About The Dancing Bug

The passion for Latin Dancing from a writer's point of view.

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Tania Crivellenti

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Spotlight Posts

Countdown for Sydney Salsa Congress 2010

Temporary insanity

Public Luv

The White Shorts’ Dancing Bug

An Angel at Last

The Dancing Bag

Sydney Bachata Festival

The Brazilian Japanese of Sydney

The Dancing Seduction: Performing

So I thought I Could Dance

How to Teach Amazing Dance Workshops

My Congress Dance Recklessness

About the Congress Parties

Still about what makes a choreo great

The search for what makes a choreo great goes on…

Improvisations & Dancing With the Stars Appearances at SSC 2009

Remarkable Shows at the Sydney Salsa Congress 09

Zouk Performances to die for at the Sydney Salsa Congress 2009

The search for what makes a choreo great

Anyone can Dance and Shine - SSC09

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The Dancing Bug - The Dancing Bug

The Dancing Bug

Countdown for Sydney Salsa Congress 2010

January 19th 2010 02:40

It is the countdown for the Sydney Salsa Congress. Only a few days to go! From 28th to 31st Jan 2010 do not call me, actually, pretend I’m off the face of the Earth because this Congress is where I’m gonna be…
It is the most amazing Latin Dance event in Australia, getting big on the Brazilian Dance styles too. It is considered the most successful congress in the world for integrating all the famous and trendy dance styles in the Latin World.
The Sydney Salsa Congress is on its 6th edition and I have two years of built up energy to spend. Last year I fractured my arm after falling off a horse. This year I’ve been a good girl and saved myself from any misadventures.

$Super Mario, my fractured arm and Me at the Sydney Salsa Congress 2009$

Super Mario, my fractured arm and Me at the Sydney Salsa Congress 2009

I have attacks of tachycardia when thinking about this event. It promises 4 nights and 3 days of full-on FUN, FUN, FUN!!!
Having participated of a few of the past congresses already I know what to expect:
Great workshops, so great I will push myself to the point far beyond exhaustion, with a merry, very, happy face… then the shows where you get to the point of drooling on the delicious, sometimes incredibly technical, sometimes profoundly passionate, all the times amazing, shows. Then the parties that go until late, now sporting two rooms: on for the Latin styles and the other to the Brazilian dances. I keep running from one to the other, trying to get a lot of all.
By Monday-after-event all you can hope is to be alive, although unable to be on a vertical state… and so happy, with a sense of accomplishment, full of memories that each part of your sore body will remember forever…
Join me! www.sydneysalsacongress.com.au

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Temporary insanity

June 24th 2009 05:41

When asked why he did it he told us: “I was fat and ugly”. These are his words, I’m pretty sure his mom would strongly disagree. The fact is that my dance partner and friend Junaid decided to go for a Body Building contest... with all that comes with the package.
It is like when you look a pair of jeans with diamond buttons. It is so unachievable you simply don’t consider it seriously. When people like me, reasonably fit, with a few love handles, my honest share of cellulites and a normal body see a body builder we think “oh cool” and move the conversation to the next topic. We see what is there but we have no idea of the lunacy behind.
I’m talking here about the competitions with no drugs. Just powders. At least that was what I saw my partner eating in all rehearsals: some powder with water, broccoli and chicken. The kind of actions they take are totally insane, If you want to know details and timetables or the processes get a trainer, here I’m just going to highlight a few of the crazy stuff I witnessed and that he told me about.
Most of it he told a bunch of friends and me around a table, eating cake, after the competition, sure enough...

First, I think the whole process takes around 7 months. That means seven months of very hard work and some kind of crazy diet. At the beginning there was weight to gain so every time I looked at him, he was eating. We didn’t see each other frequently, only at rehearsals, but even then, if we had 5 min of break, he had to get one of his powdery shakes, eat something from a Tupperware before and after the rehearsal... he had to train everyday, train is the same of lifting heavy weights for more than an hour if I’m not mistaken. It got worse as the time went by.
Near the competition he was training twice a day on weekends... hours and hours morning and night. Why?!!! I have no idea!!!
After he gained weight and muscles for a few months he then had to loose weight again. It was time to start a new diet. No sugar and no oil at all, no fruits, what I would certainly classify as “no life”. Our rehearsals suffered a bit, he was all the time hungry and tired. But I had to excuse him, if I was doing what he was I would have either died or killed someone by then.
- Who did she kill?
- Some guy in the street.
- Why?
- For a bar of chocolate.
- WHAT???!!!
- The guy refused to give her the chocolate and was doomed.
And if I was doing what they called dead-lifting 190kg I would certainly have had the power to kill someone for the chocolate!
At a certain part of the journey they give up eating any sodium. It means salt. For a Brazilian like me that would be it. After months of training that would have made me give up for sure. If not that it would be the water business. There is a phase they have to drink 10 litters of water per day. Junaid told me that one of his friends was found by his girlfriend sleeping seated at the toilet so he wouldn’t have to wake every twenty minutes bursting to go.
- How did you deal with the cravings? I asked my dance partner.
- I made a list. An enormous list! Every time I had a craving I put it down on the list to eat after the competition. I got a few things crossed from the list today: cake, cheese, more cake, chocolate, more cake, cheese, ham and of course, more cake.
One of his fellows competitors said the only thing he never craves is ice cream because he was a recurrent body builder and after one of the competitions he devoured a bucket of four litters of ice cream and could never see the stuff again.

