The 2006 Chicago International Salsa Congress
By Shirley Fastner
February 16-19,
2006 @ The Westin O'Hare
Welcome to
a phenomenon that is sweeping the world -
the salsa congress. At times it seems as though
there is not a city left in the world that
is NOT holding a salsa congress! The first
one - held in Puerto Rico and still the grand
daddy of them all - only began in 1997 - less
than 10 years ago! At this stage of the game,
there actually even is somewhat of a circuit
of promoters, instructors and performers that
make the rounds of these congresses and consequently
are now traveling all over the world. Sometimes
their followers do as well! This year marked
the fifth annual Chicago International Salsa
Congress, put on as a labor of love once again
by Cultural Expressions. And we all pray that
they never stop doing it! Even if you have
never danced salsa, but are simply curious,
here is a way to immerse yourself once a year
right in Chicago, well almost in Chicago.
This year it was held out at the Westin O'Hare.
Despite the fact that there were those who
passed on this year's Congress because it
was not in the city and that many of our guests
did not get to see the city at all being so
far away, the O'Hare Westin was a lovely setting
for the event. Of course, it did not help
that it was also probably our coldest weekend
of the year, but what better time to be dancing
indoors for 4 days! This is just the ticket
to get you out of the winter doldrums.
As always,
it was a combination of marathon and family
reunion joining people together from all walks
of life from around the globe. Here we had
so many people gathered together by their
love of salsa even willing to forego sleep
for the duration! We all know that with activities
running from 9 a.m. until 3 a.m. almost daily
that sleep has to wait until the Congress
ends! Sales of energy drinks and Starbucks
were brisk.
The Chicago
Congress opened Thursday (2/16) with the evening
dance performances followed by the opening
night lineup of Primi Cruz featuring Jimmy
Bosch and Alfredo de La Fe along with Gilberto
Diaz and the CISC All Star Orchestra. We had
the pleasure of getting a bit of the ever
amazing trumpeter, Jimmy Bosch, every night
as he slid on and off the stage. The CISC
Orchestra, a/k/a Chicago International Salsa
Congress Orchestra, provided accompaniment
every night for each headliner except for
El Gran Combo who performed as themselves,
of course, already being a combo.
There seemed
to be somewhat fewer schedule changes this
year, at least as far as the workshops were
concerned. I was told storms in the east had
delayed some of the instructors and that accounted
for some shifts in schedule, however, it was
not too noticeable. I did know enough to get
a fresh schedule each day as I arrived and
READ IT. The quality of the workshops is so
high level. The opportunity to access all
of these great instructors under one roof
should not be missed. Even if you think you
know it all, sometimes picking up or fixing
one little thing can totally change your dancing.
I arrived
on Friday for the last part of Eddie Torres'
workshop and caught up with him afterwards.
He is no 'Johnny come lately'. Torres really
was there at the beginning with the Fania
All Stars and all the rest and is truly a
fountain of information. No wonder people
flock to him. He claims to have started dancing
when he was 14 which means he has been dancing
for about 42 years. As with most great dancers,
he started with an instructor and then later
created his own style. He also has a refreshing
humility. I asked him how it felt to have
a dance named after him i.e., the "Eddie
Torres On2" and how long this term had
been in existence. Turns out it has already
been about 10 years since the name for his
style of what he calls Street Salsa (as opposed
to ballroom mambo) was coined. He said he
was advised to name his dances years ago and
probably has around 500 shines in his "catalogue".
His wife, Maria Torres, with whom he has been
dancing for over 23 years, was the show director
of this congress. Eddie and Maria danced together
on tour with Tito Puente. Regarding the issue
of the "On 1" world trying to make
it with the "On 2" people, he thought
dancers should learn both. I mentioned that
it seemed that people who learned "On
2" did not seem to fare so well with
going back to "On 1". Torres too
had heard the same thing. So the saga continues.
Only had time for one more workshop so I took
Kelly Brown's Rueda class which was pretty
good (from St. Louis).
On Friday
the matinee dance performances started and
the first one was a pretty quick show - well
under an hour. Once again the standout was
"Amorosa" from Korea, who are always
so creatively blending the traditional culture
with switching into high gear salsa which
works so well. Also, a group of University
of Minnesota students, "SalsubZero",
were unbelievably unique especially considering
they had only been together a very short while.
The rueda
festival seems to have a tough time getting
off the ground and does not seem to last too
long once it gets going, although Mark Scollar
does his best to get it going. Throughout
the weekend most of the instructors got out
on stage mainly in the evening performances
and displayed their talents. There was a matinee
and evening show each day. The costumes and
choreography were extremely original and flamboyant.
Larry Harlow and the Legends Orchestra did
a fair job as the evenings entertainment.
These were all "legends" performing
at the congress - no newcomers here. Harlow
was another original on the infamous Fania
label.
On Saturday
I managed to make it to Magna Gopalo's (Toronto)
spin techniques class in the morning and this
was filled with excellent pointers to take
home with you - provided you have the memory
of an elephant. One can always use more practice
in the spin area. Also made it to the class
of one of my favorites, Juan Calderon (NJ)
- "Funky turn patterns". He is just
so much fun and I always pick up something
great. I stopped in for the end of Mike Bello's
lecture on Salsa Rhythms for Dancers and there
was just so much excellent information as
usual.
This was followed
by another matinee performance and more rueda
lasting about an hour and then the evening
show featuring Eddie Torres tonight (his only
performance) who said a few words to the audience
as well. As always Andy Cruz was amazing to
watch. Lefty Perez got up quite a few times
during the weekend to perform his new release,
Salseros Unidos, which got quite a bit of
exposure here.
Adalberto
Santiago (another Fania All-Stars alum) performed
Saturday night once again with the CISC (local)
Orchestra along with Alfredo de La Fe and
Jimmy Bosch as well as Gilberto Diaz. The
universal problem of 15 minute numbers not
lending themselves to dancing was at issue.
This is a logistical thing not a musical problem
albeit very lengthy songs start to turn into
a jam. The comments revolved around not wanting
to dance with the same partner that long,
not to mention it is hard to have the crescendos
to build the dancing at that length.
On Sunday
I went back for another of Juan Calderon's
workshops and then took Billy Fajardo's Latin
Hustle which was great as well. I finished
up with Edison Lima's Brazilian samba which
was a lot of fun, extremely popular and one
big workout. Once again the Sunday matinee
performance was the big Youth Showcase which
is always impressive, although the kids still
look scarily sexy. Brenda and Serena are always
a huge favorite. I will never get used to
all of the screaming that takes place! I also
had no idea Lane Tech high school had all
these fabulous dance groups. Times have changed
I guess!
Unfortunately,
the evening show did not end until about 11:45
pm and consequently the Ballroom for El Gran
Combo was not opened until about 1 a.m. Some
attendees gave up after the long day and went
home rather than wait any longer. I only managed
to see about an hour of the closing night
act I had come to see most of all, the legendary
El Gran Combo. This was who we were all waiting
for to be honest and they did not disappoint.
What else can I say? These guys are the real
thing. THIS is what showmanship is all about!
Rafael Ithier is still their musical director
after all these years and has been with them
since their inception in about 1962! It was
clear why they have been around as long as
they have.
As I mentioned
before, this is a marathon but the good news
was this year one could collapse on the couch
and watch the Olympics (complete with Latin
ice dancing) during the evening breaks which
occurred every night between the matinee and
evening performances - usually from about
6-9 p.m. I guess the rest of the world took
a nap.
Just to show
how strongly the salsa congresses have caught
on, here is just a quick sample of recent
and upcoming congresses occurring in just
the time span of a month:
