23rd – 25th of July, 2009
Once again, LinLine led by Lin Hamid and her crew surpassed the audience expectations by organizing another great Malaysia Salsa Festival 2009 (MSF). The beauty of this event is that every year the committee selects a different tropical holiday destination in Malaysia, always choosing some of the top resorts. This year the festival was held at the Legend Resort in Cherating, Pahang. The resort had incredible pools, excellent accommodation, great halls and buffet food. So, if you were too tired to do the workshops or to dance in general, you could enjoy the amenities the resort had on offer.
The event’s vibe was friendly, warm and always welcoming. A big thank you goes to the ground crew who were always ready to help. Once again and as stated on the previous year’s event review, the organizers and the crew ensured that all the guests were treated as friends and family.
It seemed that the MSF had more international guests than local guests. Even though the number of Australians were down compared to last year’s event, this year the Chinese were the largest international group. Representatives were present from the UK, Portugal, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Emirate Arabs, Turkey and of course Malaysia. Overall, the event held a good number of attendees to make use of all the resort’s facilities.
Traditions that were created in previous years were once again carried on at this years event , such as Melbourne’s Spin City Dance team jumping into the pool in full costume after their performance, And every party ended in the pool in the early hours of the morning
All the invited instructors shared their best moves and dance routines with the attendees. The Zouk beginners workshop taught by Lidia and Michael from Modus Vivendi probably saw the biggest number of students at the festival followed by the salsa workshops taught by Nuno and Vanda.
The only thing to improve was that even though there were 3 Bachata workshops taught at the festival by Juan Ruiz and Inaki Fernandez, DJs didn’t play enough Bachata music during the parties for the attendees to practice the new moves. On the other hand, it was good to see that DJs played few Zouks throughout the night and participants were eager to get in the dance floor and practice their zouk, even if it was to practice just the basics.
The evening shows were very entertaining and enjoyable. Caderas Latinas team had the largest team performing at the festival, it was so big that they had to split the team into two and have them perform on both nights. We have to give credit to Mambo Clasico and their Mime’s routine (not sure if that is the proper name for the routine), the Two Left Feet team as well as Grace Woo’s beginners team that didn’t look like a beginners team at all.
Starlinn Choo from Singapore was such a pocket rocket! She performed a solo and couple routine. The difference with the couple routine was that she was acting as a leader instead of a follower. The Zouk performances by Lidia and Michael and Alison and Premala kept the audiences in a state of awe as not many Zouk performances have been showcased in this event. Closing the event, we had the contemporary salsa performances by Nuno and Vanda, which left the audience wondering how they make it look so easy and effortless their complicated routines.
There were rumours at the beginning of the year that this even was not going to take place so we are really glad that Lin made this event happen. Even though Lin hasn’t mentioned the dates for next year’s festival, we are looking forward to it. Let’s keep the MSF tradition happening!
