Interview with SalsaGang.com

At a glance..
Height: 5'0"
Birthplace: Guam

Preferred Dance Style: on 2
Current Location: New York City

What is your core fundamental in Salsa?
Salsa is fundamentally about connecting with another human being and communicating in a way that transcends language barriers and friendly familiarity. I have been trained in many partner dance styles, and each of them has a different "feel" depending on how the leader is expected to motivate the follower's body, the speed and duration of the movement, and how quickly the follower is expected to respond. Salsa figures are becoming increasingly intricate, requiring a light touch with the fingers as opposed to the whole hand, arm, or torso, as in other dances. The leader can incite a full body response and execute a rapid, complex movement with this simple connection, given that the follower is sensitive enough to respond to such a subtle, but important, signal. Unlike ballroom dance, which has a heavy competition component, salsa is still deeply rooted in the social dance scene, where style trends are born and developed. This ensures that a good leader not only knows how to communicate with any follower (and vice versa), but he can create and carry out any figure based on this simple human tendency to physically relate to one another. In kind, salsa followers are among the most responsive and perceptive dancers in any of the partner styles. I still find it remarkable and absolutely beautiful how this person-to-person connection endures across languages and salsa styles all over the world during my travels. To me, it's akin to the intimacy of walking down the street, holding hands with a familiar loved one, and being able to instinctively anticipate every turn and changes in pace and stride together. In fact, my boyfriend and dance partner, Daniel Enskat, epitomizes this concept. Dancing with him made me realize that we convey so much information in every touch and that there is constant feedback going both ways so that even leaders respond to followers' changes in balance, direction, and momentum. To me, there is nothing more important than this connection in salsa, and in life.

Performers sometimes have bad accidents during performances or practice. Can you give us something about your experience in that?
Some people might not find this funny, but I often tell this story to my own dance company whenever they are feeling down about their dance mistakes. It was my first performance as a professional with Santo Rico Dance Company at the Montreal Salsa Congress. I still had not been dancing salsa for very long, and I remember feeling so nervous and doubtful of my dance abilities and even my memory of choreography that it was almost as if I had no dance experience at all. I had a very supportive dance partner back then, who did all he could to calm my nerves. Nonetheless, when the music started, I was shaking so hard that he had to squeeze my hands in order to hold onto them while dancing. At the end of this particular choreography, we are supposed to do a challenging Lindy Hop trick where the guy picks up the girl and throws her upside down and over his back where she lands upright on her feet and springs back into another high lift. I was so nervous about this trick that I even had nightmares about it the night before the performance. When the time came for us to do it, we missed hands! My partner still picked me up somehow with sheer force, hurled me over him, where I landed, face first, on the floor. This is where time slows down to a crawl, and you can remember everything you were thinking and experiencing in minute detail. I hit my forehead first, smelled the dust on the floor, the audience gasped, and I panicked thinking that my partner would not go for the second lift out of his worry for my well-being. So I got up so fast as if nothing happened and yelled, "Pick me up!" We finished the routine with the last lift flawlessly and everyone later commented how violent and exciting that trick looked!! I had a nice goose egg on my head for the rest of the Congress, but now I will never forget my first professional performance.



So, how did this all (salsa) start?
I had been competing in ballroom when I fractured the bottom of my foot. It was a hairline stress fracture, so the doctors told me they couldn't put a cast on it and I would have to wait a year and a half for it to heal. I have been dancing actively since childhood, so by the eighth month without a single class or rehearsal, it didn't surprise me that I was too miserable to get out of bed in the morning. My ballroom partner suggested that I pick up a "relaxed, social dance style" during my convalescence so that I could pass the time more easily. I heard there was a salsa school near the hospital where I worked, so I went there one day for a class. It turned out to be Santo Rico Dance School. I had no idea who they were or how highly they were regarded at the time, nor could I anticipate what I was getting myself into! Santo Rico's Director, Tomas Guerrero, invited me to join Xibicion two months later, and he became an invaluable mentor to me. Being able to dance again not only brought me joy and a new focus for my future in dance, but it also helped me become a better "participant", if you will, in my daily life. I'm sure many people agree that dancing salsa has a way of doing that, and it's no wonder that so many people find what they are looking for in this dance.

