Oliver Pineda

Oliver Pineda is an Australian-born Chilean. He started dancing in his early teens, and over the next 30 years, he won Salsa World Champions ten times! He has taught millions of people and inspired many more.

Photo by Oliver Pineda Dance

His connection to the music, as a respected percussionist, and his decade-long technical training in the competitive dance sport and ballroom arena, elevated him to be among the world's most well-known dancers and respected instructors.

Watch one of my all time favourite performances of Oliver Pineda.

Read more about Oliver Pineda at https://www.oliverpineda.dance/about.

Franklin Diaz

Despite his incredible success, little public information about Franklin Diaz's life is available. We could only find out that he was born in the Dominican Republic and started educating himself in dancing as a child. His musical family background and culture exposed him to rhythm, sound and movement at this early age. He continued to study on this path into adulthood, and as a result, the world recognises him as one of the all-time greatest today. 

Photo from Facebook

Beyond his obvious talent in Salsa, he is also well-versed in many other styles, including ballet and flamenco. Over the years, he has trained with the biggest names and shared the world stage with many equally illustrious performers such as Jose Molina, Nelida Tirado, Jose Maya, Alfonso Losa (Flamenco), Victor Pacheco, and Eddie Torres. Dance enthusiasts and his peers around the globe admire his energetic and unique style that appears to his audience as if his body had become one with the music.

Watch one of my favourite performances of his is an excellent display of his style and talent.

Tito Nieves

Humberto "Tito" Nieves is one of the most notable Salsa singers ever. He was born in Puerto Rico, but, like most icons in the golden era of Salsa, he started his carrier in New York after he moved there with his parents still as a child.

In the seventies, he developed his music alongside other legendary musicians, such as Héctor Lavoe, until he released his first solo album in 1986. He was one of the first Latin singers who started singing in English, delivering a massive hit called "I Like It Like That". After releasing several successful albums, he is soon known as "El Pavarotti De La Salsa". He continues to succeed today, collaborating with iconic musicians such as Marc Anthony and Victor Manuelle.

Tito Nieves's style is easy to dance to. He uses the classic salsa instruments led by a precise conga rhythm, and the songs usually fit the salsa-on-2 step patterns better.

He has sung some of my all-time favourite songs, such as "De Mí Enamórate" or "Fabricando Fantasías" which he dedicated to his eldest son, who tragically died of bone cancer in 2004. 

Today, Tito Nieves is releasing a song called "Soy", featuring his fellow Puerto Rican salsa icon, Gilberto Santa Rosa.

Gilberto Santa Rosa

"El Caballero de la Salsa, " or Gilberto Santa Rosa Cortéz, was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico. He grew up listening to the great Salsa musicians of the 50s - 60s and was greatly influenced by the famous Puerto Rican salsa band El Gran Combo. He was only 12 years old when he performed on television and decided to make a career for himself as a singer.

Photo by J. Perez-Mesa

In the 80s, Santa Rosa was the first Salsa singer to give a concert at the Carnegie Hall Theatre in New York City. Using his unique talent in "Soneo", he delivered a four-minute improvised version of his famous song "Perdona Me", which was recorded and later released on the album dedicated to this performance. This improvised version became a piece he had to sing repeatedly due to its unpaired success.

Santa Rosa discovered Victor Manuelle, who was also destined to become a great Salsa singer during the 90s, alongside his only rivals, Marc Anthony and La India.

Releasing several notable hits, such as "Conteo regresivo", "No te vayas", "Que alguien me diga", and many more, Gilberto Santa Rosa held the record for the most number-one albums on the Billboard Tropical Albums chart in 2010. So far, he has sold more than three million records worldwide and won Grammy Awards six times.

Watch one of his performances that showcases everything that makes salsa and soneros tremendous and is one of my absolute favourites. 

You can read his full biography at allmusic.com.

Introduction

When you decide to learn something new and take the first steps towards acquiring that knowledge, you are already closer to success than most who have yet to make the same decision or are unaware they should. However, the journey to the unknown is usually full of challenges. As a result, some people give up before this journey becomes an adventure and lose the joy that discovering something new brings.

So the paradox presents itself: "I just wanna have fun, but first I must learn, which is not so much fun".

• the music; where we get familiar with the physical instruments and their roles in the music by trying to play them

• the relationship between movement and music; where we try to move with the tunes without the boundaries of rules

• the partner work; to learn to work with others and acquire the ability to "listen" and include others in our movement

• the rules of the dance, which gives us the standards that identify our movement with a genre

I believe, working this way, everyone can have more fun focusing on what they need to become better dancers without forcing the boundaries upon themselves too early.

Dancing for the last ten years, I have seen many people come and go. Yes, some were more enthusiastic, dedicated or talented than others, but one thing they all had in common: they all had taken that first step with which all voyage begins. Of course, as I said, this is only halfway to success, while the other half is affected by many things; some people get put off by others, and some by losing faith in themselves, but undeniably, the teachers are the most significant factor in deciding the fate of a new dancer.

Everyone has at least one goal with dancing: to enjoy. But on the other hand, genuinely having fun means the dancer can get lost in the music and express themselves without thinking much about the moves, the counts and the rules. To do this, moving spontanely on the rhythm must become natural to the brain and body. However, this does not happen overnight, nor it happens automatically.

Two types of people emerge from this dilemma: one that will carry on having fun without learning much, who never experiences the true joy of moving in harmony with the music, and the other, who will "suffer" through the initial stage of learning the "hard" things until they suddenly understand the true meaning behind the concept of dancing.

Sadly, too many teachers focus on the former group because teaching turn patterns will keep up the interest and the money flowing. They choose to do so because ironing out the details and helping people become genuine dancers would take much more effort, and it could also seem less rewarding to the student due to the hard work required.

Knowing all this, I want to try a new approach focusing on the dancers' abilities to understand the four building blocks of dancing:

In this space, beyond regular posts about music and dancing, I aim to organise and advertise regular classes for all levels, along with social dancing opportunities for us to enjoy.

Please send me a message, like our Facebook page, and join our community! Let's have fun!