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AHEAD | Salsa Festivals; A Dance
That Spans the World
 Published: November 4, 2005 THE infectious rhythm of Latin music has created salsa-dancing aficionados across the globe. Here in the United States, salsa congresses and festivals are generating tropical heat as the winter months draw near. Salsa is an umbrella term for many styles of Latin dance, all of which will be taught in workshops and performed when dancers from all over the world come together for celebrations in Miami, the San Francisco Bay Area and New York. The basic rhythm of salsa originated in Cuba with the clave, or two sticks tapped together in Cuban son, the music made internationally popular by the documentary ''Buena Vista Social Club.'' But salsa itself emerged in the 70's in New York, where jazz and rhythm-and-blues musicians of different ethnic backgrounds formed bands that expanded on the son style. Puerto Ricans in New York, and then back in Puerto Rico itself, soon developed a style of their own and made salsa central to their identity. In the United States, there are two styles of salsa dancing: the Los Angeles style known as ''on 1'' and the New York style, ''on 2.'' This essentially means that West Coast dancers are breaking on the first beat and New Yorkers on the second. A third, Cuban-inflected style, casino, is widely danced in Miami. All these forms will be performed at the various congresses. The second annual Salsa Rueda Congress of the Americas, held at the Radisson Hotel Miami from Nov. 11 to 13, will feature popular dance styles from Cuba, including casino, rueda and cha-cha-cha. Salseros and salseras from as far away as Israel and Japan will compete for spots in the first annual World Salsa Championship, to be held in Las Vegas in December. For those who come to the Miami congress to improve their dance skills, workshops will be held for all levels in different styles, from Dominican bachata to Cuban rumba to salsa Colombian style. ''Posthurricane energy is already coming back to Miami,'' said Billy Fajardo, the co-producer of the congress and a professional salsa dancer. ''Flights are arriving, and the hotel is fine, so all the international dancers will still make it. We worry that the people in Miami might have more pressing things to spend their money on. But people in this city love to dance, and they'll really need it by then.'' At the San Francisco Bay Area Salsa Congress from Nov. 17 to 20 at the Oakland Marriott, the dancing will go on till 3 a.m. at each session. Weekend packages include three nights at the hotel and a pass to lessons, shows, performances and socials, most of which will take place on premises. The organizers expect about 2,000 people a day to pass through for lessons and to hear the salsa star Jose Alberto, who is known as El Canario, and the legendary Venezuelan vocalist and composer Oscar D'Leon. Competing dance troupes and couples will also compete for a spot in Las Vegas, and beginning and intermediate dancers can perfect their moves in workshops, then dance all night. This is the fourth year for the salsa congress in the Bay Area, and Ricardo Sanchez, a producer of the event, thinks salsa's popularity there will just keep growing. ''Technically, the salsa community here is young,'' Mr. Sanchez said, ''but we're getting better faster, developing our own style, and we really encourage people starting out.'' Then there's the NY/NJ Salsa Festival 2005 from Nov. 22 to 29. The festival, which is in its second year, was originally scheduled for a long weekend, but organizers estimate that more than 500 people from Europe alone are coming, so they are making an entire week of it. ''People want to come here to dance because it is New York City, the capital of salsa,'' said Luis Zegarra, a producer of the festival and its artistic director. The festivities start at the Copacabana nightclub, with El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico playing. There will also be a Thanksgiving night salsa cruise on the Hudson, with party boats boarding at Pier 61 in the Chelsea Piers recreational complex. Most of the events and workshops will be held at the Marriott Hotel in downtown Brooklyn, not far from the Brooklyn Bridge. These include a dinner-theater performance, dance performances, competitions, social dances and workshops for all levels in salsa, Latin hustle, jazz, flamenco and Afro-Cuban dance. Lessons for children will also be held. Nelson Flores, a producer of the festival and founder of Time2Dance Academy in the Bronx, believes it is important for children and teenagers to dance. ''It's the kids of this city's
culture and heritage,'' he said. ''We've got a lot of little girls
interested, but the boys don't like to partner-dance when they're 9
or 10 years old. They don't like girls. That changes, though. And
when it does, they all wished they learned how to salsa-dance.'' |