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Jazzy & Amy - The Interview |
| Written by J LA (Runique) on 12 March 2007 |
Read the latest interview of the world wide known salsa performers
Jazzy & Amy from Norway. Get to know how Jazzy & Amy got
together. How they start to dance. Take the advices of how to impove
your salsa skills and many many more.
Quick infoJazzy
Salsa dancer, choreographer, teacher
Age: 27
Place of birth: Guatemala
Origin: 1/4 German, 1/4 African, 1/4 Spanish, 1/4 Gipsy
Amy Tuarez
Salsa dancer, choreographer, teacher
Age: 23
Place of Birth: Equador
DancerZone: Jazzy, tell us how, when and where did you start to dance?Jazzy:
Well, I‘ll tell you the short story. In my family everybody do art.
They paint, sing, dance, play instruments, just something. My father is
an actor. My mum is a ballet dancer. So my mother and my dad met in a
musical. They did the audition, they got in and they made me by stage.
Actually backstage. And here I am. *Jazzy loughs“. So when I was
younger I didn‘t want to dance. On birthsday parties everyone was
dancing, only me was sitting in the corner. If someone tried to push me
to the dance floor I cried. But, sometimes I went to my room, put the
radio on and danced. I just didn‘t like somebody watching me dance. One
day I was dancing in my room and I forgot to lock the door. So my mum
came in and saw me dance. „You son of a **BEEEEEP** come here“ she
said. She pulled me right away to a dance school. So I started to dance
ith Jazz, Classical Ballet, Modern-Dance, Salsa, Cha Cha Cha and Mambo.
So my mum took me every day from my regular school right away to the
dance school. All the kids of my age were playing around outside and I
had to dance inside the studio. But I liked it! Later on I stopped
taking so much classes and started to practise by myself. I came home
after school threw the books in the corner and went to the dance studio
until my parents picked me up in the late evening.
DancerZone: And Amy, how did you start to dance?Amy Tuarez:
I started to dance in New York when I was about thirteen. I was working
as cashier at a supermarket. And coming home late one day, there was a
dance studio right around the corner. I heared salsa music playing. I
stopped there and there was a salsa social. I was watching them dance
and I was like wow! I thought you know what, I want to do this. But the
really beginning was when I was five or six years old. I have been
doing tap dance, jazz and ballet. I was doing that for couple years.
Then money problems come in, my younger brother was born, so my mum
took me out of the dance school. So whe I started to earn my own money
I started to take dance classes again.
DancerZone: And when did you start with salsa exactly? Jazzy: It was at the age of 6 or 7. My partner was my sister, but my first dance show was with my mum.
DancerZone: Amy, have you been lucky like Jazzy, having all that support of your family?Amy Tuarez:
Well Jazzy was luckier in that sence. He had a family which supported
it. Comming of a latin family, living in New York it‘s really hard to
make money out of dance. If you want to be a dancer in New York it
means you going to be poor. Unless you are one of the people who
started to dance right from the beginning, like for example „Santo
Rico“ or „Yamulee“ (salsa dance groups in New York). My family we had
not much money. I could go to all that classes to all that dance
schools. I had to go to the regular school, worrying about rasing my
brother, helping out my father.
So that‘s why I‘m very happy to work with Jazzy. Now I‘m able to do the Rumba, the Jazz, the Ballet, the Modern-Dance.
DancerZone: Amy, how did you meet Jazzy? Amy Tuarez: Actually
it starts all when I saw him dancing at Los Angeles Salsa Congress als
year. He was performing there. He walked on stage and I was like - what
is this guy going to do? Who dances in Norway!? Nobody dances in
Norway! Allright let‘s give him a chance. He started break out his
great moves. You know - Rumba, Latin Jazz, Ballet, everything and I was
like WOW. That‘s what I want to do. I said, I want to dance with this
guy! We met later on on the dance floor and had some social dancing. It
was a great dance and we felt that really good chemistry. And Jazzy
said, „hey you want to come to Norway and be my dance partner!?“ And
thought - Dude why not! *Amy loughs*. It‘s been the best ride ever.
We‘ve worked together very well. He is freaking genious!
 DancerZone: Jazzy tell us how did you make it possible to make you both work together?
Jazzy:
Actually at that time I had no partner. I broke up with my last partner
before. That‘s why I was doing solos. I did two or three salsa
congresses with my solo show. And I was looking for a dance partner. I
knew that if I going to have a new dance partner, she has to be able to
work well and practice hard. You really need to train every day, you
have to be in that special touch. I knew it‘s going to be difficult.
