We got Hacked on Facebook

I got Hacked on Facebook

I wanted to ‘boost’ my post for our new monthly Sunday night event Salsa Clasica (plug plug here’s the link ) I hadn't used it for a year and so wasn’t checking for any activity but found my Facebook advertising account had been hacked last March.

The hackers used my account to advertise and pay for adverts for training shoes, to the tune of £200 per day. Fortunately the ads were suspended “Your ad account has been flagged for ‘policy violations’.” This limited the spend to £1250. OUCH!



I assume anyone who purchased those trainers never received them and their card details would also be sold on to other criminals so what goes around, keeps going around!

Facebook is incredibly hard to contact, no telephone number and no online chat. The ad support contact system isn’t working at the moment (day two and seven attempts). The general help just sends the same “try ad. support” messages. I’ll persist but what a waste of time, let alone the stress.


Why didn’t Facebook contact me? I am a client who spend money with them.

The ads were suspended due to ‘policy violations’ which usually means too much text in an image or something similar but surely a hacker would not want to draw attention or risk failure through a ‘policy violation’. I believe that ‘policy violations’ in this case means Facebook were aware of the hack and did nothing to help other than stop it after four days of taking the business! I was under the impression that ads had to be approved before going live, not four days later! This leads me to conclude that Facebook have no duty of care to is clients. They’re the tech giant who doesn’t care if a few ants get crushed.

So what have I learnt?


Big tech companies are big targets for hackers. That’s no excuse as they have the resources to secure their platforms but choose not to. It’s like car theft. If a law was passed to make car manufacturers replace stolen cars, how good would car security be? Awesome! They have the resources therefore it’s a policy choice.


Is my personal security up to it? No! But it is now!!!


Am I on top of my paperwork admin? No! That needs to change. I had school reports that basically say the same thing from thirty five years ago. (I just got around to reading them!)


Finally a big shout out to First Direct bank. Since I paid with credit card they will reimburse me the full amount as it’s fraud. How do I know? I called someone who explained it to me. Yes, there’s a green button on my phone which actually allows me to speak with people in other locations! Someone please tell Facebook about this magic green button. I would but I can’t get through!

Flow and i2i Deep Salsa

Have you ever wondered why we dance?

The usual quick answer is fun. But where does that fun come from?
What stops us having amazing dances every time?
Can we understand and adjust salsa to have more fun and more amazing dances?

i2i Deep Salsa is a London based workshop based on those simple questions.
We examine the group social dynamic, and how we fit into our salsa tribe through our status within the group.

And we take a close look at the partnership, that heady cocktail of body language, gestures, proximity and moves that goes from zero and back within a single track leaving us amazed and satisfied, or disappointed and reflective.

Why do some people click with us and others not? Is it just chemistry as many believe and fixed like a round pegs seeking round holes? I don’t believe this is always the case. Very little about us is fixed. Our skills change as do our confidence, mood and willingness to engage. If they change then we can change them. What happens when the round peg becomes a little squarer and the square peg becomes a little rounder?

Deep Salsa has evolved since 1998 and now incorporates many psychological concepts including:
body language, proximetrics, and transactional analysis.

At the heart is a one of the simplest Flow. Coined by the famous psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in 1975, Flow or Peak State is a state of mind we enter when there’s a perfect balance of challenge and skill.
As we drop out of Flow we get a burst of happy brain chemistry that makes us want more, which motivates seek Flow again see Flow - What is it?

Understanding this Challenge/Skill balance in salsa is the key to becoming an amazing dancer at any level see Flow - How it Affects Salsa




This is done through altering this balance to find Flow more often and with more people.
Along the way our communication and empathy skills are enhanced which boosts our confidence see

Flow - Finding Flow in Salsa

Powerful stuff but in practical terms it’s easy when broken into simply exercises that can be practised on any dance floor with anyone at any level.

I’ve released three short videos about Flow on the Salsa Rapido Concepts playlist
Please take a look at and subscribe to the channel.
Salsa Rapido Concepts

Progress Report on Video Clips

I though it a good idea to post an update on how the Salsa Rapido Concepts playlist on YouTube is going.
In been a little over a month since I published the first fourteen clips.
Since then the Salsa Rapido channel has received over four hundred views from 72 unique viewers.
Small numbers compared to some but they're not zero.
I'm delighted to say there's twenty six subscribers (more wanted) and no negative comments :-)

Only thirteen percent of views have come via YouTube search which takes time as they reward those that have been posting for longer and I haven't sorted the End Cards that slide in to offer viewers links.

A massive thank you to Leigh at Londonsalsa.co.uk who published my blog post on the Footwork clips. Pease share if you can.

I'm currently scripting and producing a series of Concept clip around the Rapport and Flow. This is the heart of the Salsa Rapido method as it explains why we dance and offer ways to have a great time at any level.
I'm also working on a series around musical interpretation. There's so much neuroscience research that happening now and totally relevant that I'll just have to put my ideas out there and hope they stay relevant for a while.

