BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – CLOSE to 50 individuals brushed up on their salsa dance skills at a Dance Workshop held at the St. Kitts Marriott today (Oct. 25) in preparation to enjoy themselves at the 5th annual Latin Fiesta slated for tomorrow at the St. Kitts Marriott beach.
Shortly after 1:00 p.m., the participants began their class with Samuel Phipps Jr. alias ‘Phippsy’, a salsa and bachata dance instructor.
From the basic half turn to the full turn to more complicated dances such as cruceros, the El Pasito and the Hollywood, Instructor Phipps exposed the participants to a wide-range of dance moves which they can use to expand their repertoire of dance moves as well as impress viewers at the Latin Fiesta.
Phipps told SKNVibes that the workshop was opened to anyone and everyone who wanted to “learn new moves or who wanted to patch up their old moves ahead of the Latin Fiesta…”
He said the turnout was good and he applauded Latin Festival LLC for its initiative and ingenuity is hosting this activity.
“All in all, it was a good turnout and a great effort by Latin Fiesta to hold a session like this because it is for the betterment of people for the Latin Festival to have more fun when they are dancing, and learning different techniques etc.
“If you really look at the turnout of locals at the Latin Festival or Latin Fiesta, it is tremendous but the thing about it is people are willing to learn but they are shy to do it. I have my own class down Ross University where I work. Locals are welcome to come and I get locals there from time to time.”
Phipps indicated that his first time attending the Latin Fiesta was about three years ago at which point, he marvelled because of the impressive number of locals who were not only supporting the event but dancing.
He expressed his desire for people to attend the Latin Fiesta and enjoy themselves.
“I just want everybody to come out and have a good time. It’s a good way of relaxing yourself and ditch all the stresses of the past week and entering a new week, you should come out and dance and have fun, whether you know the basic steps or not. It is just the rhythm, we are Caribbean people and we know rhythm so we could catch on easily…
Only last year at the Latin Fiesta, Phipps and his partner Cristin Greaux won the dance competition and Phipps assured SKNVibes that they are more than ready to defend their title.
“We are going back this time to make sure that we back to back. We have some hot moves coming so people need to come and see them.”
