What Toronto can learn from New York Salsa Clubs

Small dance floors and cool atmospheres are some complaints commonly heard in the Toronto salsa nightclub scene. My curiosity about clubs in other major cities prompted me to venture to one on a recent trip to New York City.

I ended up at the Copacabana, a hot spot for salsa enthusiasts located in midtown Manhattan. Once I got past the whopping $20.00 US cover charge I had to steel myself for the metal detectors and mandatory pat down by security. Wasn’t a great start but once inside I discovered a few things that Toronto’s dancers and club owners should take to heart.

1. As someone whose received one too many bruises from overzealous leaders and followers I appreciated the spacious dance floor. Think Plaza Flamingo x 2. How about after ther dinner hour, removing some of the tables for more dancing space?

2. GoGo dancers are not limited to dance and hip hop clubs in New York City. Three professional couples, in matching outfits, perform on 3 separate stages, something rarely seen in Toronto clubs. I like this idea because you can get good pointers for your own dancing. It’s also good entertainment for when you are stuck on the sidelines and adds a little flair to the nightclub.

3. The best thing about the patrons is no social hang ups. Ladies, if you’re a shy dancer like myself, you would be thrilled with the amount of guys who do the asking. New York clubs are packed with confident (not arrogant) dancers who are certainly not shy so no one has to wait long for their turn on the dance floor. I have lost count of how many nights in Toronto that I have been lucky to have one person ask me to dance. Subsequently, it sometimes takes me hours to gather the courage to do the asking. Needless to say, not much dancing gets done.

4. One thing Toronto’s salsa clubs is lacking is the amount of live music.
Lula Lounge is one of the few clubs featuring several live bands on a regular basis. New York City abounds with competing salsa bands that pack the clubs. This live sound brings vibrancy to the atmosphere missing from continuous pre-recorded music.

I have had some of my best nights in Toronto salsa clubs but there is always room for improvement. Experiencing other salsa environments on your travels is a great way to see how other Salseros are doing it.

Giselle

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August 8, 2004

Rose Knows response to Giselle's column...

Hi Giselle, thank you for taking the time to write this article and it's always great to have another dancer's perspective; plus your comments inspired me enough to write back some of my own opinions regarding this subject; and since I also had the opportunity a few times to experience some of the New York salsa clubs. This is not meant as a rebuttal to your own viewpoint, but to give dancers more "food for thought".

1. If you're comparing Copacabana in NYC to Plaza Flamingo in Toronto -- that would not be a fair comparison as those two clubs were built/designed for two totally different purposes. I am sure that if Toronto dancers (latin and non-latin) were willing to pay $20 US cover charge ($25 or $30 Canadian) for a club of that calibre and size, then we could equally enjoy the same luxuries, but Toronto has a long way to go to catch up to NYC in terms of population density for a high-calibre salsa scene.

2. To have GoGo salsa dancers in our nightclubs, might be a great idea, but if dancers are not willing to pay $10 for a night of salsa with a DJ/band, how can the clubs afford to pay for the extra overhead of GoGo dancers.

Need ideas or inspiration, just go to the clubs where alot of the more advanced dancers hangout -- that's what inspired me when I first started to dance and before internet salsa videoclips and congresses became popular.

3. No arguments there, I also found New York dancers much more friendly than Toronto; but then again, it's a more latin-based crowd; whereas Toronto is more multi-cultural.

4. Live Bands -- again, you really can't compare the calibre and variety of New York's bands to Toronto as it is one of the epi-centre's of latin music recording, along with its' huge puerto rican latin population.

In Toronto, there are other "salsa clubs" which you can also experience live music, such as Red Violin and La Ceverjeria. What makes us a little different from NYC is that we have a growing no. of talented musicians and singers from Cuba. And that doesn't include the free latin festivals in the summer where you can experience the music outdoors or the latin bands which are brought to Toronto by various promoters.