One  of the advantages for me in producing these clips is that it's tightened and improved the Salsa Rapido i.2.i courses at Salsa Soho. Because the video work the conceptual content on the courses is clearer allowing for more progress and more moves. I look forward to offering a heap of 'notes in the form of clips to the i2i students.

The video project started last year as an online vehicle for Mambalsa (my new partner dance). It seemed sensible to work on the Salsa Rapido clips first as there's plenty to say and I could gain the skills necessary to deliver script to camera. I had no idea how challenging that would be! A year later and I'm two thirds through the Salsa Rapido Concepts playlist and haven't started the 'How To'  playlists.

I've become a full time script writer, editor, presenter and publicist and occasionally I teach people in the real world! It feels right to be publishing ideas that I've been working on for twenty four years. I'm the first to admit I don't know it all, but there's a lot of experience that the next generation of instructors and dancers can benefit from.


....back to the scripts

Salsa Footwork. It's all in the feet! - first 4 Concept Videos

Salsa Footwork. It's all in the feet!

A post to introduce the first four videos in my...
Salsa Rapido Concepts playlist. (please subscribe)

“Footwork, footwork, footwork” the beginner salsa dancer's bete noire. The very concept that defines salsa and so many dances, hence the Salsa Rapido rule number one:  
No Footwork Sequence, No Salsa!

The mastery of the Footwork Sequence FWS becomes the conceptual barrier between beginners and Improvers levels. Which means any time spent on it is well worth it.

For most people who learn salsa, the footwork is the first thing they learn. As Lao Tzu father of Taoism said "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" Sadly he did not go on to say “Then another, and another and then a pause”, personally I prefer his sister's work: Tirrama...(Boom tish!)

How footwork is presented and what it’s wrapped up with has profound influence on the student’s progression.
In the first clip Footwork Sequence I define the footwork sequence (FWS). This is a major break from traditional teaching as it separates two concepts: The rhythmic sequence of steps and pauses known as the FWS from Direction, which allows us to add the concept of Direction in two different ways : Moves and Patterns. 
see Add Direction to the Footwork Sequence

 
I find that a significant proportion of absolute beginners struggle with footwork patterns. They fall into the trap of overthinking a specific detail, usually the position of the step. Position seems to consume all of their attention so they fail to transfer their weight and so the pattern fails. This then has a domino effect where fears of falling behind or holding the class back undermine their confidence making more mistakes likely.


Stripping away Direction from the footwork keeps thing as simple as possible and allows for a universal FWS that can have repeating patterns added to form Footwork Patterns later on, or shapes added to form moves.

Getting hung up on footwork patterns is doubly unhelpful as no matter how good the patterns they offer little to improve leading or following skills.
Multitasking!
Keeping the FWS going is easy when that's all we're doing but adding Direction, events, shapes and the music and we've got a multitasking nightmare.
The idea that FWS is the glue that holds salsa together and concentrating on it holds everything in place leads to the tool of ‘Vocalising’, which keeps the attention on the FWS.

Finally we get to The Basic Step of Salsa What is meant by the term 'The Basic Step' in salsa? Well actually it easier to answer the question ‘What isn’t called a basic step!” The answer will vary depending on who you ask. Default step? Any pattern? Moves? It a multi use term meaning many things. I’ve tried to simplify things and explain why different regions have different default footwork patterns.
I also touch on the mindset of Consideration and the skill of adapting to other peoples salsa style through a mindset of adaptability and playfulness which helps us learn salsa faster.


There’s always so much more to say but that’s enough for now.
Please like share and comment on the videos and above all keep dancing :-)
link to the Salsa Rapido Concepts playlist.

A Guide to the Salsa Rapido Video Clips

A Guide to the Salsa Rapido Video Clips

These ‘Concept’ clips form the ‘notes’ section to the ‘How To’ and exercise clips yet to be released. This project, although live, is in beta testing.

Salsa Rapido Christmas post 2018

Salsa Rapido® Christmas Blog 2018

So here’s a round up of what’s gone well and not so well this past year 2018.

What’s got me excited and where I think I’m going in 2019.

Blend Format

Blend Format a new type of salsa evening

Fantastic to participate, engaging to watch.

Salsa Classes have been in the UK since 1987 and it’s fair to say that the way salsa classes are presented hasn’t changed much in that time. Usually it’s a couple of classes followed by some free dance.

Over the last two weeks I’ve been gradually integrating the new Blend Format at Salsa Camden. Blend a new way of operating an early week evening that literally ‘blends’ the party and the classes creating an atmosphere of buzz.

It’s taken a long time to create and I’ve waited until we’re back in Gabeto (formerly The Cuban) before I’ve fully committed to it.

"Resistance is Futile"

The truth is there’s always a resistance to change, the safety of old familiar ways that drag at the heels of innovation.  I view my innovations as experiments that either work well or not so well. Hopefully Blend will live up to its strap-line ‘Fantastic to participate, engaging to watch.’

