Shaka Brown and Luz Rodriguez By Cheyenne Kamran and Tasleem Rajwani   Salsafestival Profile: Shaka and Luz Shaka and Luz will be at the Vancouver International Salsafestival, March 4-7 2010. Visit salsafestival.ca

The first question I have for you is what did you think of Vancouver?

Luz: I thought it was beautiful and I thought the people were really, really friendly. I’ve had a lot of fun.

Shaka: It’s been my first trip to the west coast of Canada… the second largest country in the world, by the way… and I think Vancouver is a very beautiful city. It reminds me of parts of Rio - the way you’ve got mountains and the ocean, and the sun. God has touched Vancouver.

Luz (giggles): Shaka has spoken!

What did you think of the Vancouver dating.. I mean, dancing scene?

Shaka: Well, I’ve had a lot of luck here the past few days.

Luz: I put an ad out and I got a really good response.

What did you think of the Vancouver dancing scene? (laughs)

Shaka: The city’s got some passionate folks. As far as the whole On1/On2 thing, it didn’t seem like people are too particular about it. But some folks would recognize the beats they’re used to dancing on. Everyone was really friendly. I got to dance a lot.

Luz: Me too.

Shaka: And I think they dance an interesting bachata here as well.

Luz: I think that after the workshops I felt that everyone was pretty fun spirited, you know. A lot of the things that we threw out – we did a lot of body movement – they seemed to really enjoy that. And I think they appreciated us including them and really getting into the music and mentioning bopping the head. I feel like they really like to have a good time and they like to dance all out. The first night I don’t think I took a break. I danced all night long and hopefully lost some water weight there. But the people were pretty enthusiastic and they don’t seem shy to try different things.

Shaka: Are we still talking about dancing?

Luz: Sorry, back to dancing.

Shaka: Nobody asked me whether I want to dance On1 or On2. I don’t think they really paid attention to that. It was just, “Ok, let’s dance.”

You said they dance an interesting bachata. Would you care to elaborate?

Luz: That means that it’s not Shaka’s bachata which is ‘hold me touch me, just stay really close, don’t let go.’

Shaka: THAT was Luz’s comment

Luz: No, it’s accurate (all laughing)

Shaka: When I say they dance an interesting bachata, I mean… Well, I’ve danced it all over the place and I am pretty passionate about it, creating bachata parties and what not. It’s important for me to observe different people dancing and learn something from it. I think it’s important to stay close

Luz: See? What did I tell you? (all laughing)

Alright, moving along… You guys have traveled a lot. What was the most interesting and coolest place you’ve ever been dancing?

Shaka: You mean after the DC Salsa Congress (laugh)

Luz: Every time we go somewhere I think, “Oh, I really like it here. I think I could live here.” Every city just offers something, so I like the fact we change it up a lot. But one place where I was just in awe was definitely Japan. Shaka’s been there several times but it was my first time. Since I started with Clavekazi I wanted to go to Japan, so after 3 years, I was finally able to go. The people there are really enthusiastic and they were so studious. I’ve had good students before, but wow! You do one thing and they do it EXACTLY the way you do it. If your finger is pointed down, ever so slightly, they also do it that way. They take it so seriously and it feels nice to be in a class and have everyone pay a lot of attention and focus on you. And then of course, the culture is so different and I’d like to take it all in. I had a really good time there.

Thank you. And Mr Brown?

Shaka: I’m assuming this is after the Washington DC congress Capitalcongress.com (laughs). There’s something to enjoy about every place I go. Something to learn, whether it’s where you find really good Italian ice cream down on Marine Drive (West Vancouver) which is where I have a little apartment as well, (laughing) or the passionate dancing 24-7 in Japan. My favorite country to spend time in is Brazil. I don’t know why but… yeah, I know why (laughing)… it’s just a great city- passionate people, beautiful language, great food, everything’s cheap. That’s where I really like to hang out. It’s only 3rd to Vancouver, of course.

For those that don’t know, could you tell us who you are? (laughing)

Shaka: I’ve been doing this interview for half hour – who are these people? (laughs)

Who are you and where are you from? (all laughing)

Luz: My name is Luz Rodriguez and I’m from Washington and Portugal. I was born in Limon, Puerto Rico and I was raised all over. My mom was military so I’m an army brat, but I spent a lot of time in Atlanta. That’s where I went to college, started working, and started salsa. That’s actually where I met Shaka. I was there for about 6-7 years and I’ve been in DC for 3 years and Portugal in the middle there as well.

Shaka: My name is Shaka Gonzalez Brown. I’m a bit of a transient. I was born in Washington, DC in a car in the parking lot at Howard University hospital. I moved to Florida and spent the first 10 years there. People thought of me as the guy from DC. Then I moved back to DC when I was 11 and people thought of me as the guy from Florida. I went to college in Florida and I was the guy from DC again. I came back home and since then I’ve been on the road.

Luz, could you talk about when you met Shaka and when he asked you to partner up with him?

Shaka: Let’s focus on the dancing.