There was nobody in Norway and who wants to work in Norway!? „Obviosly
me!“ Amy smiles. Yeh, Amy got a good offer of my company SALSA
KOMPANIET. We were paying the first months of stay, with appartment and
all inclusive. My company fixed the paper work for her work permission.
So she grabed her bag and came all the way from New York to Norway to
work with me and with the best salsa company in Norway. My salsa
company.
DancerZone: Amy, did you have to change a make a career with Jazzy? Amy Tuarez:
Yes! Everything completely, from your diet, the way you dress, the way
you act in public. People think, o je you just dance. But it‘s not.
It‘s everything, it‘s your image.
DancerZone: Is there any advice you guys would like to give to improve ones dance skills?Jazzy: Feeling
and passion is very important. It‘s not about beeing technically
perfect. As long you don‘t feel you will never be a great, great
dancer. You can‘t really teach someone to feel. I can recommend
watching people dance and try to feel what this person dancing feels at
that moment. You can see it by the way he moves, by his facial
expression. It‘s important to let yourself inspire. You can watch
millions of dancers or dance videos, but if you‘re not open to be
inspired you will never get all that feelings.
DancerZone: How often do you guys practice together? Jazzy: In
avarage we practice three days in a week. And we practise maximal two
hours a day. Our philosphy is quality not quanity. We go in the studio
with full concentration and practice very efficiently.
DancerZone: How do you guys prepare yourselves for your shows beside of the dance practice?Jazzy: Week
before I do my diets, do not drink to much and not smoke to much. You
need to be carefull with those things. The day before the show I don‘t
have sex. I do push-ups, sit-ups, stretching.
DancerZone: Are you guys still nervous when you go on stage? Jazzy: No,
it‘s more we‘re exited. We feel high. We just feel let‘s go there, we
want to do it. Actually I have done so many shows in my life, so you
get really used to it. It just gets to be like a drug.
You know, when the day comes when there is no positiv nervousness, no fun, no exitement any more, that day I‘m going to quit.
DancerZone: What goals do you guys have for the next three to five years?Jazzy: For
my salsa company in Norway is to get over one thousend students. Open
three more schools. I have six places where we teach now. So I want to
open another three places. Contract more instructors and get a better
dance team. For myself, I want to do my best. Cos I know after five
years I will stop and retire. So what I want to do, i want to leave my
mark. Like a stamp. My signature. So people remember me in the next
fifty years. If there is goingt to be a salsa book I want to have my
name in that salsa book.
 DancerZone: What about you Amy?
Amy Tuarez: I
always wanted to work in a dance school, to performe, so that‘s what
I‘m doing now with Jazzy. I know I‘m pretty young. I lived hard life.
So I feel pretty old. *Amy smiles* I want to do the same thing for the
next three to five years. But I do want to settle down, get married,
have my family, push out some kids, live the family life.
DancerZone: So you might going to search your man for life in Norway? Amy Tuarez:
It‘s actually not the first thing on my mind. If it comes, it comes, if
it doesn‘t, it doesn‘t. Right now my big focus is my career, my
training, our school, our show team. That‘s my main focus right now.
I‘m very single! by the way. *Amy smiles*
DancerZone: There is a big hipe, everybody brings his own instructional dance DVD. So you guys going to have one, too?Amy Tuarez:
Yes, Jazzy has some instructional dance DVD‘s which he has done with
his past dance partners. But we have some partnering DVD‘s in the work.
We just started to work since four months, so we still working on
developing our partnership. So give us just a little more time.
DancerZone: Amy, what do you thing about having a spot all people who love to dance can meet?Amy Tuarez:
I think it‘s awsome! It‘s great to have a place like DancerZone. Where
we dancers can come in and say - hey look what‘s going on in this world
and what is going on in this world!?
Sometimes dancers have the
tendency to close to themselves and just salsa dancers, just hip-hop
dancers, just break dancers, just ballet dancers or just jazz dancers.
To see a place where dancers can come together and not just be a
particular dancer, but general dancer and share your experience. To see
that we all have the same stories.
DancerZone: So we getting
to the end of our interview. You can say what ever you want. If you
like to thank someone, just go for it.Amy Tuarez: Well,
I want to thank everybody who has been in my life and helped me to get
there where I am today. I want to thank Jazzy for giving me the
opportunity to work with him and travel with him. Shout out to my
people in New York. Also I want to say a special tribute to a friend of
my. I found out couple of days a go, David Melendez, very important
member of salsa community, passed away in February. We love you David.
We know you are here with us. You put up a good fight! And we will
never forget you.
Check out the website of Jazzy and Amy www.salsakompaniet.no
Last Updated on 14 March 2007.
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