It’s Thursday evening at Indulj Lounge on U Street, International Latin night, two beautiful women dressed to the nine walk in, followed by a cameraman. As heads turn, the crew, representing Travelista TV and BET.com sit down to sample the menu; they are visiting to get a taste of the D.C. salsa scene. Throughout the week, the crew visited various locations in D.C., to get a thorough depiction of D.C. culture, nightlife, entertainment, and cuisine.
On this particular night, the crew listened to music by Rudy Gonzalez y Su Lokura, a local salsa band that plays every Thursday at Indulj. They mingled with members of Clavekazi studio, a Latin dance studio in D.C., who taught the crew a few moves the night before and on the dance floor of Indulj.
Host Teri Johnson describes herself as the partying, dancing, flirting personality of the Travelista TV duo, while her counterpart, Andrea Adams focuses more on local culture and cuisine. Together, along with cameraman and producer Jamund Washington, they have hosted Travelista TV series for two years and were recently commissioned by BET to do a series of travel webisodes around the country sponsored by Ford Fiesta.
According to Johnson, discovering the local dance culture is an integral aspect in getting to know each destination. “You learn a lot about the people and culture from the dance and how they interact while you’re dancing. It’s great to see how passionate people are about their dancing.” As part as her world travels, she’s swung her hips in Morocco while learning bellydancing and joined the “Trinis” for some whining at Carnival in Trinidad.
For the D.C. edition of the BET.com webisode travel series, which will debut in June and will also be available on Travelista TV, the crew visited several locations including Howard University’s “Inspired by Color” hosted by Ford Fiesta, a go-go party at Fountain Blue (gogo is a type of funk dancing unique to the D.C. area), Clavekazi studio for salsa dancing, District 9, and even crashed a video shoot by local R&B artist Raheem DuVaughn.
Despite her exploration of other dance forms, Johnson's real love is salsa dancing. “Everywhere I go I check out the salsa scene,” she says. She currently takes lessons with Piel Canela in New York City, her home base. In comparison with the salsa scene that she’s used to in NYC, she feels like the D.C. salsa community is very open. “In New York, it’s a whole other culture, people have to know you to dance with you.” She seemed to enjoy the feeling of the diverse and friendly salsa community in D.C.
Another night, the crew attended a go-go party at the local Fountain Blue. Johnson quickly became a fan of go-go and noticed that the scene was also very diverse. She spotted a mother-daughter pair, groups ranging from mid-20s to late-40s and a mix of ethnicities in a mostly African American dance scene. “They would take modern songs like the recent Rihanna song and make them go-go so it was actually a lot of fun.”
Away from the dance floor, her counterpart Andrea enjoyed another aspect of DC culture at Oyamel and Jaleo restaurants where she had a chance to cook alongside the chefs, including Rodolfo Guzman.
Even though the duo each has specific roles, they accompany each other on their adventures. They started about three years ago under the name Travel Girls and have since morphed into their current production company, Travelista TV. The two women have been successfully following their dream ever since, covering events from DC to Morocco and living it up every step of the way.
Update: Tune in to Travelista TV's webisodes of their DC visit at BET.com/travelistas on Wed., June 16th and Wed., June 23rd at 3pm!
Comments
Sounds like so much fun. Can't wait to see how these 2 travelistas get down in my city!!
Thanks Carla. I'll put an update when the series begin! :)
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