Lifts
& Aerials workshop with Dave Paris
& Desiree DiCupe
by Sofia Ivanova
On
March 12th, 13th and 14th, SalsaChicago
hosted an aerials and lifts workshop
with two instructors from New York,
Dave Paris and Desiree Dicupe. Both
are former dancers with the Razz M'
Tazz Dance Company where they traveled
all over the world as performers. Today,
Dave teaches and performs lifts and
aerials and Desiree is one of the Copacabana
dancers in New York, in addition to
partnering with Dave.
On
Friday night, Desiree started off the
workshop with a Ladies Styling class.
She had us practicing shoulder roll
moves across the floor, then hips, then
body rolls, head rolls and of course
no class is complete without proper
hand position and movement. Desiree
teaches easily and she breaks the moves
down so that each styling move can be
mastered. She certainly has a lot of
style and flavor to her dancing!
Friday
night Dave and Desiree performed at
Rumba! As many of the tables hadn't
been cleared away in the middle, Dave
and Desiree were not able to execute
any aerials in their performance, but
impressed the crowd with their flawless
dancing! Rather than use their own music,
they performed to the band led by Angel
D'Cuba. No one would have ever guessed
that it wasn't rehearsed!
On
Saturday we had the beginner workshop.
Of course when Dave and Desiree demonstrated
the move that we were going to learn,
none of us believed that we would be
able to do it. But we did! Dave breaks
every part of the lifts down so that
each step can be practiced on it's own
until the whole move comes together.
We learned a dip into a snake into the
final ending fish move! We then learned
a simple lift move. Simple only that
it doesn't have a lot of steps to it,
but still requires alot of practice
and strength. Turns out, lifts are really
80% of the woman's efforts.
Saturday
night, Dave and Desiree performed at
Rumba once again. The place was packed
and after their performance, neither
Dave nor Desiree had any time to sit
as the waiting list of dance partners
was unending!
At
Sunday's workshop, once again Dave and
Desiree demonstrated the move that we
were going to learn and once again our
chins were down to the floor in disbelief!
Of course most of us were sore from
the previous day's lifts and evening
celebrations, but we trudged on anyway!
Need I tell you that we executed the
move?! We learned the bird into a front
snake into the ending fish move.
Dave
and Desiree are excellent instructors.
I say that because I executed moves
I didn't think I could ever do! They
teach so well and they're so easy going
and just make it pure fun. If you have
ever wanted to try any lift moves, be
sure and catch their workshop next time
they come to town! Until then, you could
always purchase any of Dave's videos
that are sold on SalsaChicago.com.
