Some of San Diego’s finest dance companies will be coming together for the San Diego salsa and bachata Dia de San Juan Puerto Rican Festival this Saturday June 12. The performers and dance companies include Abel Pena, Susie Nguyen & Ooh La La Dance Company, Alma Latina, Salsa Inferno, and the recently returned Deseo Dance under Serena Cuevas‘ direction.
The event runs from noon to 6pm so you’ll still have plenty of time to go dancing at night too!
San Diego has a new dance venue for salsa dancers!
Mambo Nights at Pasquale Del Mar opened recently and offers to San Diego dancers a new North County option. The club received rave reviews from all who attended it’s grand opening and the buzz is still going regarding this beautiful venue .
As with most Salsa venues there are lessons early on in the night and our friends over at Salsa Inferno are instructing at this new locale. Below is a video of Tony and his group performing at another San Diego Salsa and Latin Dancing Meetup.com event:
Lessons start early at 8:30pm but the club opens at 7:30 and stays open late!
As it gets closer to the 2nd Annual San Diego Salsa Festival here in San Diego this September, there may be many of you wondering what happens at a event like this. Indeed, before I attended my first festival (aka salsa congress) for salsa years ago I really had no concept of what went on during an event like this.
If you are a beginner and just learning to dance salsa, the festival will present to you a massive assortment of options to dance, watch performances, and most importantly learn a great deal about salsa dancing. One aspect of the San Diego Salsa Festival that will be of particular help to new dancers are the numerous workshops scheduled throughout the weekend.
A salsa workshop is a little different from a traditional salsa dance lesson in that salsa workshops allow the instructor to really concentrate on certain aspects of the dance. This is helpful because let’s say you already know how to salsa dance but want to learn some new styling moves without going through the basics once again. A specific salsa workshop like the one Iran Castillo is hosting at the San Diego Salsa Festival might interest you as it will focus on “cool moves” and “On2” dancing.
The workshops during the San Diego Salsa Festival start on Friday night with a beginner’s boot camp workshop that will consist of 3 hours of focused dance instruction for those new to the dance. The rest of the weekend will have workshops hosted by local dance studios like A Time to Dance, Salsa Inferno, and Majesty in Motion. There are also workshops hosted by visiting studios and instructors from as far as Cali, Colombia.
Hope everyone is doing great. Here in San Diego there are a number of salsa dance troupes and companies that cater to very different aspects of salsa dancing. Indeed, some of the local dance companies concentrate their efforts and skills to spreading the dance to particular areas of the dance both philosophically and geographically. I recently had the opportunity to interview with Tony Caligagan of Salsa Inferno Dance about his groups contributions to the local San Diego salsa dance community:
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Salsa Inferno Dance:
Hi John,
Thanks for your support. Keeping salsa alive takes a lot of effort and I am thankful someone like you takes the time to promote salsa in a positive manner.
I have been active in the Salsa Community for more than 14 years. Since my return from New York in 1992 (after dancing on Broadway and meeting Maria my wonderful wife) I’ve taught salsa and Latin dance at UCSD and introduced salsa to thousands of dancers over the years.
Ritmo Bello: What is your Mission and Vision for your dance company?
Salsa Inferno Dance: Our mission for Salsa Inferno Dance has been to create a core of highly skilled trained dance professionals that not only represent salsa as a fun social activity, but also to perform for corporate events and Special events throughout the salsa community. In a way Salsa Inferno is a sister company to Heatwave Productions which has been a leading entertainment provider in San Diego for over 15 years.
Ritmo Bello: What are the origins of your dance troupe?
Salsa Inferno Dance: The origins spawned from our beginning and intermediate salsa classes in Encinitas, UCSD, Culture shock (I started the salsa program at Culture shock), and from local salsa clubs that I promoted. On June 6th we will be celebrating our 9th year of teaching salsa in Encinitas which will be a land mark event. We consistently have 60-80 students in our Friday night classes- rain or shine. The dancers that came on a consistent basis developed into good social dancers. Then we took that core group and started performing about 6 years ago, the group grew slowly but surely. WE now have 3 teams, Salsa Inferno Amateur, Salsa Inferno Pro-team, Salsa Inferno Bachata Performance team.
Ritmo Bello: What sets your group apart from the other local dance troupes?
Salsa Inferno Dance: Because of our dance background and experience as trained dance professionals Maria and I have over 40 years of dance experience (see our biography on www.salsainfernodance.com ) to offer students. Coaching is one of our expertise and we feel we can help anyone improve their dancing and quality of life. We encourage and create a positive environment where we know that if someone applies themselves they will grow not only technically but they will grow in confidence and self esteem. There is a lot more to teaching Salsa than just teaching steps!!!!
Ritmo Bello: I would have to agree with you wholeheartedly on your last point. If somebody wants to participate how can they contact your group?
Salsa Inferno Dance: We are always accepting qualified new dancers to the group. Some people stop dancing for a while and then come back when their life situation allows. Besides being a dance company with high standards we are also the most affordable! We only charge $10.00 per training session and you only pay when you show up. That’s $40.00 a month vs. other team fees of $100 or more
