Ottawa Latin Souls

Hi everyone!

It is with a lot of love and gratitude that I am announcing the closing of Ottawa Latin Souls.

I will never forget the kindness of this community, as well as the joyful energy that we were able to create!

Please continue to dance, and be kind and supportive to one another :)

With gratitude,

Jeff

Hi everyone! Hope you are enjoying the warm weather and staying safe!

I miss you all, and teaching, and dancing. Mostly teaching 😛

I'd like to share this video I found on the power of music and dance - this is a lady afflicted with Alzheimer’s, and a former NYC ballet performer. When Swam Lake came on, it all came back...

Music and dance will always be there! 🙂

Prima Ballerina Marta .C. Gonzalez Valencia listens to Swan Lake, and it all comes back to her. suffers from ’s listens to and it all comes back to her... Former ballerina with Marta ...

Hi everyone! Jeff here! :)

It's been a while since I posted on this page, but I hope you are all doing fantastically!

Students have been kept up to date via our student community page, but the main page? Not so much! And that brings us to today!

Here's the big announcement: in the context of wave 2 of the pandemic and for other personal reasons, OLS is on hiatus for the rest of this crazy, topsy-turvy period we call 2020. I'll take stock of the situation again closer to December, and if the stars align, I'll launch our new session hopefully in January 2021.

In the meantime, I hope you all stay safe, take advantage of the fact that we live in such an amazingly beautiful city, and continue to live your best lives. Just because OLS is taking a break doesn't mean the values it represents and the community it has built have disappeared - learn something new, express yourselves artistically, and be kind to each other.

There will come a time when we can freely dance with one another again, and I can't wait to see everyone out there, drinking it all in.

See you all soon! :)

- Jeff

In the meantime, love yourselves, and look out for one another!

Some day, we’ll hit the dance floor again. And it will be glorious. The joy of social dancing is now tempered by the fear of contagion.

This period of social distancing is new to all of us, so as a fellow dancer and instructor, here are some things I've found useful to keep my spirits up during this uncertain time.

How to maintain your social dancing skills during social distancing We currently live in extraordinary times, and the social dancing landscape, both from a business and social perspective, may be dramatically changed for years to come. While none of us can predict the future, here are some things we can do during this time of forced social isolation to keep ourselve...

Inspirational quote of the day.

Feeling anxious? Feeling restless? Choose a meaningful action and pursue it - set routines, set agendas, set goals.

Choose to use this time meaningfully - rest meaningfully, play meaningfully, work meaningfully. Commit to what you choose to do, and give yourself a sense of purpose that no one else can give you.

(side note: I know the quote says "go out and get busy", you can also stay home and get busy :P )

A wholesome and creative initiative from a member of the local Latin dance community! Thank you Mary for your love and support!

Latin Dancers Unite - Ottawa With COVID-19, many of our beloved Ottawa latin dance schools are struggling, especially those who use dance as their primary source of income.This an effort to provide "immediate" financial support to these beloved instructors.

“Let hope be the antidote to fear.
Let solidarity be the antidote to blame.
Let our shared humanity be the antidote to our shared threat.”
- Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization

Please demonstrate the best of humanity by being loving and empathetic to all during this critical time, and support your local small businesses whenever possible! We really appreciate your gestures of kindness!

A fantastic article on how social dancing scene is being influenced by the corona virus outbreak - what has happened, what is likely to happen, what to expect, and some best practices for everyone involved.

Dance in the time of Corona: A primer and suggestions on the novel Coronavirus and social dancing Note from The Dancing Grapevine: The Author, Dr. Hsu, is a physician actively practicing in both community and acute care hospital settings. She has spoken extensively with a Public Health specialist physician about this matter, particularly how the Novel Coronavirus will interact with our dance com

Today's blog post is all about knowing the things you truly need in order to become fantastic social dancers (hint: it's not sparkly dance shoes, though those never hurt!)

WHAT YOU ACTUALLY NEED ON YOUR DANCE JOURNEY Today I want to address some common concerns I've heard from my students on what they think they need in order to become good social dancers, versus the thr