sprite-bulb Info:

sprite-camden  Welcome to Salsa Kings Cross

Classes return on Jan 9th 2023
Mambalsa Free tasters classes on Monday Jan 9th 2023 and Monday Jan 16th.

Monday's in Kings Cross just got exciting!
I’m running the first ever weekly classes in Mambalsa and I’d like to invite you to come.
It's a fun, friendly and supportive space where you can try Mambalsa dance.

Mambalsa:
You may not have heard of Mambalsa but it’s a new stylish partner dance similar to salsa but with a little extra funk and groove.
It's designed to work with any music from anywhere at any speed!
It’s easy to learn and in no time you’ll be surfacing a wave of style, complexity and expression.
So whether you’re a seasoned dance pro or totally new to dance, give it a go!
Your first class is Free whenever you like and if you've been before Mon 9th and 16th of Jan 2023 are also free.

When it comes to teaching dance, I've ripped up the rule book (which was pretty out of date!) so everyone leads, follows and learns through play.

Well-Being
Mambalsa has an ethos of confidence, respect and well-being, so prepare to be inspired and uplifted as you find your moves ‘n grooves.
Mambalsa combines the fun of dancing with positive psychology and psychodynamic theory to meet all the well-being goals of Seligman’s PERMA model, the NHS’s Five Steps to well-being and WHO’s 10 Core Life Skills of self-development. Phew that the sciency bit over!

And it’s taught by award winning dance teacher Alastair Sadler MBACP, salsa teacher since 1995, integrative counsellor and creator of Mambalsa.

As I mentioned, Mambalsa is New. There’s no slick videos or celebrity endorsed merch. Just a bunch of people having fun at the cutting edge of something new and exciting. Join us
If you’re interested please join the contact list to let me know you're coming at Join the contact list (Meetup's great but the contact list is the one to be on)

Times:
6.15 Meet and greet
6:30 to 7.30 Introduction to Mambalsa (Absolute beginners most welcome)
7:45 - 8.45 Level two Mambalsa (aimed at those who've done some before or have picked things up really quickly)
Location:
Upstairs at the The Star of Kings, 126 York Way, London N1 0AX
Location:
Upstairs at the The Star of Kings, 126 York Way, London N1 0AX The Star of Kings location

I hope to see you there,
Alastair - The Streetbeat Salsa Co.
mambalsa.com

sprite-camden  Salsa Rapido method

Salsa Rapido


The Fast ‘n Fun way into salsa


There’s a lot of sexy brand names in the salsa world, so why would you want to pick Salsa Rapido®? Well for me to answer that question is to share a journey that began when I started teaching in 1995 and is still going strong. It’s my passion, my pride and my pleasure to talk about Salsa Rapido® and how it has evolved over the years.

One thing that hasn’t changed is it’s strap line:
“The Fast ‘n Fun way into salsa.” which is as relevant now as it was in 1995.

Let's start with the ‘Fun’
I learnt, very quickly, that in teaching dance people need to have fun. If they don’t they don’t come back! When people are enjoying themselves they learn faster. I didn’t understand the psychology of playfulness when I started teaching but now I do and I weave that into every class.
Fun doesn’t mean just entertainment, it also means joy. There is something at the heart of a good dance that produces joy. It’s why we keep coming back to dance year after year. Nowadays we talk in terms of brain chemistry and neuroscience but through working on what gives us joy when we dance and striving for more of it, more often, we can become not just better dancers but better at everything in our lives. I’m not suggesting that it’s a quest for happy brain juice at the expense of others, quite the opposite. It’s proven that the better relationship between dance partners, the more joy is produced. Perhaps that’s why partner dancing evolved and persisted?
Putting ‘fun’ at the center of the Salsa Rapido® method gives us a goal and a test. Content and presentation of a class can be tested against a simple question: Is it producing more joy for the future dancer than an alternative? I ask that question over and over and have found it leading me away from the traditional ways of teaching dance. In fairness most dances and the methods used to teach them, are from a period before psychology and neuroscience.

‘Fast’ I’s in everyone’s interest to learn quickly. The faster people learn the faster they’re dancing and having fun in clubs and at events. Faster means less classes which costs less to get up to club standard. The instructor benefits through word of mouth recommendations.
Fast also means: ‘At the right pace’. Too fast and it’s all stress and no fun. Too slow and it’s boring! This is perhaps the hardest part of teaching anything in a class, but Salsa Rapido® has the flexibility to cope.

