faniarecords:

Eddie Palmieri is considered one of the most creative, unique artists in musical history. It is impossible to summarize in a few short words Eddie’s trajectory and contributions as a pianist, composer, arranger, orchestra director, and above all, as a leader in producing albums with successful artists and bands.
A self-professed lover of jazz and salsa (a genre in which he was a pioneer), Eddie experimented with Afro-Caribbean beats, giving them an innovative sound.
Over the course of his long and successful career, Eddie Palmieri imprinted his excellence on more than 35 albums, including the following: “Palo pa’ rumba;” “Champagne;” “Unfinished Masterpiece” (with the participation of vocalist Lalo Rodríguez); “Sing Sing,” which was released twice; “Vámonos pa’l monte” (considered one of the classics of his discography); and “The Sun of Latin Music,” the first Latin album to win a Grammy, in 1974.
During his long and successful career, he played concerts and recorded with the Tico All Stars. Later, he performed with the internationally acclaimed Fania All Stars. 

By Kennia Ramirez

Ahh….to social dance, or not to social dance? That is the question…

I’ve been dancing Salsa in New York for the past 3 years and this has been something that I’ve struggled with throughout the whole learning process.  I remember the first social I ever went to, hosted by a small salsa school in the Bronx.  The people were extremely warm and friendly, and I immediately felt welcomed.  The only problem I had was that I didn’t feel 100% confident in my dancing abilities—I looked at all these great dancers around me and thought to myself, “What the hell am I doing here? I’m not ready for this!” I knew I wanted to be involved with Salsa, but came to the realization that I was definitely not ready to hit the scene.  

So, I fled from the Bronx and decided to volunteer at a dance studio in Astoria, Queens, where I worked in exchange for dance lessons.  Because I had no choice but to work the socials it gave me a perfect excuse to be in that environment.  Also, all employees were required to dance with all of the students at the socials—I hated my boss for this at the time, but thanked him later as this actually helped me a great deal with my fear of the dance floor.

As I began to feel more confidence dancing at this small social, I decided it was time to hit the big leagues. I went to Club Cache for the first time with a friend and I will never forget the experience. The dancers there were ridiculously good!! Here I was thinking that I had turned into Ginger Rogers only to find out that I was closer to Ben Stiller in the movie “Along Came Polly”.  Well of course at this point, frustration set in again—this time because I had been dancing for a little over a year and I felt like I had made little to no progress.

Again, I decided to step away from the scene and just stick to Salsa inside the classroom.  Needless to say as time went on I began to feel more comfortable in my dancing abilities on the dance floor, but it made me think about how many other students might be feeling the same way.  I mean, we’re not all meant to become these amazing Salsa dancers.  Some of us just want to go out there and have a good time and not worry that we’re getting in the way of the person next to us who is trying to pull a “Dancing With The Stars” move. 

As a result of this quandary, I decided to come up with a list of what makes for a great dance social.  I’m no professional in the field of dance so this list comes straight from “the average Joe,” because at the end of the day anyone putting together a great party needs “the average joe” to make it a success.  So here goes:

Elements for a great Salsa Social:

1.  Great DJ that feeds off of the crowd and provides great music

2.  Non-intimidating dance environment. (Professional dancers should take the time to dance with beginners as well as people at their level creating an inclusive environment)

3.  Inclusive Staff who makes every guest feel welcome

4.  Great Dance Floor & Air Conditioning/Fans to keep everyone cool

5.  Great Dance Leaders who lead based on the level of their partner

6.  Great Dance Followers who follow based on the level of their leader

(Re: points 4 & 5—Because most socials invite students from their schools it is important that instructors make it a point to inform leaders/followers of proper etiquette on the dance floor)

Pluses (but not totally necessary)

7.  Great food & drinks. (Area where people can take a breather to socialize if they don’t feel like dancing—drinks are particularly important as you want your dancers hydrated)

8.  Live Music

9.  Dance performances

I hope this list was helpful. 

I currently do a work study program at Stepping Out Studios and have been taking Salsa classes with Nicholas Messina of Bongo Loco Salsa, which is currently housed at Stepping Out Studios.  I have found a wonderful family here and couldn’t feel more comfortable in this environment. 

Bongo Loco Socials take place twice a month.  Toda La Noche (hosted by Nicholas Messina, Crystal Rodriguez & Rudy Acosta—which has been running for a little over 2 years) takes place on the first Saturday of every month.  En Vivo (also hosted by Messina, Rodriguez & Acosta) provides live music featuring Louis Bauzo & his orchestra on the 2^nd Friday of every month.  

