Opening the cruise night. Magna Gopal and Zee are show-stoppers at the Ritz. Photos: Gerald Koo
The opening night of Salsa Cruise Asia took place at the Ritz Carlton Hotel just one week after the Singapore International Salsa Festival. Similar to the latter, it promised an opening night, and also while onboard the cruise ship that was to set sail the very next day, an international cast of salsa artistes, performances, workshops and dancing galore.
The opening night was a glitzy affair as ladies and gentlemen came appropriately dressed in evening gowns, and shirts and pants respectively. Not really the attire most salsa dancers in Singapore are used to on a dancing night out at our usual club but hey, it is the Ritz we are talking about here. It could be the event is held just a week after the SISF and most are still recovering from dancing fatigue, but the crowd was visibly thinner than what we had expected as the seats in ballroom were at most half-filled when the opening performance kicked off at 9pm. Left. The crowd gets into the action with the Mexican Wave.
Chinese traditional drummers delivered a rousing start before the emcees - one being the well-known Jamie Jesus from Sydney Australia – took to stage. The two-hour show was heavy on performances from Singapore and Malaysia, but there were big names from overseas - like the US’ Jordan and Tatiana, and Magna Gopal, and Brazil’s and Australia’s Kadu & Larissa - and also some familiar faces like Tony Lara and Danila whom we last saw not too long ago at the SISF.
There were a number of repeated performances from the SISF, not that we did not enjoy seeing them a second time round. But among the deliveries we love most include the salsa number from Magna and Singapore’s Zee, where the former commands your attention with her stage presence and impeccable spins, Kadu’s and Larissa’s gripping Zouk dance, ACTFA’s Yanqing and Brenda mambo delivery that had the crowd clapping and cheering, and a oomph-filled hip hop performance by Singapore’s NRA Hip Hop Dance Club. The performances culminated at 11pm with the song “Baila Rhumbero” sung live by the funny and charming Johnny Vazquez and danced to by the artistes on stage and audiences.
It is inevitable that SCA’s opening night would be compared with the SISF given how close the events were in terms of timing, but that would be thoroughly unfair as after all the height of this event takes place on the high seas. So putting things in perspective, we say SCA’s opening night was good entertainment at a great location and very much enjoyable, perhaps even more so if we had not over-partied over the last weekend.
Left. The crowd gets into the action with the Mexican Wave.
