Man, back from muenster and what a trip! Everything started with our flight from paris to Dusseldorf on Thursday afternoon. I like to get to events early in order to see the city and relax a bit before the party starts. This time just before our flight departed we had an announcement that the flight was going to be 15 minutes delayed, due to a volcano in iceland.
Iceland?! Shouldn't they just have a bunch of ice there?
Anyway, we were annoyed with the delay, but what can you do. Once we landed we met up with Max and then they closed the airport. You thicken I'm kidding. Not only Dusseldorf airport, but 13 airports in Germany were then closed. Then we find out 16 countries have closed airports.
And we were annoyed with a 15 minute delay. Needless to say, Max was concerned. because artists were due to fly in on friday, and with airports closed that was well… impossible. I told Max that everything wool be fine, and we would see how things go on Friday. Well, Friday arrived and this volcano situation was worse, now more airports are closed, and thousands of flights are canceled. Super Mario was stuck in London, all of the trains out London were booked. Terry and Cecile decided to drive from Paris to Muenster. Junior and Emily were in the air from Atlanta to Dusseldorf, until the plane turned around and went back to Atlanta. "Concerned" would be an understatement for Max, but he was cool about it all. He told me "Shaka, unless you want to teach 60 workshops this weekend, we're going to have to make some phone calls."  So we all worked together to organize the top Salsa acts that happened to have the weekend free.

Once you create the momentum for a world class event, the event is going to happen! I managed to convince Leon Rose and Noemie to leave Paris and drive all the way to Munster, telling him that I had a bottle of premium trinidadian rum that I needed him to sample. He promised to be on the road first thing in the morning, with or without Noemie.
With Terry and Cecilles arrival delayed, Vianette and I taught their workshop on Friday, using a French accent before teaching our own workshop in the same room immediately afterwards.
Then we kicked off the shows on Friday night, and went right into the party, which  DJ Mauri, DJ Dave, DJ Diego, DJ JuanPa & Dj Incognito kept the party rocking until 4 in the morning!
On Saturday Vianette taught a great ladies styling class and I taught a boogaloo class to the men before Max asked us to then teach Junior and Emily's partnerwork class, which we did using our best Los Angeles Korean/Salvadorian accent.
Afterwards we practiced our show and prepared for another night of partying.
 When we got to the show staging area Max told me that I was going to have to present the acts, because well…he didn't want to. He also handed me the list of acts and said "Most of them aren't here, we start in 20 minutes." Leon and Noemie were on the road, to arrive soon, so we were going to close with them." The shows were awesome, with performers from around the world. This year Max had the artists in mind with a raised stage for the performers, which also made viewing much easier. Vianette and I performed "Latin NY" for the second time, and then I changed immediately to present the next acts. I especially remember Terry and Cecile's Bachata number. They are some of my favorite performers to watch, their style is both powerful and sensual. Then  we found out what happened to Leon and Noemie.

So they made it..eventually. The shows had finished, but we rounded everyone up and brought them back into the show room where Leon and Noemie blew up the stage with their "Kako's Boogaloo" Routine! After the shows we all partied until 6AM, I was relieved to see at 7AM that I didn't have to teach again until 3:45 in the afternoon. On Sunday everything was still going strong, and we made it through a full day of workshops, with a great artist dinner, they even had a masseuse at the event that was offering great rates for a top notch massage. As dancers we all have to be conscious of the wear-and-tear that happens to the body.  The party kicked off on Sunday night and while they announced the last song after 2 in the morning, we didn't actually stop playing the music until well after 3AM. Vianette and I then arranged to ride back to Paris with Leon and Noemie (Since Terry and Cecille always get lost on the road), and we had a chance to see the German countryside, the beautiful city of Brussels, and the Parisian traffic. Either way, it's great to be back in Paris. You can see the performance on the Facebook fan page, or follow us on YouTube. Next trip will be to the UK!