So what do you expect when you attend a Salsa Congress for the first time? Well it’s going to be interesting to say the least. I had planned to attend this Congress for about a month now. Being new to the Salsa craze and my thirst to find out more about salsa, what better time to attend a Congress than in your own back yard?

About the Congress

The 1st Annual Miami Salsa Congress was fantastic, in spite of some problems such as weak sponsorship in the inaugural year of the event. The team of Rene Gueits from Salsa Lovers Dance Studios and Albert Torres Events proved to be a marvelous partnership in working together in bringing this Congress to its reality.

The key [of this Congress] was to focus on earning the respect, support, and familiarity from the Salsa community, both here and abroad. South Florida and its supporters are extremely grateful for those dance companies that participated with their time and effort into this event. The presentations that this year that stole the show was pretty much were the solid performances along with enhanced tricks, dips, and styling of Luis and Joby Vasquez’s of Salsa Brava and Swing Mambo from Argentina. Felipe Polanco’s mastery and Seaon “Stylist” Bristol’s ease in the art of performing and perfecting the perfect “on 2” shine complimented the Congress’s showcase. Other acts that gave great presentations were La Magia Dancers from the Dominican Republic performing their own brand of salsa. Significant performances also came from Nery Torres and ife ile Dance Company, Cultural Explosion’s Wild, Wild West theme, Jai and Candy’s Phantom of the Opera Dance with strong emphasis on the wardrobe, and LA Salsa Kids Arabian Nights presentation.

With regards to the music there, the local Miami group Mojito Son provided a fantastic performance playing homegrown Cuban style salsa for this venue on Saturday evening. Supporters of the event were requesting local bands with strong Cuban influence in their music to appear at the Congress. Perhaps in the future, other more mainstream and well-known artists or groups will showcase the Congress along with bands, some with that sought after Cuban flavor.

Thoughts….

In spite of the Congress showing a strong and healthy performance in its first year of production, there were some problems encountered. One problem was a lack of participation due to poor marketing and a lack of knowledge regarding the event, especially among South Florida salseros. The event was put together in about two to three months, a very short period of time in which to adequately prepare for an event of this magnitude. The standard time in which to prepare is usually about six to nine months for a comparable event. This is important to know because most salseros tend to pick and choose the Congresses that they attend up to a year in advance, an important factor to take into consideration when planning.

Another problem encountered was that there was tension amongst the vendors because of poor to average sales. Nevertheless, this is an expected occurrence encountered the first couple of years till an event has had the ability to become established. Third, South Florida, in the past, has suffered from a lack of unified support from its local dance schools and its students. Personal as well as professional issues have hindered progress into creating one major event in which to showcase all local talent. One instructor wishing not to be named has mentioned that this will be a difficult, but not impossible task to accomplish. More emphasis should be placed on putting aside machismo and stubbornness for just one weekend and to work out differences. Past events such as Latin Grooves’ The World’s Largest Rueda, in which 173 couples participated, and Jami Josephson’s Salsa Dance Fest have proven to be locally successful, but has lacked the unified support among sponsors in which to promote the event a subsequent year. Calle Ocho has evolved and grown up to become a local Miami/Hispanic event for over twenty-five years now and is not an exclusive Salsa event. April’s successful International Hustle/Salsa Competition, an event that has beaten the one-time event syndrome, has proven popular, but the need for an exclusively local salsa event still exists. It is believed that the Miami Salsa Congress event will continue to expand over time and beat the one-time event syndrome.

Other suggestions that have been mentioned were the need for a longer Congress such as stretching it to a Thursday thru Sunday rather than the standard 3-day weekend itinerary now in place. Also, the need to showcase more international schools and groups, such as Swing Mambo from Argentina should be emphasized. One of the positive things about this past Congress was the fact that all the instructors were approachable. Most Congresses, instructors are very unapproachable due to the amount of attendees they deal with at the event.

Casino-styled Salsa - It’s Current State….

Casino dancing is still in its infancy with regards to its growth here in South Florida.
Before Casino consisted of just concentration on the turns, mostly on the male partner. Other styles have influenced its evolvement greatly, women’s styling, less tapping, and more spinning to are being introduced more into Casino-styled salsa. Casino Rueda is more of a social dance, but in its current state its is not as flashy as the NY or LA styles for performance purposes. Cities such as New York have a well developed following with regard to their Latin dance. LA has Hollywood as a backdrop to perpetuate their Salsa dancing followers. Europe has become increasingly developed with regard to Casino Salsa. Nations such as Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, and even Japan have gone on to create their own schools in order to perpetuate this style of Salsa. Cubans have greatly influenced the European continent due to strained political relations between the United States and Cuba.

In five years, Casino-styled salsa will continue to evolve with more steps and combinations, along with other different styles of Salsa being developed. Students desire to learn more and more salsa. The importance of incorporating and learning several styles rather than concentrating on learning one style will be emphasized. Ideas such as creating a “rueda” on 2 have been discussed to intermingle mambo with casino styles together. Factors such as the lack of local spokesperson, cultural, and political differences will continue to interfere with Casino’s evolvement. The emphasis on creating dance teams and congresses will be emphasized in order to showcase these new styles abroad. More cohesiveness and cooperation are still needed between schools and groups.