Ritmo 918 is supporting Raza Dance Festival!
August 11-13, 2023, at the Embassy Suites Northwest Arkansas.
Don't miss the closest festival! This is the 1st and only Latin dance festival in NWA in its 2nd edition, with the participation of teachers and dancers from all over the world, many of them champions of great international competitions, from which you can learn great things in their workshops and private classes that will be available to you, ALL weekend, so you can take your dancing to the next level.
Raza Dance Festival (RDF) is an event that celebrates Afro-Antillean music and Bachata, Salsa, Merengue and other dance styles. This festival aims to promote dance not only in Arkansas, but also in the expanded region, to foster a diverse cultural and artistic environment.
In the evenings, you will highlight your styles with our themed parties, RDF will start with special performances of your favorite artists, full of flavor, energy and passion. All hosted by one of the most charismatic and world-renowned emcees “DJ TIGUERE”. And the best thing is that thanks to our DJ’s, the good music will never stop. Raza Dance Festival is an event that offers something for everyone and we hope you will join us and have fun!
Latin Dance 918 is a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to the promotion, education, and preservation of Afro-Caribbean/Latin culture through dance in our region. We exist to cultivate an equitable and collaborative community that is safe, inclusive & welcoming. We provide access to dance with our pay-what-you-can model to dancers of all skill levels and backgrounds via classes, socials, performances, and recreational dance teams (Ritmo 918).
If you are able, we'd appreciate your tax-deductible donations for us to continue increasing access to dance. Anything helps. All donors that contribute over $500 will be recognized on our sponsor/donor page and sent a receipt of donation by Dec. 31st. Thank you so much for your generosity and for your support!
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Dance Festivals/Congresses
A dance congress/festival is an multi-day event and celebration of Afro-Caribbean Latin culture and dance, specifically Salsa & Bachata although some also include African dances like Kizomba (Angola). It's basically a time where you're able to dance 24/7. The event is full of dance performances by amateur and professional dancers, concerts, social dancing, and lots of workshops to improve your dance skills and take classes from your favorite dance professionals. It usually takes place during a weekend and people travel from city to city, state to state, and others internationally, to attend their favorite congresses/festivals.
For dancers, these events feel like a family reunion as people see fellow congress-attendees and other dance-friends in several cities at different events. At other times, it feels like a meeting hub - the great dancer exchange - a place for folks to connect and make new friends in the global dance community. It's definitely a great opportunity to improve your social dancing!
What is social dancing? For many people in the dance community, social dancing is the main reason they decided to start dancing Salsa/Bachata. It has two aspects to it: The social one --providing an opportunity to meet other people with the same interests --and dancing - connecting with a partner to create an in-the-moment, completely improvised, spontaneous dance to a song. When dancers attend congresses/festivals, there is an excitement that comes from knowing that one would be dancing with dancers from outside their local dance community. Congresses/Festivals tend to have longer dancing hours since they are not usually bound by the rules of the states or municipalities for bars and clubs close time. It is not unusual to find congresses that have social dancing that last until 5am or 6am. This extended hours of social dancing is definitely one of the main draws for many attendees.
We highly encourage you to attend a congress/festival if you're able to! It's such an amazing and fun experience. That's why we support the Raza Dance Festival in Arkansas in August, the CLOSEST one to Tulsa (just a two hour drive!). We are doing everything we can to bring this festival closer to our community in the future! Your support helps us make this happen! You can purchase one day passes or full passes which include all workshops, performances, and social dancing. Aside from this festival, sometimes OKC has "weekenders" - shorter events - usually 2 days, featuring an international dance professional (s) but not as many as a full festival.
Aside from these close to us, there are congresses/festivals ALL over the world every single month of the year. Traveling for one of these events is definitely a milestone in a dancer's journey. As a dance family, we've been able to travel to Houston, Dallas, NYC, Mexico, and even the Dominican Republic to attend one. Sometimes a big group of us can attend (15!) or sometimes it's just a couple of us since logistics can get complicated. Prices vary, but there's early bird specials and they tend to go up the closer to the event it gets. Below are some popular congresses/festivals, including all the ones Carlos & Susan from Raza will be attending to perform/teach. Click on the image to go to their official site and find more information. Oh, and they also have dance cruises and dance summits (competitions)!
