she helped assure me that the things that TNT are doing; our philosophy and way of teaching, are how it should be done, the way she explains and links everything to the fundamentals of her dance and the way that she gives personal attention. I couldn’t imagine any of the people who attended would have felt like a number…
THE END
After living through this weekend I have to say that it was a fantastic learning experience, for me as a promoter and for all the students that came along to the workshops. It was also a fantastic party night for all those that came along, a little over 150 people attended to dance the night away and the floor was never empty, not even when we had to close at 3 am with a full floor.
But with all things, there are many people involved and contributed to the success of this night, so special thanks are in order!!! Firstly to the TNT Dance team, especially Nicola Lambert and Lina Pao, who taught an impromptu beginners class and Angeliquewho taught a class while injured. To DJ Jamil Bacha, Julian Summers and Sassia Michel for playing the set of their lives, and keeping us dancing all night long. For our friends and promoters: Shaan, Stel, Maki, and Daniel Lau who helped get the word around. To Rebecca Seal-Davis for being the party photographer. To Karen Chau and Modesta for being there for us and finally to Tina Stamou who ran this weekend with me…
Good Times…
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