Prosperous start for ‘Street Latin Night’ in Fort

By Jiwon Jung

The Hospital Street in Fort was crowded with people. It was illuminated with varied spotlights with dancers swirling and twisting to the beat, smudged in the atmosphere. Passionate movements from the dancers as well as soft and gentle movements embodied with music convinced the crowd to freely accompany them. Contrasting with the night sky, the crowd and the dancers on the street were lighting up the night. On a Tuesday night, the street was open to everybody.

To kindly introduce the start of this event, Kasun Dias and his dance group led their bodies on to the melody of music on the street in front of Java Lounge. ‘Where’ they were dancing was not important to them. ‘What’ they were doing and ‘how, truly enjoying themselves every minute, were the crucial elements for them. As time passed by, the dancers engaged the crowd. One of the audience members described the dance as “lovely” and “energetic”, followed by a response from another person, who described it as “it was lively and romantic”. Each and every movement followed the beat, the melody and the rhythm of the music sank into the background. 

After displaying a beautiful performance of Salsa, Bachata and Kizomba, the three genres of dance that were introduced that night, the audience was given an opportunity to facilely participate in learning a few steps of Salsa with Kasun Dias and a special guest of this event, Nelson Campos. There were a lot of people joining the Salsa dance session. The majority were open to learning new things and took the opportunity for a new challenge. Kasun Dias’ detailed teaching style, his humour, kindness and his warm-hearted soul really approached the audience effectively. To be specific, the audience learned the dance style of mambo, rumba and cumbia. The audience engagement of this event was impressive and phenomenal.

Nelson Campos, an African professional dancer, was a special guest at this event, too. It was his first visit to Sri Lanka and he was pleased to share his knowledge of the Kizomba dance style. Kizomba is a genre of dance and a musical genre originating in Angola in 1984. Kizomba means “party” in Kimbundu, an Angolan language, and it definitely did reflect its meaning during the event. Campos started dancing Kizomba at a young age. “We grew up dancing,” he mentioned. Campos has taught dance since he was qualified at London in 2000. “Dance is my life. I dance when I am happy. I dance when I am sad. Dance is sleeping, eating and breathing,” he added. Furthermore, he was very passionate about his job as a dancer. His main goal is to see the dance form Kizomba everywhere in the world, and hopes that Kizomba will be recognised globally.

The inauguration of ‘Street Latin night’ was remarkable. People generally feel that Latin dance is challenging. However, from this ‘Street Latin Night’, people got to learn that anything is possible if you take the challenge positively and sincerely enjoy it. This event was sponsored by Fairway Colombo, and they are planning to have this event twice a month on every second and fourth Tuesdays.

Pix by Upul Abayasekara