Milton Cobo, Dance Instructor from North Carolina
with Rose Knows, Jennifer, Trionne and Marika (left to right)

Milton Cobo's Visit to Toronto

Milton Cobo, a Salsa "on 1" and "on 2" Dancer/Instructor
from the Cobo Brothers originally from New Jersey,
was in Toronto to judge the Berlin competition,
and for int/adv workshops on Sunday, April 8th.


www.cobobrothers.com

April 2001

On Friday, April 6th, I found out that Milton Cobo from North Carolina would be at the Courthouse, so I made the effort to drag myself down there after a 1 hour nap. It was definitely worth it, as it's always nice to see a different style of salsa!

As I wandered my way into the Courthouse, Jennifer Aucoin was dancing up a storm with Milton in one of the dancer's favourite dancing spots with a wood floor section. He's a very dynamic dancer with a strong influence of NY and could easily transition between dancing on 1 and 2 with various followers!

He was definitely a die-hard salsero as he didn't stop dancing salsa until they played a merengue/house set. On the second set of salsa, I asked him for a dance on 1 (as I knew I would be too nervous to dance with him on 2 and would probably mess up); plus his combinations were very unique and would require all my attention in being able to follow and keep up with him timing-wise. Luckily for me, one of my favourite salsas was playing which also inspires me to dance better and more in tune with my partner. It was a fun and challenging dance as he went through his signature combinations which also "feel good" while your dancing. You really need to pay attention to your spins as he can have you turning 2-3 times clockwise, then change it to a counter-clockwise multiple spin for the next combination. It was also interesting to note how light his lead could be considering the speed of some of his combinations.

When the next break in salsa came, we went to the basement of the Courthouse where they have a beautiful lounge and had a fabulous conversation for probably an hour about how he got started in salsa.

He's Colombian from New Jersey who moved to North Carolina with his brother James. They have been dancing for 1-1/2 years on 1 and then learned to dance on 2. What's amazing is how far they've excelled -- for the past year, Milton has been invited to dance with many of New York's top dance teams as well as with the one and only Edie "the Salsa Freak". He has taught throughout the world including New York, Atlanta, Washington D.C., North Carolina, Holland and Curacao. In the next year he will also be teaching in Spain, Hawaii and Italy.

They don't do alot of formal training but travel most weekends to various cities to dance and learn. Now they mostly go to New York and dance at the Socials with all the best dancers. When they practice at home, they have learned to lead and follow with each other, hence their 1st Place Pro standing at the Washington Salsaweb Reunion last year.

When they started dancing, the first city they visited to learn salsa was Miami, but they realized they didn't dance the style they wanted to learn. Then they decided to visit Atlanta, where they found a few dance partners to practice with and they used to fly down every weekend to train. After becoming proficient on 1, they decided to learn to dance on 2 and now spend many of their weekends flying to New York to dance. I asked him one of the more popular questions regarding the debate of dancing on 1 and 2 which was, "Which beat do you prefer dancing on?" His answer was on 2 because he said he could feel and play with the music much more. But he also agreed that some songs were better to dance to on 1 than on 2.

I then asked him about his combinations and where they came from; and he mentioned that 30% of the his moves were picked up from NY, 30% are new combinations he and his brother made up and the other 30% are "mistakes" made while social dancing. This wasn't news to me as I've had this very discussion with many dancers in the past, but it's always nice to have someone admit to it.

Milton was very open to telling me his thoughts his own experiences with dancing and we didn't realize how much time flew until Jennifer came downstairs looking for him; and playfully reminding me that salsa was playing upstairs and if we wanted to talk I should call him, email him -- not take him away from all the salseras waiting upstairs. We talked for a bit longer, then made our way back to the dance floor. Of course salsa was playing and this time many of the regulars had a chance to dance with him.

One of the funniest dances was us asking Michelle to lead him as he is also a good follower. It was the funniest sight as he was at least twice the size of her and much taller; and she really had to reach to get around him and in some of the moves, she really had to exaggerate to get around him.

Then all the guys had a chance to either lead or follow with him and we all had fun watching them "stand in line" to get a chance to try him out. He was definitely challenged by some of the popular "Toronto" moves; and some of them even switched between dancing on 1 and 2 with him also.

All in all, it was a fun evening at the Courthouse!

Rose Knows...