Goodbye NY Salsa Congress 2014 Til We Meet Again

Back on Megabus headed home to DC after an exhausting weekend at the NY Salsa Congress with my passion to Dance Salsa REVIVED! Interestingly enough, this year at the Congress, I’ve danced the least ever in NY because as per the norm, many of the target status dancers I wanted to get a dance with were on the carpet and I just wasn’t up for dancing under the bright lights and dealing with the pressure of being judged by all of the eyes watching you and sometimes recording you- THE IRONY, I KNOW!!! However, I still had a great time because I met way more people than usual, connected or networked with alot of rising stars/performers on the scene today, and really focused on taking workshops AND actually paying attention to the material taught in those workshops (I will do a separate workshop and performances recap later).

I normally like to avoid a whole lot of conversation with people I really don’t know because smalltalk/chitchat bores me to no end since I usually have no interest in people I don’t really know or have a personal connection with already. My philosophy has always been that the actual dance experience with someone OR watching and admiring someone else’s craft is all we really need to know about each other. But this time, I luxuriated in the human connection with people- whether genuine or not- and enjoyed every minute of most of my interactions and conversations.

It was very interesting and thrilling to see so many highly accomplished new faces and dancers on the come-up in NYC which is great for NYC but I was missing the elders of the scene, the titans, the DemiGods of Salsa/Mambo Dance. I don’t know where they were but not many of them were in sight and I would know since I’m an expert stalker of such luminaries. Frankly, it was very disappointing that I didn’t see as many of the legacy NYC Salsa Icons/Pros/Stars who spent years building their reputations while forming the bedrock of a NYC Salsa Scene that levied a high bar of entry to Salsa Dance Greatness. But as the saying goes, Life Moves On and life doesn’t exist in a vacuum. There are obviously a whole lot of people who are putting in the work to get really good to stand out from the crowd and secure their place under the Kleig lights of the Big Stage. And I’m HERE FOR ALL OF IT and to document their every moment in the sun if I am present to see what develops. Time waits for no one. Viva La Salsa AND Salsa Dance!