Luz: That WAS related to the dancing, doofus.

Shaka: Oh, my bad (laughing)

Luz: I’d taken a class of his at a congress in Houston. Of course, Shaka does a lot of congresses every year. He didn’t remember me – he didn’t know who I was. I think I saw him at a social in Atlanta. I was dancing with Gordon (Gordon Neil) and I saw this dude in the corner and I thought, “Who’s that? Who does he think he is?” Just kidding. He’d come to Atlanta frequently for different events. Maybe he had some business there. I don’t know.

Shaka: Passionate people.

Luz: But he’d definitely kept coming back to Atlanta and I kept seeing him a lot. And one night we were at The Sanctuary (nightclub in Atlanta) and I was dancing salsa On2 in Atlanta at the time. And he came up to me and mentioned that he needed another dancer for his team. We started talking about it on email back and forth and a couple of months later I got laid off and he said, “Well, you should come to DC now.” So I packed up my stuff, packed up my mom, and drove over to DC. Since then, the Clavekazi family has been super nice to me and received me with open arms.

Care to share your side? (to Shaka)

Shaka: I remember talking to Luz at the sanctuary. It was the after party of Flava Invasion. And I asked her what she was interested in doing as far her dancing and how it was coming along. She said she wanted to learn and to keep improving, and I mentioned to her that if she’s interested, we’ll need another woman on our team in DC. We talked online by email and she said she couldn’t do it because she got a new job and it was a really good thing and really stable. And the next thing, she messages me with, “I was fired so I guess I can move to DC now.” (both laughing) So we brought her up here.

How did you first see hear about salsa?

Shaka: I always wanted to do some type of partner dance when I was in school. Dancing is something I’ve always done just not a type of partner dancing. Like in 8th grade I wrote about how to dance hip hop and I broke down things to numbers and the counts and the weight changes and so on and so forth. So having that type of technical application is what I wanted. Anyway, I never really got into the world of partner dancing. But when I watched it, it reminded me of a lot of kung-fu movies. I am a big martial arts fan so watching people interact just on the fly was something that made a mark to me, since I’m not actually into fighting even though I look like I am. (Luz laughing) Leave me alone.

Luz: Shaka’s a warrior (laughing)

Shaka: When I went to dance salsa there was a girl that I liked and she came up and asked me to dance. In hindsight, retrospect, it was actually Merengue that she asked me to dance to

Luz: Which is easy

Shaka: But I didn’t know that. So I turned her down and she went off and danced with some other guy. And that was the moment I was supposed to whisk her off the floor and be with her today. (all laughing) But she got married – not to the guy she went off to dance with – and I went and rented some salsa videos. I watched Dance With Me and the movie Salsa. And I bought the video to learn salsa, merengue, and the Macarena – and I learned them all! (all laughing)

Luz: Which he still does to this day… (laughing) I grew up with this type of music Salsa, Merengue, Bachata, but you know we were not very formal in the way we danced it. We’re Puerto Rican so if you ever hear Spanish it’s kind of like ebonics

Shaka: Spebonics? (all laugh)

Luz: So likewise with the dancing we don’t really care about the numbers and spinning. We just move. And my mom still sees it like that to this day. “What is all this turning? I don’t understand,” she says. But I would start to go out to the club

Shaka: I think it was after college – and I would go out dancing to the different clubs and see them teaching salsa and I was like, “Hey this sounds familiar, let’s try this.” and it was easy. And I started with casino believe it or not. And I liked it, but then I got bored and I wanted to try different style. There was On1, On2… and what really got me hooked On2 was when Burju and Victor (Hache Y Machete) came out to Atlanta and performed and I was like, “What is that? Is that salsa?” I thought, “I want to learn that. That looks really good.” And I found a school in Atlanta that was teaching On2 and I got hooked.

Can you walk us through a day as a guest instructor at a festival or congress?

Shaka: You get to the airport, get to the event, check in, put your bags down, and first thing you go and see where the workshops are and where the stage is. Because you want to see what the dance floor is like and how much space there is and look at the sound system. These are the things I enjoy – all the technology behind what makes an event happen. Find out what time the workshop is because no matter what, you always don’t remember. And then you start checking in with folks. It’s a big gathering of people that you didn’t see since last week at another congress. You know, it’s like a family reunion for the folks that missed it last week. This is the formal answer (all laugh) and then make sure you have enough “beverages” to last you over the weekend. Make sure you hydrate with alkalinized water and ‘alcoholized’ water. (laugh)

Luz: Cheyenne knows what we’re talking about right?

Shaka: And that’s it. Hanging out with old friends, and meeting new friends.

Luz: It’s definitely an exciting time and you usually bump into a lot of people that you’ve hung out with somewhere else in different congresses. I see it as a weekend where I won’t get that much sleep but I’m gonna have a lot of fun and I also structure things around when I get to eat and sleep and dance. And then there’s that 3 hours that you need to get ready for a 3 minute performance. Our suitcases explode once we get to the hotel. There’s just stuff everywhere. So I kind of allow myself not to get stressed out. But what I enjoy most is the social dancing and that hour after the performance where I think, “That was fun” and I get a lot of energy out and then I go have some “beverages” and go dance all night until I can’t dance anymore.

