The world is a scary place right now, but my goodness, Son Latino: this felt like a holiday in an untouched paradise - thank you!!!
Theres always something super special and magical about festivals. Its like diving into a parallel universe, where everything is ok. It's just Music and Movement. Smiling and togetherness. Like-minded people and passion.
Bachatation was no exception. In fact, it was probably one of the coolest festivals we've been to! The dancers. The vibe. The location. The inspiration. Insane!
We travelled to Karlsruhe on Friday afternoon with a delay. (Its always like that right? The days you want to get off work early or on time are always the days where the most stuff comes up).
After Dinner with some friends in the city we headed off to the first festival party: en blanco! Walking there we looked up to the window of the location and there was Korke, lurking at the window, looking down, waving - as if he had been waiting for us :D . As you may know, we did the Bachata Sensual Level 1 Teachers Course in Bilbao a month ago. And our exam date was set for today, the 3rd of March. Korkes words once we got to the party on Friday: "great, you are here. We will do your exam tomorrow" - safe to say our pulses went up at that moment: shit! We thought we had another week to study! :D
The party was great. Lots of familiar faces and also many new ones. It was definitely a very balanced event in relation to the leader-follower ratio. Perfect: no standing around for either of us! With music and animations by the one and only DJ York, we danced until shortly before 1am and headed back to the hotel (me, Sarah, with a very sore back) for some sleep. Now don't get me wrong, we all start somewhere and Philipp and I both genuinely enjoy dancing with beginners. It teaches us an incredible amount and lets be honest: we were both beginners not all that long ago. HOWEVER please, dear beginners, if you have never learnt the proper technique on leading dips, then DO NOT do them. Its a serious risk for the safety of the followers and you never know if someone may have back issues, so please take care and respect the followers limits!!!
Saturday Morning started with classes with a class by Korke & Judith. Right before they called us upfront and gave us some Team Bachata Sensual T-shirts... what an honour! (we felt like Dobby from Harry Potter.. " Master Gave Dobby a sock!") Kiko and Christinas Class was also fantastic! (poor Christina did well on the stage, considering she is so afraid of heights!).
In the Afternoon we had a private mentoring class with K&J where we met and danced alongside Gon & Bella from Argentina and Chami & Julie from Cologne. They are incredible... super inspiring and we are truly so proud to have the opportunity to dance with and alongside dancers of this level. Not to mention the fact that they are simply and absolutely wonderful and lovable human beings!! (little love flash happening here). -> Go check them out if you haven't already: https://www.instagram.com/gonybellaoficial/?hl=en
"Unfortunately" we didn't have time to do our exam on Saturday, so instead we hit town for some delicious Tapas and a pornstar Martini (Recommendation at this point: Toro Tapas in Karlsruhe - yum!) and then threw on our threads for gala night!
And this was truly probably the best Festival Party I've been to. The dancers were great. The music was great. The energy was great. And we both had the courage to dance with Artists -which isn't always the case!. (Thanks Gon, Bella, Fabian, Fania, Korke, Judith, Antoni, Belen, Chami, Julie, Daniel, DJ York, Eduardo, Olga for the dances!!!).
Sunday was sleepy. Shortly before lunch it was time for our Bachata Sensual Instructor exam though - so no time to be tired! ... we were soooooo nervous, but: WE PASSED!! :) and Dendi from Son Latino made us delicious drinks to celebrate! THANKS DENDI !
Finishing off with another private mentoring class in which we once again learnt an incredible amount (Thank you Korke and Judith for your patience, your support and your belief in us as dancers - it means so much to us!!).
We drove home will full hearts and a head full of special new memories. Grateful for this weekend. For this parallel universe. And for all the special human beings in it.