As a teacher, what do you emphasize more on to your students?
I most often emphasize the fact that salsa is simply "stylized walking". My students have heard me say that so many times that I believe I should trademark the phrase for BAILA Society! What I mean is, salsa is a social dance, one that can be (and should be) enjoyed by anyone and everyone, not just by performers or professional dancers. As long as salsa is danced widely in social dance scenes, it will always be designed for the normal person. We all are perfectly capable of walking and salsa simply consists of a series of alternating walking steps going forward, back, and side to side. Many beginners assume that all dances are difficult and should feel that way when first learning them. Whenever I see my students struggling with a step or tensing up their bodies while dancing, I remind them to slow down and pretend that they are walking down the street with their partner and one of them says, "Hey, how 'bout we do a right turn?" The other replies, "That's a great idea, let's do it!" Simple enough, one step at a time.

Tell us a story behind one of the photos you've sent us.
The one with my hair standing up "in actu" is everyone's favorite. People think that we had a fan blowing it up, but I have terribly dry eyes so it would be impossible for me to do that during a photo shoot. Instead, Daniel and I relied on being able to hit a picture-perfect pose in the middle of a continuous movement. To me, this represents a standard of excellence that I have always hoped to achieve since my days as a young ballerina. Today, I tell my dance company that it's not only about going from point A to point B, even if A and B are beautiful positions. It's also about how you get there. The beauty and dynamics of the pathway you take between static postures is much more difficult to accomplish and shows your devotion to movement, not just "steps".

When was the moment when you realized you would stay in Salsa?
Upon joining Santo Rico, I admit that I thought I would be returning to competitive ballroom someday. There wasn't a distinct moment when I decided against this but more of a gradual realization that salsa has everything one could ever want in a dance, even as a professional. Salsa borrows from countless other dance and movement styles and improves with every addition. The music is both technically complex and emotionally moving, and the social interaction in partner work has general appeal. You can dance for fun, perform or compete as a career, or teach and make other people happy. So why don't more people know about it? Daniel Enskat, Joseph Rivera, and I formed BAILA Society to do all of these things in a way that elevates salsa to a wider, appreciative audience. Our Online Dance Academy (www.BAILASociety.com) allows us to reach out to our friends and students all over the world and provide access to salsa dance lessons, music, and culture to anyone who wants it. Our proudest achievement was being able to exclusively showcase Tomas Guerrero and Santo Rico Dance Company through online salsa lessons to eager students who have never had a chance to take a live class with them! Now that our membership has grown to include people from over 40 countries, it's clear that the world is ready to discover everything that salsa has to offer, and I believe BAILA Society can be a big part of that!

How can a man (leader) draw you into the dance floor?
There's only one thing I care about when deciding to dance with someone - the way they invite me onto the dance floor. Perhaps I am a bit traditional, but salsa (and many other partner dances) reinforce what's most beautiful about basic gender roles. Men should act like gentlemen, take the lead, and protect their partners. Women should be gracious, sensitive, and sexy, at least on the dance floor. . . Being a teacher, I dance with anyone, regardless of their level or dance style, as long as they ask me politely. There is nothing I appreciate more than a courteous (especially verbal) invitation to dance. While I'm dancing with someone, I like to know that I am being taken care of. A leader who doesn't risk hurting me for the sake of a flashy move is one that always gets a second dance!

Tell us more about your experiences with other non-salsa types of dance?
I've danced just about everything, and there is something to love about them all. If I were to pick one to spend more time talking about it would be Argentine Tango. When danced in closed embrace, I find it overwhelmingly tender and intimate. While salsa's sensuality lies in the hands, in tango, dancers connect chest-to-chest and cheek-to-cheek. You can literally feel each other's hearts beating and dance with your eyes closed. Does it get more intimate than that? I stay away from Argentine Tango intentionally in order to avoid being untrue to salsa!



In time of need, who's the salsa buddy you call on?

I rely on Daniel for the things I need most in salsa and in life. He is my boyfriend, my dance partner, and business partner, so you can guess how much and in how many ways our lives intersect. I met Daniel during a difficult time when my life's events didn't seem to follow a logical order, and it seemed impossible to know who to trust and what to hope for in the future. In contrast, Daniel was, and still is, a man of great ambition and passion who has faith in his own abilities and acts defiantly in the face of any obstacle. He's proved to me that his version of life is one that I can count on by his actions as a friend who always picks up the phone, a lover that has never been untrue, a dance partner that protects and cherishes me, and a business partner that fights for my best interest. He has never let me down in any arena.