Shows in June

We had some really great shows outside this month. We performed at the New York Restoration Project Family Day, Children's Day at the South Street Seaport and at El Museo del Barrio for the Museum Mile Celebration.

Something special happened at each show. At El Museo del Barrio, after I fell asleep for the second time after the song La Pulga, instead of yelling my name, the kids tickled me to wake me up! It was the first time that had ever happened.

At Family Day, we had our first salsa-off competition--we had a little salsa dancing contest during the song Paco and based on some formula Fati awarded the prize to an adorable little girl that had followed every step of every song.

At Children's Day, we danced around in a circle with a little girl who had a giant smile on her face from the moment we started the show to the very end.

Best of all I think was that at each event, we had a really nice time with the kids after and or during the shows. All the events were wonderful for families and although we do usually get out and do things on the weekend, we don't always take advantage of special events like these which the kids really love.

We also got help on stage from Chloe and Kylen at Children's Day with the song Fermin. Little by little I think we're going to start having them participate more in the shows. They know all the songs so well and really seem to like performing. We'll see how that develops.

Thanks so much to Abigail, Rebecca and Magaly for the pictures and video!

Summer's Here!

We've been having a great time with the kids and with shows but have just not found time to document everything. I'm going to play catch up for the next few weeks.

But summer is here which means we'll be playing shows outside which is always fun. We're playing at the South Street Seaport later this month which will be fun and later in August we'll be at Union Square. All great stuff which I am determined to document!

Here's our June newsletter which has info on everything happening this month. Please sign up for the newsletter at our website!

Swindler's Cove on a Beautiful Day

The beautiful days seem to be coming fast and furious now. After days of rain and grey, we had an amazing day Thursday for our show up at Swindler's Cove Park for the New York Restoration Project's event called, Naturemania! I've actually never been so far up in Manhattan and it was fun tracing the path of the East River and then the Harlem River all the way uptown. More than anything, our kids were welcomed to join the fun and did face painting, drawing, and playing with rocks and sticks.

The show was great although after a few songs, kids drifted away to do other activities and we invited Kylen and Chloe to perform on the stage--well, the grass--with us.

As always, there were a few kids that seemed to just have the predisposition to have fun and their smiles and enthusiasm made the show great fun.

It was always nice because the majority of the kids there spoke Spanish and understood the lyrics of the songs. We had some nice conversations with the kids afterwards and stayed until the event ended.

It was great to find out a little more about the New York Restoration Project and this event. We'll definitely make it next year!

Dance Party at the Library

It was so exciting to play at the MAIN Brooklyn public library. I spent so much time there in high school and over breaks in college. I always loved just going into that incredible building right at Grand Army Plaza.

We had a really nice group of kids that came for the music and then families that just came by when they heard the music and joined right in. Plus, our kids, my parents, Fati's mom, and my brother's family were all there. We were able to have a little family gathering at our show which was really nice.

I think we'll have to figure out another Saturday morning to bring our show to the Central library!

The Booking Agent is In..and very lucky

I'm not sure what's going on but the booking gods have been smiling on Fati & I recently. I heard back from the the Summer in the Square that they'd like us to play there. Summer in the Square is a music series at Union Square in that other, smaller Island to the West. We're also going to participate in Children's Day again this year down at the South Street Seaport. It was a lot of fun last year and we're really looking forward to it this year.

The weirdest thing was that I called the New York Restoration Project last week at like 6 pm to see if I could send them some info to try to set up a show for later in the summer and it turned out they needed a performer for their Naturemania series next week! Talk about right time, right place.

We're really thrilled that we're going to be performing at some of the best music free summer music series around. Who knows? Maybe next year we'll be at Celebrate Brooklyn!

Arlington Library Show a Tight Fit

Our show at the Arlington Library was kind of a tight fit because we were literally surrounded by three and four year olders as we were singing and dancing. More and more it seems like older kids seem to really get into our show and can follow all our complicated choreography! It's great whenever kids of any age pay attention to us and seem to enjoy the show, but it's really rewarding when we see kids shouting SOLO SOLO with fist raised, dancing salsa with Paco, or spinning and throwing hats in El Baile del Sombrero.

There were kids from a couple school in the neighborhood plus a few families who attend the programs at the library every week. As the show went on, new kids arrived and we were literally inundated with kids...and it was great! The first thing we did when we started the show was push away the chairs that had been set up so that the kids could dance with us! And once they all came up to wake me up after I had once again fallen asleep after "La Pulga", they were up with us to stay. One little boy kept laying down, I think copying me when I fell asleep.

The group that arrived a little late took a little while to warm up, but by the time we were dancing salsa with Paco, they were dancing with us too.

It was a really fun show with a great group of kids.

Show at Spring Creek Library or not

We set off for the Spring Creek Library and arrived just in time for the librarian to tell us that we were going to do the show over at the school of the kids who were going to be our audience still were. It was a messy, cold, rainy morning and it would have been a long and miserable walk for the kids over to the library, so we went to them!

I love the way some libraries form partnerships with childcare programs and schools in their neighborhoods. It gets the kids into the library at a young age and introduces them to all the library offers. It's great for us because we get a nice audience of children who otherwise wouldn't have seen us.

We set up in one of the classrooms and it was fun seeing a typical day in the lives of these 3 year olds. The school was wonderfully colorful and decorated and the kids were as usual welcoming, kind and very cute.

More and more kids came into the classroom until finally we got the word that we were ready. Although very few of the kids spoke Spanish, we had them jumping, clapping, and spinning around from our first song and they stayed engaged throughout. There were so many kids that we didn't have nearly enough scarves, sponges, or hats to go around and using imagination didn't really seem to work that well. But kids still participated and had a good time.

For some reason, I got a really big laugh when I got all dressed up in Soy Muy Independiente. The laughter was so loud and immediate that it really made a big impression on me! It's so great to make people and especially kids laugh. I think I'm going to have to become a bit sillier and make that happen more often!

It seems like at a lot of shows there's one or two kids that really seem to love what we're doing. At this show, there was a girl who stood right in the front and followed every step, every gesture, mouthed every word, and really seemed to have a great time. If we had just done the show for her alone, I would have gone home happy.

It was a really nice morning! Thanks to the family that came all the way from Williamsburg to see the show at the library and then came over to the school! I hope you and your child had a nice time!