‘Way into salsa’
There are many ways into salsa. Most people in Latin America still get taught by a family member at a party. In the USA the studio system dominates and in Europe there are mainly fixed length courses. The UK has more class/club pay as you go salsa nights and of course London can boast the world's longest running and most successful 1-Day Intensive course which uses .... the Salsa Rapido®® method.

sprite-camden  What style do you teach

Salsa Rapido is teaching method not a style of salsa. It’s a well developed foundation course that draws from and prepares you for any regional style of salsa. see Salsa Rapido: Regional Styles in Salsa (2019)
Through comparing different elements from various regional styles, you'll have a greater depth of understanding and be able to make informed choices about your style.
Salsa Rapido is there to foster your style and your expression. I hope you’ll be informed by, and not confined by, the style of others. Many people mistakenly believe that the regional styles are incompatible. This is totally untrue.

The goal is to be able to dance with anyone from anywhere, easily adapting to their style whilst expressing yourself with confidence, consideration and authenticity.

Salsa Rapido presents the required skills in a way that helps you to quickly achieve a high level of competence regarding style, communication, timing, mechanics etc.
You’ll also avoid "bad habits" that will limit you at a higher level.

sprite-camden  Salsa Instructor Alastair Sadler

Alastair Sadler has been teaching salsa since 1995 and has clocked up over 15,000 classes.
From the start he has developed and refined the progressive teaching method called Salsa Rapido.
Many of his projects have helped define salsa in the UK:
Salsa instructors forum (a workshop where instructors could exchange good teaching practice an ideas).
The One Day Intensive course (The world's first and most successful intensive course, still running weekly)
Salsa university (an all-dayer concept but weekly with five advanced classes in different styles)
In addition to teaching he runs The Streetbeat Salsa Co. and edited the Email Salsa News from 1999 -2007.
Salsa Camden - London's highly successful Rapido & Rueda venue where we ran the UK's first ever weekly Bachata course and in 2018 ran the first Blend format event.
In 2001 he choreographed & performed a solo demo (dancing salsa with a mop and office chair) at congresses and events throughout Europe.
His TV credits as performer and/or choreographer include Baby Father I & II, Casualty, Happiness, Auf Weidersehn Pet and the BBC Ident ( He was the big guy at the front in the white shirt!)
In 2014 he created Mambalsa, the first new partner dance of the 21st century.
Since 2011 he has realised his love of comedy and performed Stand Up at The Edinburgh Fringe festival taking five shows in 2015/16/17.
I still have many new projects to run such as Mambalsa, Salsa Liquida and teacher training courses and a book! So watch this space for another 20+ years :)
It's all been possible through the support of my partner Felicity aka DJ Felicidad.

sprite-camden  What is Blend format

Format is a new way of mixing elements of dance class and free dance.
Think of a traditional class/freedance broken into 15min chunks and rearranged.
Sometimes you’re learning in a class chunk and sometimes free dancing or taking a well deserved break. It’s all done to constant music which gives it energy and pace.
Blend aims to make the evening more dynamic and social where no one has to wait a hour or two for a freestyle dance or to take a break.
It’s the perfect way to get a class/dance fix without staying out late.

Blend was developed by myself (Alastair Sadler of The Streetbeat Salsa Co.) for the Mambalsa project and trialled at Salsa Camden in 2018 where three classes worked in confined space to constant music.
It had some unexpected benefits. Beginners became far more connected to the music.
Concentration levels were higher as the chunks were shorter and groups mixed far more readily with less ‘them and us’ and a greater sense of togetherness.
I’ve written more about Blend in the Salsa Rapido Blog.

sprite-offer Offers:

Salsa Rapido 1-Day Intensive Gift Voucher Offer
From Sept 1st 2024 to End December 2024
Gift Vouchers for couples will be £79 and Singles £49
No offer code required.
Please spread the word!
All vouchers valid on any course date booked within for six months!

sprite-news Events:

Dance Curious is currently a Free full day event held at London’s Salsa Soho on
Saturday 23rd November 2024
I need 30 volunteers for this second Dance Curious Event.(Sorry it's 18+ only). Its aim is the development of the Mambalsa® workshops.
It's aimed at those who are interested in the intersection of Dance, Well-Being and Self-Development.
Using Mambalsa® as a platform, there'll be lots of dancing, moves, grooves, laughs and discussion, all wrapped around a heap of psychology.
There's lots of dancing, moves, grooves, laughs and discussion, all wrapped around a heap of psychology.

sprite-news News:

The Thames Salsa Cruise returns in Spring 2025.
At the moment we have a proposed date of 18th May 2025 which will be confirmed before tickets go on sale in Jan 2025.

