The gal who runs the Tres Generaciones dance group in San German had a birthday bash for her 32nd birthday last night. I was invited! I’m part of the cool crowd it seems. 😉 She instructed us to wear white. Check. While Trevor stayed home with the kiddos, I grabbed my SLR camera and headed to Lola’s Restaurant for the fiesta. I figured if I didn’t know anyone I could at least take photos. And with bomba dancing on the docket, I was excited to snap a few good shots. After all, taking dance photos is something I can rock!
As soon as I parked, a guy with a drum said, “You are the mama of D y P?” uh yeah. Apparently he is one of the music teachers at my kid’s school, and I hadn’t met him yet. He was going to play in the band for the party! The west side of this island is small, I tell ya.
Zulie made a grand entrance with fire. Now this is my kinda party! Unfortunately there was a projected boxing game on the wall, but fortunately I was able to crop it out of the photos!
She’s amazing!
Bomba music is fun. Totally Puerto Rican and heavily influenced by African beats. Jeez! I miss African dancing from college! I would love to learn bomba drumming. (I was a percussionist for 9 years) And the dancing looks fun too!!
I’ve really never seen it before. And these kids were good. I call them kids, ’cause I’m pretty sure I’m older than most of them. The dancers took turns showcasing in front of the band. Each new dancer would do a little salute to the musicians. I just love when musicians and dancers co-create together in the moment. The energy it creates is like nothing else. Like the dancer knows the phrasing of the music and thinks, “Hey musicians, I’m gonna hit this coming up, alright? here we go, ready? BAM! We nailed it” And the musicians are like, “here’s more backatcha!” back and forth back and forth. Video doesn’t do it justice. You have to feel it live. I’ve felt it a lot at swing dance events.
People acted all shy when dragged out to dance but when they started dancing, they sure knew how to shake it
I found a spot to sit at a table that was clearly marked reservado, but hey, it was vacant. I had a blast taking photos. Sometimes, when you take photos of live dancing you don’t get to live in the present moment. You’re worried too much about the technique of taking photos. But many times I put the camera down to soak up the vibe. (At least I was far enough away from the dancers to not worry about getting kicked in the face like those swing dance photos in the link above -haha)
He was fun. I think he could REALLY rock solo charleston 😉
Even though I didn’t know many people, I had a blast watching. I learned a lot. And, the other music teacher from the kid’s school was also in the band! My kids would’ve been so jealous. They love him!
One of the drummers took a quick break to dance. His legs moved so fast they were blurry!
Oh, my gosh, that sounds like a blast! Your photos are terrific. Hope you got up and danced to!
The pictures of the dancing are incredible. I didn’t know that there was this much activity in San German (my hubby’s hometown). We go there once in a while and don’t see much happening. We went to the Fiestas Patronales but didn’t stay long.after we picked up my brother in law, we had to come all the way back home to Quebradilla which is about a 2 hr. ride.
Keep dancing. I am still looking for a good place to go Salsa dancing not too far from here. Do you know any????
Take care and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Tonie