Speaking of social dancing, I notice that all weekend long you guys were really excited about social dancing in Vancouver. What are your thoughts on an instructor and performer being open to social dance versus not being open to social dancing and only going and doing a performance or teaching a workshop? Where do you see the importance of social dancing in the bigger picture of being a good salsa dancer?

Luz: I think it’s imperative. I don’t think I would have improved as a dancer at all if I hadn’t thrown myself out there on the dance floor. I think it’s very important for beginners and for instructors. I think it helps you. If you always dance with advanced dancers how can you give them feedback or help beginners progress? But besides that, from an instructor’s point of view, salsa is a social dance and people get into it to have fun, you know? I mean, yes, some people take it very seriously and that’s a good thing. But at the same time you should be lighthearted about it: smile at the person, interact with them, look at them, (light laugh), let them know you’re having a good time. To me, that’s actually my favourite part of dancing. I’m a big fan of social dancing.

Mr. Brown?

Shaka: I think if you want to have a job where you punch in and punch out and you do your 3 minute show and your two 1-hour workshops and you go home, you should work at like McDonalds or something where you just clock in and you don’t care how many fries they sell or whether you get invited back and so on and so forth. I think what I do, it’s exciting to me because on the hardest weekend in Japan, your job is to dance all night and teach 7 workshops. Dancing all night is work but it’s fun. And no matter how many workshops I’ve taught, I’ve never had to teach enough to make a full work day. You’re dealing with people that, if they have full-time jobs, they work 8-9 hours a day and they budget time and money to be able to spend their leisure time with you, and I think it’s important that you make sure that they have a good time – that’s what the job is. It’s not just as an entertainer. It’s a job to make people enjoy the time that they’ve decided to set aside which is way more limited than mine. So I go to an event, and even if I’m tired or sick or whether my feet hurt, I’m gonna be on a plane on Monday so that weekend is the time that I have, and I’ll dance with people I’ll never see again. So I think it’s important for me, and other teachers or performers to be able to social dance and to inspire – and sometimes the inspiration comes from doing something on stage and sometimes it comes from teaching something in the workshop. And sometimes, it comes from dancing that night.

You mentioned Japan. I found it fascinating that you guys are well known in markets that many international salsa performers have not been able to penetrate.

Shaka: Going into any market, you gotta study the market and see what you’re going to be entering. My first trip to Japan, I just went out there, and I didn’t really know anybody. I just got put in touch with a guy who set up some workshops for me. And based on that one trip, we’ve gone back every year for the past six years. The Japanese are very particular, and they appreciate structure. They have respect for teachers. For them, it’s the same concept with social dancing. They want to dance all night. They form lines and they take your job very seriously. So I’ve seen different people that say I want to go to Japan but then when I introduce them to someone from Japan, it’s like a hint-hint (smile) to dance with everyone that’s from Japan or looks like they’re from Japan and that’s how you make an impression on them. We look at not only what people need but what people want.

Luz: To add to that, one thing that I noticed on trips where we go to a small event or where it’s just us, we’re able to be more attentive and I can tell people appreciate the time we social dance with them AND the social face time. So, on that note, I really enjoy congresses but I also enjoy the smaller events where you really get to know the scene and the people.

Shaka: Speedos get you good places. (laugh)

Luz, Looking at your bio, I notice you had danced for the 1996 Olympics

Luz: In high school, I did a lot of dancing, and I was a cheerleader – I hate to admit that. (laugh) I was in Columbus Georgia, which is 2 hours south of Atlanta, not a big city at all. My coach decided that our team was going to audition for the Olympics. We made it as a group, and then, that summer, we’d hop on a bus and we would go there every weekend and practice several hours in the heat. And I remember the first time we got on the big field I was like, “What are we going to be doing? This is so exciting!” And they gave us these backpacks, metal backpacks . And then they gave us these giant wings that we would stick in our backpack

Shaka: like Chris size as in Chris Wood, Salsa Nanaimo. (laughter) .

Luz: So yeah, we were butterflies, and when Glady’s Knight was singing, I was one of the butterflies surrounding her. It was very exciting. I’ve never had a rehearsal that large ever – we’re talking organizing hundreds of people for hours at a time in hot summer day

Shaka: But it was really exciting the night of. Vancouver will experience something similar next year, just two weeks before the Vancouver International Salsafestival March 4-7, 2010 (laughs)

Brought to you by Mad About Mambo… (laugh)

Luz: … dot net …

And for the DC Congress, where can we get some information?

Shaka: … CapitalCongress.com June 18 – 20, 2010, but that’s neither here nor there. (laugh)

That’s it for the interview. Thank you for your time.

Luz: Thanks for having us here in Vancouver, we’ve had a really good time.

Shaka: I’ve enjoyed myself here.

For more information about Shaka Brown, visit: shakabrown.com