We wish to invite as many groups of salsa dancers from across the land to come on this iconic event that's been running every year (except lockdown) since 1998! Music is mainly classic salsa with a small dash of bachata etc. presented by DJ Felicidad (The UK's longest running female salsa DJ)
Groups are formed mainly by dancers and teachers who want to add something special to their dancing year.
We never have classes on board as we don't wish to clash with anyone's style or method. It's just a salsa party for lovers of salsa and non dancers wishing to see the sites and enjoy the vibe.
We make it as easy as possible to bring a group.
We think of a group as five or more but if that doesn't happen no problem. We're grateful you've made the effort.
We set up a discount code word for your group so no one has to gather the money and everyone gets a discount.
Tickets will be £20 or less with the group discount and I'll add detail as soon as I have it.
Please message me on 07939012231 Alastair and I'll set a group up for you.
regards Alastair
I’ve just finished another six week Mambalsa course at the Nightingale Cancer Support Centre in Enfield and what a lovely group it was.
I was aiming for a gentle introduction to Mambalsa without too much emphasis on the well-being aspects of Psych. Ed. but they came up anyway.
Often the classes would end in a group discussion about recovering from cancer and I have to admit it was great to share those stories and feel a paid up member of that club.
Every group teaches me something about dance and life. This group showed me that like a hummingbird, beauty has no relationship to size. We took the lid off our creativity and relaxed and moved freely within the ethos of Mambalsa dance. I’m being deliberately cryptic but confidentiality prevents me from sharing any detail.
I will take the chance to share the last two tracks we danced as a way to illustrate that Mambalsa is danced to any 4:4 time music:
- Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen - complete with head banging and Zimbabwean Wellington Boot dance! (I’ll just leave that to your imagination)
- Would You Be Loved by Bob Marley - A perfect song to end on.
I’m already missing all my Mambalsa Dancers from the Nightingale and can’t wait for the next group.
Alastair
I’d like to offer my sincere apologies to all my clients affected by this.
Some courses have been cancelled including the next Mambalsa Dance Curious event and some courses will be smaller than usual (which is not a bad thing).
All bookings are secure as they are made on the Stripe platform and no data has been lost or breached.

Full explanation:
This Autumn’s bookings have not started well with a host of I.T. problems slowing down and eventually stopping the booking process.
In late August my web host (the company where my websites reside) decided, as part of their preparations to be bought out by a bigger company, to ditch many of their accounts that weren't easy to transfer to their new host. I received a polite email saying streetbeat etc. would be switched off on Sept 12th. Why they had to choose the height of the holiday season to do this is quite beyond me. No doubt I wasn’t the only one, because as hundreds of companies backed up / down loaded or shifted their sites, I noticed that my web pages would often take over two minutes to load. This effectively interrupts the booking process as new visitors lose confidence in the booking process.

I found a new host 34sp.com who offer excellent customer support via telephone which is a rare thing these days. The only drawback was that their minimum version of PHP (effectively the operating system of the host) was PHP 8.1 and my site was PHP 7.4. This meant many of my pages didn’t work and none of my back end worked. It was time to stop whatever I was doing and dive deep into upgrading first my IT skills and then the site!
I know it’s a cliche, but I like the phrase ‘build back better’. This I have done and the new streetbeat and mambalsa sites are near completion. The booking confirmation system is fixed and the connection to the Brevo email platform is up and running.

I’ve learnt a lot through this process such as IT is like a sand dune of ever shifting upgrades and technologies that need to be constantly navigated. I’ve also revisited an old debate of whether to delegate or self code. Assuming a developer was available at short notice, the cost would have been considerable and the time taken arguably longer than self coding.
My I.T. department is slow, under skilled, overwhelmed and unsure of himself, but that’s OK because it’s me. So maybe the best lesson learnt is to be kind to yourself.
By the way, if you’re reading this, it’s working!
In my latest blog post "Me and Bar Salsa!" I write about why this long standing venue is very special to me on the eve of my thirtieth wedding anniversary.
There's also a potted history of London's salsa scene.
Me and Bar Salsa!
Yesterday I received an email from TripAdvisor informing me that I had been awarded a Certificate of Excellence.
I had no idea that there was such a thing but now I've got one I'm a big fan.
It's the chance to thanks to everyone who's taken the time and trouble to say some kind words about my Salsa Rapido 1-Day Intensive course.


