World Bachata Festival in Malaysia Postponed

The amount of Dance Festivals being postponed are growing as we speak. One example is the World Bachata Festival, planned to be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, somewhere in 2010. I say “somewhere'” because the original date has been postponed as to last month. The website now only states that it is “coming soon”.

I asked Sam Sopiee – a well known Salsa Dance instructor in Malaysia – for some information regarding this postponement, because of his dance studio's logo being used as an associate of the Malaysian World Bachata Festival. Sam had the following to say on this matter. He starts by telling about the successful festivals in Malaysia.   

“Hi, I am Sam from Havana Estudio, Malaysia. Me and my wife both passionately teach Salsa as the perfect lifestyle choice.

The Malaysian Salsa Festival organized by LinLine is famous for attracting hardcore salsa dancers in Malaysia. We've been very fortunate to have had inspiring greats like Francisco Vazquez, Super Mario, Suzanna Montero, Leon Rose, Dave Paris, Zoe Klein, the amazing Santo Rico dancers, Jayson Molina, Inaki Fernandez, and many talented dancers from Singapore, Japan, Korea, Australia, our neighbouring South Asian countries, Europe, and the world.

For the past 4 years now, hundreds of students from our studio have attended, been inspired, and have a really awesome time. Traditionally, LinLine has chosen beautiful beach resorts as it's trademark theme in their salsa experience and it has always never disappointed. This year, MSF promises to be even *awesomer* because it will be held in the heart of Salsa in Malaysia, the home of the twin towers, wonderful Malaysian hospitality, and all night hangout and dining staple of Kuala Lumpur!

With regard to the 1st Malaysian Bachata Festival, Lin Hamid organized it for the first time, drawing on years of Salsa festival experience and her international network. This event concluded this past 10-13 June, 2010 on a small scale, but Bachata is steadily growing since I first taught it at a beautiful Fraser's Hill getaway resort in early 2003 and is indeed wonderful to see.” This is a clip of an interview with Sam.

Sam now continues explaining his point of view concerning the World Bachata Festival, “With regard to the 1st World Bachata Festival: while I know the organizer Shamballa Tribeni - who previously took salsa classes from me - as a sincere, hard working, and very organized person, she is (still) a first time organizer. I was very concerned earlier this year when she first posted up details of the WBF on their website and Facebook, putting my studio's logo as an associate when we had no hand in the organization or operations. More importantly, while instructors and dates were finalized, the festival venue had not been confirmed. When she rescheduled and then immediately confirmed the new date, she approached me for feedback and I pleaded for her to be more careful because it looks like she publicized, confirmed instructors, and took registration (and money) while the venue was not confirmed potentially opening up more questions.

While I believe in supporting any event that promotes dance in Malaysia, I am not aware of how she works or who she has working with her. While she tries her best, I am not confident of the an international-level Bachata festival. Now it's almost the end of June 2010 and she has yet to reply to my query months ago for details.

In the meantime, we'll continue to whip up a storm on the dance floor with more and more Malaysians learning and loving the dance. See you on the dance floor!”

I read on another website that the World Bachata Festival is planned to be held between October 28 – 31, 2010. I will send some questions to Shamballa Tribeni so she could shed some light by telling her side of this story. I hope that she will respond.

Everyone who knows more information regarding this and other postponed Salsa Dance related festivals and congresses is free to comment or mail their intel to sederick@onlinesalsa.com.  

For more information about Havana Estudio in Malaysia: www.havanaestudio.com