For more details, check out: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bongo-Loco-NYC-Salsa-at-Stepping-Out-Studios/481167028605243

I was apprehensive about going to Jimmy’s last night, thinking that most folks would be at Super Bowl parties, but was I wrong!  I haven’t been out dancing (for fun) in so long and I have to admit it felt so good not to be talking about business and Salseek and to just dance my butt off!  I realized that I allowed the business side of Salseek to take away from why I started it in the first place - for the passion and el amor of the dance.  It was so great to see some old friends and get to meet some new ones.  So, as I refocus our business model this year, 2013 is all about work and play balance or more like, more dance, less work! ;)

Que viva la Salsa and hope to see  you out dancing soon again!

Con Amor,

SALSEEK

Hello SALSEEK fans!

After two amazing years I hate to say good bye to SALSEEK.com, so for now we say a quick adios and we’ll be back soon!  It’s been quite the journey and creating SALSEEK.com has led us all to so many incredible opportunities.  We’ve decided that after two years, SALSEEK.com we’ll take a slight hiatus but you can continue to follow us on this blog and on Facebook and Twitter.  We will continue to post updates and help promote events and news within the salsa and Latin community as often as we can.  We are all so grateful to have had the opportunity to meet such amazingly talented dancers and musicians along the way and we are happy to have had the chance to help promote such a down played industry.  We are hopeful that with time and some added funds that we will be able to reboot and bring SALSEEK.com back alive to help promote the beauty and talent of Latin dance and music.  For now, we say a short farewell and please keep in touch with us on our SALSEEK fan page and on Twitter and please visit SALSEEK.com to read stories you haven’t read or see videos and photos that you haven’t seen.  We look forward to new beginnings!

Que viva la salsa!

The SALSEEK family

It’s been an exciting start to the fall season, a season I have always loved in New York City!  This year, we’re working on, for the 3rd year in a row Baila Society’s Bailando Por Una Causa to benefit the Latino Commission on AIDS held at El Museo del Barrio.  SALSEEK pr & events is full force with our press outreach and securing a number of television appearances, calendar listings, feature articles and promotions so that this year we can SELL OUT and pack El Museo’s beautiful theater.  It’s one of my favorite events to work on, not just because it involves dance but because of all the amazing people who come out to help make this event happen!  Joseph Rivera, co-founder of Baila Society, and whom we’ve written a feature article about for SALSEEK.com is by far an incredible and dedicated individual to the cause.  This year we have Ballet Hispanico BHdos performing, Baila Society, Nelida Tirado, Billy Fajardo and so many more.  Each genre of dance represents the variety of communities affected by HIV & AIDS.  

Yesterday, we met with the Commission and Baila Society to produce a series of behind the scenes videos and personal anecdotes from key figures in this event.  We’ll be launching our first of the series next week and excited to share with you the beauty of this event.  I hope you’ll take the time out to BUY a TICKET TODAY and join us on October 24th for a spectacular showcase of dance performances by artists who pour their heart and soul into this event.

And we are excited that SALSEEK photographer Chasi Annexy will be on hand snapping away photos all night and Steven Valle, cameraman & producer of SALSEEK who will be capturing the night.

So remember, GET TESTED, know your status, the facts, spread the word and BUY YOUR TICKET TODAY at www.bailandoporunacausa.org

Chasi and I spent two full days producing and photographing our NEW photo feature that you can view on www.SALSEEK.com of 10 beautiful women in their professional salsa performance costumes! What we loved most was the variety and detail of each of the costumes and the process of how each of the costumes were designed, the inspiration behind the look and why each woman was drawn to the colors, shapes, fabric and bead work, in order to connect it with their performance.  By shooting 10 girls at once, we really got the chance to meet new dancers and of course catch up with some of our old friends like Talia who we featured and shot in Time Square last year and Ahtoy from Baila Society who produces the Bailando Por Una Causa event that we always help out with as well.  It was an amazing experience to put together this feature and I think we are most proud of this one because of all the work that had to go into.  Also, we must give credit to all the ladies who spent a lot of time and energy to prepare for the shoot…I think they all realized how hard modeling is!  But at the same time we all had a blast and good times were had…

So, check it out the FULL FEATURE on SALSEEK.com and stay tuned for our upcoming features on the TOP 10 most talented male dancers & top 10 most talented musicians (male or female)  We’ll be rolling out the campaign soon so log onto SALSEEK.com for all the updates!

