Day 84 | Falling In Love With Montreal

I never looked at this city for what it is or understood how special it is until now.

From 2014 to 2017, your boy and Flavie had the opportunity to travel and share the beautiful art of #semba, #kizomba and #kuduro worldwide. Every week, a new city, a different plane, jet lag, hundreds of new people, parties and festivals. Happiness. Exhaustion. Naps. I couldn’t properly continue the job I started in 2010 with Kizomba Canada: heavy heavy heavy promotion of the kizomba scene in Montreal, every day, flyers, talking to people on sidewalks, hosting BBQs, dancing on street corners, making sure that every person knows about this dance we call Danse de l’Amour.

Now that I’ve been #stuckincanada, I’m getting to know new people, every day. French, Portuguese, Spanish, other languages, this city IS multiculturalism. My Quebecois people, I’m getting to know a lot of them right now. I’m trying real Montreal cuisine. Living in HoMa, my French is getting better, my neighbors think I’m crazy. The one downstairs is dying, the music is too loud, the voices too loud. The one upstairs tries to dance along, I can hear his steps, soon he’s gonna be my student. The landlord calls me to tell me to turn down the music and but asks me for the name of the song. He’s cool. Maybe I need to find a place near the airport? That’s the only way that your boy will seem quiet in comparison. I never had this problem before. I was always travelling or sleeping.

I’ve been hitting up Baila Con Gusto, Bachata Invasion, Moka Social and going to local events in the Six. I realized that I did not know or talk to many people from Mtl and TO during 2014-2017. Before those years? I was all over the place. Everybody knew me. Now? People don’t know me but they still have opinions about me. Every time I meet someone, they say ‘”Oh, I know you”. Really, you know me? We never partied together, had a drink, sat down and had a conversation, burned some trees, skateboarded. Ask Malenfant how cool I am. I wanna know how cool you are. Let’s get to know each other. Then you can say you know me. Spending all this time in Montreal is giving me the chance to know the people that have known about me, but never knew me.

Travelling is good. Spreading the joy of kizomba all over the world is excellent. But watching day after day the love of my students for kizomba grow, knowing I am making an impact on the Montreal kizomba scene (#Kitabasocial on Nov 1st, Mi Gente you ready?), building a legacy in this city that I love… that is a different kind of joy. Also excellent.