Biography 1 2 3 
My Teachers Why Tango & Salsa |
Why Salsa & Tango? I began dancing these two dances at the same time. I was looking for Tango and I found Salsa first. In fact the same dance partner taught me both in 1986. Since then I have never felt I enjoyed one more than the other. I find the two dances quite different in technique and of course music, but in their essence, I always found the two to have profound similarities. In the Salsa music styles which I favour, I have always heard a sadness, underlying the outward joy of the music. In tango, as I have matured, I have found a joy which underlies that sadness we hear. It's a joy which celebrates the performing of an exorcism of sorts, in expressing life's hardships. Expressions such as "Azucar" (in Spanish means sugar) which we hear yelled out during salsa pieces, have become expressions of joy. Yet they seem also to have been expressions of freedom, celebrations of identity despite slavery in the sugar cane fields of Cuba and Puerto Rico. In the rest of Latin America it hasn't been difficult to embrace such sentiment. Colonialism and the migration experience hasn't been unique to black slaves in Cuba and Puerto Rico. Colonialism hasn't been it's only impetus. The political difficulties throughout Latin America have made the migration experience a real part of their recent history. Many say that this is the basis of the essence of Tango. Tango was said to be born during an influx of immigrants from many cultures (black slaves included), around 1870. And I do believe it is these common threads existent in both dances, which I am drawn to.
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