Click the image to visit TridAdvisor


Reflection: (You may prefer to read this on the Salsa Rapido Blog)
When I embedded TripAdvisor into my site I was hoping for praise but open to the possibility of harsh and unfair criticism, and in fairness I've received a one star review from someone who wasn't on the course and a two star review from someone who enjoyed the class but didn't enjoy the fajitas at lunch! May I just add that fajitas are not compulsory and anyone can eat wherever they wish. Lunch isn't even part of the deal so bring a packet of crisps in if you wish but don't blame my course if they didn't have your favourite flavour! (I'm so over it now)
Anyway, I overcame my fears and gave it a go, realising that feedback is good and TripAdivsor offers a third party review that's useful for the pubic when booking.
Many months later and I've received mainly five star reviews.
This tells me that:
My presentation is engaging and entertaining.
People are way nicer than I deserve.
Salsa Rapido is a mature enough method to stand comparison to traditional classes.
I'm really good at asking for five star reviews.

On the last point my hobby of stand up comedy led to five shows at the Edinburgh Fringe where at the end of a show we would have a 'bucket speech' to encourage the audience to give a tip (our only source of income)
Cliched line like "Take some change, fold it and put it in the bucket" were common.
One time I got a waif-like act to kneel down holding the bucket while looking as mournful as a Dickensian child.
Another time a showed the audience picture of my cats on my phone and asked "which one should I 'economise' first?" Well it works for charities!
The result was seldom any different. It was the show that counted.
Dance school says ballet is racially problematic and too gender binary!
I saw this article in the news and throught I'd offer a few thoughts so here's my latest Mambalsa blog blog posts titled: Dance school says ballet is racially problematic and too gender binary

I've decided to share my recent experience of cancer in a personal blog.
This may be upsetting for many people and I advise caution as to whether you read on.
First I need to address the question: why blog about cancer on a salsa dance website?
Like so many brands on the salsa scene, behind the Streetbeat/ Rapido/ Mambalsa brand is an individual person, who made the jump from dancer to dance teacher. My treatment will affect every aspect of my life including the Salsa Rapido courses and Mambalsa Project. I may physically change as a result of chemotherapy and when someone asks a question about these changes I'd like to answer in a brief and polite way with an invitation to read my blog to get my personal insight if they wish. In other words cancer affects me but it doesn't define me!

Follow this blog: Use this link to add you email to my blog following list:

The blog is a continuation of my 2022 Brighton Marathon blog hosted on Blogger.

24/01/2024 The Last Post

05/11/2023 Round Five Biddy Beep

18/10/2023 Round Four Round Up

01/10/2023 Round 3/4 Review

30/09/2023 Happy birthday Homewood School

05/08/2023 Round Two Update

26/07/2023 Would You A&E it!

26/07/2023 Labels, Trauma, PTSD and Self-diagnosis

21/07/2023 Sepsis vs Sadler A Week in Hospital

06/07/2023 Icky

02/07/2023 Day Three Sitrep (Situation Report)

26/06/2023 Three days to Chemo C-3

24/06/23 Capitano Chemo
In the run up to treatment starting I find myself getting silly to offset the anxiety.

07/06/2023 Scanaxiety
When the prospect of chemo becomes a reality.

24/03/2023 Who's Lynne and what's she FOMO about?
A catch up post from 2019 to 2023. Probably the best place to start :)
I'm delighted to release the Salsa Rapido 1-Day Intensive dates for August to December 2024.
They are almost weekly on Sundays and I strongly recommend you book ASAP to save disappointment.
Notice there's also some Mambalsa workshop dates. Mambalsa is not salsa so please click here for details

Here's a permanent link to the dates page so you can check them at any time:
https://www.streetbeat.co.uk/dates

The i.2.i. Knock the Rust Off is the Salsa Rapido Improvers course.

There may well be a few adjustments to the schedule as 2024 comes into focus.
I haven't confirmed dates out side of London yet!
Summer's a great time for a wedding and this wedding was a wonderful fusion of dance styles.

Here's my latest Mambalsa blog blog posts titled: mambalsa-wedding

Well I did it! I ran the Brighton Marathon 2022
Here's my latest marathon/ lockdown blog posts titled: Alastair's Marathon
If you want to sponsor me here's the link to the charity fundraising page (open until end May 2022): www.justgiving.com/alastairsadler
Salsa Rapido Method has it's own blog at Salsa Rapido Method
and not forgetting Mambalsa at: Mambalsa
I've set up a new section on the site for Tripadvisor reviews of the 1-Day Intensive Course.
If you've been on the course recently and would be kind enough to review it please go to
link
Thanks in advance :-)
For suggestions and suggestions please email me at salsa@streetbeat.co.uk

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