The little gem that is Helsinki Zouk Festival
As expected, the congress was really something special. I had such a wonderful time as not only did I attend the Helsinki congress, but I was also lucky enough to squeeze in some sightseeing on arrival.
I initially put on many layers of clothing, having expected the temperature to be freezing cold. When I left London on the Thursday, it was so warm to the point of almost fainting in the airplane; I had never wished my destination would be freezing cold in my life until then! This was totally agreed with my roommate too. By the time my flight was approaching Helsinki, I had already taken off all of my layers of clothing, one by one, ending up with just a tank top when we were about to land. It really wasn’t only me who wished our destination to be freezing cold for once!!!
When I arrived at the hotel in Helsinki, I met my friend who was equally as delighted by the fact that Helsinki was freezing cold. She was wearing chunky winter boots (like eskimo boots!) and did not bring any other shoes, apart from dancing shoes. We strolled around the city and chose one of the quieter Italian restaurants near the main square. I have never chosen a restaurant near a train terminal because I believe that the quality of food near big stations in cities is often crap. I only chose this specific restaurant because my friend was starving; after all, we walked around to choose a restaurant for over 40 minutes and she was getting impatient. To me, eating is as serious affair as dancing, so I do not mind walking a couple of hours to find the best restaurant. However, to our amazement, the restaurant we went in was amazingly good! This type of pizza diner would never usually be my choice back at home, unless one of my friends or a group insists on going. This Italian pizza was great: fresh pizza, great wine, excellent service and atmosphere, with reasonable prices. As such, we enjoyed the first night and we were so excited about the rest of our stay!
On the next day, I went off to the city market and bought lovely fur hats and key holders and had fish soup. Then I took the 101 bus to look around the small town, which I had chosen to discover instead of taking city bus tour which my friend had opted for. As Helsinki is a small town, it is easy to look around using the 101 bus route if you have a spare 5 hours.
By the evening, a few workshops for beginners had started. One workshop, led by Freddy’s students, was lovely and easy to understand for beginners. I would have to say the beginner’s workshop was the best I have ever participated in. I will have to blog next time about how almost all dancers cannot do the first and second steps right; it includes many instructors who teach students. If teachers do not teach students the proper steps, how can we learn the basics properly?
Anyway, this time I shared with other UK dancers in a big apartment near the city from the second night and this was also very good. Parties are lovely and workshops are good quality, despite the fact that there are only one of two choices per hour. I was so excited to see Didanho and danced with him several times at parties. My friends, who went to Breda, envied me as she could not dance with him as there was actually a long queue to dance with him there! Although I have never been to big zouk congresses, I like the smaller to medium sized ones as teachers are so approachable and friendly, and as students, we get close to each other easily. I danced with George, Daniel and Clington, as well as Didanho. They all have distinctive dancing styles that I find very interesting. Dancing with Daniel was fascinating as he dances with ladies as if he can see everything about ladies. He dances as if he tries to find out about me – it was intriguing.
In the lesson, he boasted to all his fellow dancers that he thought he was the best follower and I would agree to think so. He can dance both roles very well. He understands alignment and I feel he tries to understand me while dancing. I felt he was trying to read my mind through dance, which made me feel swept off into a different world. They are wonderful teachers and did teach and correct us by circling around the dancefloor.
The show at Helsinki was so entertaining, plus warm and lovely. This is the show that viewers would rather prefer to sit and watch the show for hours than dancing themselves, because the show was so entertaining and hilarious. All of the viewers did not want the show to finish! I wished the show went on! I do think that Freddy can be a TV presenter if he wishes J He is so talented so he could be a cameraman, a comedian as well as a dancer and blogger!!
All UK dancers who visited this congress absolutely loved it. However, I am secretly wishing that this congress does not get too popular, as I’m scared that it will lose its beautiful character. I was impressed with this town - it has more sushi restaurants than any other cities I have visited before. The city is very much Japanese-friendly. In the airport, there was a Japanese announcement to remind people to get on board. When I was queuing for immigration checks, I was approached by the man who works in the airport, who said that “There is a special machine to get automatic stamp for Japanese over there!” in Japanese – I was so impressed!
In general, the prices in Helsinki are quite expensive but the quality is high. Hotels are quite dear, the closest hotel, Anna, being £85 per night for a single bedroom of a twin room, which was small and did not have great facilities. Therefore I would recommend different hotel such as omena hotel for better facilities, although it was a 10 minute walk away. I shared an apartment through airnib with four others, which cost us £75 for three nights and £75 for hotel Anna for a twin room. I had to walk about 15 minutes, four times a day, but the apartment still was a great choice for me, because the room was much bigger. All in all, this is nice congress for everyone to attend – from the beginner to the advanced dancer, who thoroughly would enjoy this weekend away.
I have heard mixed reviews about Dutch congresses in the same season. Interestingly, these were truly 50/50 reviews. Helsinki won over lots of dancers’ hearts, each one of the attendees loving it. But, everyone is different. Some like big meet ups and others do not. I am in the process of forming my liking, and my experience is telling me that I am enjoying medium sized ones if I go alone.
Big congress may be great going with a group of friends while small congresses may enjoyable with a dance partner or with a best friend.