Junaid at his competition, with four layers of spray tan and all

To do something this extreme you have to really embrace it. I’m not very good of hiding what I think so during the talk I ended up confessing that I think those thongs or underwear they use are simply atrocious. He said he knew and since he was embracing the thing he ended up buying 3! The 3 colours they had and spent the next half hour showing on his pictures the blue thing, the red and the black. He also had to tell us which one he was on the pictures.
You see, they go through four layers of spray tan plus something that is called slap tan and spray of cooking oil. This means you cannot recognise anyone unless you are a dentist and recognise the teeth. They are all so coloured they are completely different from their regular state.

Junaid and his Coach

He told me also that during the spray tan, being his first time, he used the thong back to front or something like that. The girl at the tanning saloon found it very funny. I didn’t get the picture and certainly didn’t ask for more details!
- What is this slap tan? I asked, curious with the strange name.
- That is how I call it. It is something that only is absorbed by the skin if it is applied with slaps. That means my friends had a hell of a time slapping me with no retribution from my part.
- Oh!
From all this, my loony friend said he feels he can do anything he wants, anything at all, and I bet he can. If all this is not a temporary insanity I don’t know what it is!

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Latin Dance Section at Radar Magazine

June 4th 2009 00:13

Radar Magazine Vol4

I have great news! Radar Magazine is opening a new Latin Dance Section from the August edition. I’m very excited as I’m the writer and reporter. www.radarmagazine.com.au
If you don’t know Radar you have to see it. It is a magazine about the Brazilian culture for the Australian market. It is special. It has an amazing quality in all senses, good printing in a glossy paper, with a layout that is almost sexy, the pictures are artistically chosen and distributed, the writing is not only journalistic, it is almost literary, like chronicles of life’s best. All done in two languages: English and Portuguese.
I fell in love with the magazine when I first read it and contacted them saying: I want in. That is how I ended up writing for them about the Sydney Salsa Congress and a few tourism pieces.
The Latin Dance Section will have one or two pages full of pictures and information from the scenes in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.
The intention is to draw the attention of the Latin scene to the magazine so we are doing this as a trial. Therefore I would love to receive any information about the Latin dancing that you have, parties, pictures, festivals and any special news that you can share. I intend to make this section so good people will salivate looking at it.
Write me to talk about your Latin dance experience or invite me to your event, I’ll do my best to be there and include you in my article. Contact me directly on tania.creations@gmail.com.
To know more about my writing check all my blogs. If you are in “the scene” you have probably been written about by me already.

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Brisbane Salsa and Brazilian Dance Congresses 2009

June 3rd 2009 05:37

Brisbane Salsa and Brazilian Dance Congresses 2009

I am very excited to say that I’m going to the Brisbane Salsa and Brazilian Dance Congress this weekend! Gaspar Ribeiro invited me so I can experience it and write with all my heart of the adventures I’m going to have there.
I was at the event last year and had a lot of fun, this year will be even better as it will be at the Mercury hotel right at the CBD.
[ Click here to read more ]

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Wizard’s Zouk

May 27th 2009 02:23

Ana, Johnny and I

One of the highlights of my bachata festival was actually a pair of Zouk dances. You would think that I was dancing with Kadu or one of the best zoukers in the house, with a brilliant song and full space to turn, twist and dip, hum?
Well no. With no disrespect, he was one of the worst zoukers in the house. I don’t mean to offend him; it was simply that he wasn’t a zouker at all. He doesn’t dance zouk yet and his intention was to learn there, right in the middle of the Sydney Bachata Festival

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My Sydney Bachata Festival Experience

May 21st 2009 02:11

I had some pretty good and special dances and experiences at the Bachata Festival.
My Friday night started pretty well when the 4Ever boys asked me (!!!) to take a picture with them, not the other way around! I asked if I could take a picture of the group for my blog but they insisted on having me with them, I got all fuzzy and happy... maybe it is something they do with lots of girls, I don’t care, it worked, I bought the CD straight away even not knowing which of the bachata songs I have in my head are theirs

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Public Luv

May 20th 2009 06:59

No, it’s nothing you are thinking about. This is just about people that dance, perform, on stage and make love to their dance partners and the public.
I love cheeky dancers and I’ve been told I am one of them. With pride, I make an effort to be. Great performers are those that create energy with the public, they are so confident with their dancing (and singing) that they interact and put their hearts out to the public

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The White Shorts’ Dancing Bug

May 19th 2009 03:00

So, my whole team had used (and probably abused) the angel’s costume. I hadn’t performed with them the first few times because of an injury. So I was the only one using the Angel thing for the first time. It is a very, very, very (very, very) short, short, short dress. We bought it ready-made and I am pretty sure it was one of those costume things suppose do be sold in adult shops.
Don’t get me wrong, it is a nice, pretty costume. White and sexy, with a holly halo and sleeves that remind you of wings, the only “but” is that it is shorter at the back. If you ally that to a Brazilian Bum (mine) you think: Huston we have a problem

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An Angel at Last

May 18th 2009 04:27

Backstage Picture

I had so much fun performing with Tony Lara’s team at the bachata festival! The theme of the choreo and music is “Angels” and we looked very angelic indeed in our white costumes.
I was especially smiley because it was my “coming back” performance. After fracturing a bone (fell off a horse in January) I couldn’t do it at the Sydney Salsa Congress and I felt more than happy to have a chance to show months of training on stage

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The Dancing Bag

April 23rd 2009 06:43

In the Dressing Room with my Make up Box

Ok, so I am performing tomorrow at the Sydney Bachata Festival. All I can think is what I need to pack for the show. I'm creating this checklist...
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