I’m prepared for the resistance to release ‘Generation Troll’ in a chorus of ‘It won't work!’ because I’ve got experience of things that ‘won’t work’.

There was my Move Machine format back in the nineties which was salsa meets circuit training, that ‘didn’t work’ at our Rayners Lane venue for a year until the  venue was sold. At Salsa University at the iconic Turnmills nightclub we had up to six advanced classes in every style with different teachers every week. That ‘didn’t work’ for eight years ... until Turnmills was sold.

Then there’s the Salsa Rapido 1-Day Intensive Salsa courses at bar Salsa that now seems such a familiar part of the salsa scene. Back then the idea of a full day Intensive course was unthinkable. Until I did in 2003 see www.streetbeat.co.uk/1-Day, and fingers crossed the venue hasn’t been sold, yet! 

So here goes....

So what’s Blend Format all about?

Within an evening of two and a half hours e.g. 7.30pm - 10pm there’s 105 minutes of tuition fulfilling the needs of beginners through to advanced. This is  presented in 15 or 30 minute sessions, Whole group active interspaced with Free Dance time.

There’s constant music and a buzzy mixing and mingling as groups come and go.

Come for the evening, stay for the evening, dance for the evening, socialise for the evening.

Inspiration?

The inspiration for Blend came out of my Mambalsa project in 2014. Mambalsa is a new partner dance I created that worked to any 4:4 time music. It seemed only right to take a look at a typical evening dance class and see what worked and what didn't. As a salsa teacher who specializes in beginners and improvers, I was disappointed at how poor the traditional salsa UX is. UX or user experience comes from web development and is simply looking at something from the perspective of the user.

The typical absolute beginner, arrives, pays and is left alone until the class starts. They then have to cope with a warm up of footwork that they haven’t been shown. The class is often of mixed ability where they’re the worst, and is led by the least experienced member of the teaching team in the worst location in the room. After the class it’s a quick bye bye as another (more important) class is about to start.

Sound familiar?

Why Blend?

The world has changed!

Our classes are aimed at intelligent career minded people who want to wake up fresh the next day. More and more people respect the ‘not on a school night’ lifestyle. Blend means that dancers don’t have to sacrifice their free dance after the classes for an early finish, as there’s a significant amount of free dance opportunity during the evening. More importantly everyone can stay to the end and is made to feel part of the group rather that the uncommitted one who leaves early.

Blend is our chance to radically value and improve the UX of everyone who attends especially beginners. Effort spent here will retain clients and swell the upper levels.

I’ve spent over twenty years developing salsa teaching so people can learn more quickly and better, so Blend has to offer real advantages for tuition.

The free dance sections allow techniques to be discussed, digested and practiced before another load of info arrives. After the free dance you’ll return to the session refreshed in mind and body :-) Finally, Spoiler Alert, the best way to learn salsa is to dance salsa! Freestyle salsa is where you find out if you know something or not. It’s early days but I’ve now got beginners free style dancing within fifteen minutes!

There’s no doubt that Blend is a long way from the traditional evening class format but I think it will be a rewarding learning experience, more fun and more social.

Whenever people try something new there’s always a little resistance between the familiar and unfamiliar.

If it ain’t broke why change it?

Fair question and for those venues that operate the traditional format successfully well done, but does that mean there shouldn’t be an alternative format?

There’s a huge opportunity out there. Ask around in any salsa club and most people like things as they are. ‘It works for me.’ Of course the one’s that it doesn’t work for aren't there! They got filtered out a long time ago.

Five percent of the UK population dance even if not that regularly. Some can’t or won’t, but many could and would if the format appealed to them. By appealed, I mean: educated, entertained and respected their lifestyles.

Apart from opportunity, I suggest that the current system is simply ‘broke!’

There are issues in the salsa business that don’t make comfortable reading for salsa teachers:

• Why are there now less venues than before?

In London there’s used to be several nights for every area, now there's far less. Has the teaching changed? Are we more fussy about venues? Have we become ‘event orientated? Perhaps the venues don’t want salsa or salsa nights are just harder to promote? One thing’s certain, we haven’t overpriced ourselves. In 1995 I charged £5 for one hour. Most classes now work out the same per hour or less with discounts.

• Why is the dropout rate, so big at beginners level?

I estimate it to be over half within the first few weeks. Whatever the actual number is, it’s huge. Salsa nights simply aren’t compelling.

• Why is it so difficult to get venues to host salsa nights?

Salsa is stylish, well behaved, and can fill an empty venue on a quiet night but the proposition for bars without a separate function room is daunting.

Stop being a bar while we teach, often in silence. Then everyone will want serving at the same time, and that’s if they want to by any drinks at all!

Blend isn’t going to change the world or even the salsa scene. But it might offer a little more choice that will suit some. It will stretch us teachers which is never a bad thing and I hope it will open up new opportunities for salsa.

I’m not seeking to protect Blend in any way from my competitors. All I ask is credit me for Blend and  I invite you to help improve it together :-)
Happy birthday Salsa :-)