So we had the Konpa weekend with Janita and Amar - Konpassion. It was great. We love having our special weekends back. We believe it is the best format to get the most out of international teachers.
Contrary to festival classes, on special weekends, teachers actually get to understand the level of the students they are teaching to. There is more time to realy try and bring people up a level. This weekend was a perfect example.
We had time to understand a bit of history. To learn about how to recognise the music. What the different parts of a Konpa song are and how to dance to it. The classes themselves were incremental. Starting from the basics and slowly building it up and adding techniques.
This could quite possibly have been the first Konpa bootcamp in Finland. We did have some trouble finding an audience for this special. There is always a bit of hesitation to join an event that brings something completely new.
We do however know what we are doing. The classes managed to progress quickly. The entry effort for Kizomba/Semba/Urbankiz/Tarraxinha dancers to Konpa is very low. After this weekend, dancers have the tools to recognise the music and to adjust their dance to be visibly different to how they dance Kizomba to the same song.