Un gran abrazo,

Natalie & Chasi

SALSEEK.com

Come through to Webster Hall tonight!  We are launching our new Latin dance party every Thursday night

It’s been an exciting month and half for us at SALSEEK.com!  We relaunched the site at the start of the New Year with a slightly new design for the layout of our photos, feature articles, columns and videos.  Most of all, we’ve added a wonderful team of talented writers to our feature articles and columns including LOVE, BEAUTY, TRAVEL, FASHION and The Salsa Expert!  We’ve included short bios in our About column so that our readers can get to know them all.  We would like to thank them all for their contributions to keeping Latin music and dance alive!

Please visit us at www.salseek.com to check out all of our new features including “Dance India Dance”, an new article about the Williamsburg Salsa Orchestra “Breaking Boundaries with a New Sound In Salsa,” “For the Love of a Dance,” “Fashion for the Salsanista,” a NEW MOVE OF THE MONTH by Lorenz Latin Dance Studios, a segment with En La Escena about Afro-Cuban and MUCH MORE!

Also, stay tuned for our upcoming photo feature by photographer Chasi Annexy of “THE TOP FEMALE SALSA COSTUMES” with a special SALSEEK celebration in March at a NYC nightclub with LIVE music and dancing! (details soon)  

We’d like to thank all of our SALSEEK readers and fans for your continued support!

Que viva la Salsa!!

From your friends at SALSEEK.com

Thank you so much for your wonderful feedback!  We love hearing from our readers and look forward to sharing more inspirational photos and articles!

I can’t believe yet another year is over!  It’s been quite the journey for us at SALSEEK and we are excited about what’s to come for the new year.  From our trip to Cuba, our summer salsa parties at Hudson Terrace to meeting so many wonderful musicians and dancers, in addition to all the events, photo shoots and festivals…it has been quite the year!  After a few months on hiatus, we are officially back with NEW content and a new design for our feature and photo sections, not to mention adding 7 fantastic NEW writers to join the SALSEEK family!  We are very excited to collaborate with so many talented individuals and we hope you love them and their columns as much as we do!  So for now, we leave you with a million wishes for a wonderful New Year for all….HAPPY NEW 2012 YEAR!!! Que viva la salsa!!

chasiphoto:

Last Thursday night the Mets donned special “Los Mets” jerseys as they played hosts to “Hispanic Heritage Night” at Citi Field sponsored by Goya.  Among many exciting pre-game events (followed by a chance to watch the game from a VIP sky box!) Goya put together a team of All-Star salsa dancers (with the help of SALSEEK!) to perform on the field. Here are a few of my favorite shots of two All-Stars in action - Ron Prokopez and Tina Torres.

And a few more photos on Flickr

chasiphoto:

“Rumbalsa” a fusion of Rumba and Salsa performed by Yesenia Fernandez Selier and Hunter Houde at Project: Cuba.

8.19.11 PROJECT: Cuba: A multimedia experience including photography, short video documentaries, Cuban style dance performances, and social dancing at Hudson Terrace in New York.  All work was an effort to share what we learned during a Marazul dance & music research trip to Havana, Cuba in April, 2011.

More photos on flickr.

chasiphoto:

A few dancing photos from Friday night.  Our Project: Cuba party was a great success!

8.19.11 PROJECT: Cuba: A multimedia experience including photography, short video documentaries, Cuban style dance performances, and social dancing at Hudson Terrace in New York.  All work was an effort to share what we learned during a Marazul dance & music research trip to Havana, Cuba in April, 2011.

More photos on flickr.

“Going to Cuba always seemed like an experience too hard to obtain, but when we heard about Metamovents.com through my friend Natalie at Salseek, Alina and I knew we HAD to GO!!! We discovered the roots of the passion we loved so much… Salsa. What we didn’t know was that besides being exposed to another way of dance, our horizons would be challenged and expanded. We witnessed the lives of the Cuban people and their culture and Alina and I were extremely humbled. This experience pushed our understanding as dancers and humanists to a higher level while exposing us to new ideas we never knew had existed. We loved our time there and long to return to this beautiful island. We urge all of you who read this post to find your way to Cuba because it will surely leave an indelible mark on your lives as it already has with yours truly ;O)”

- Michael Tumbao, Dancer, New York City

Our new feature up on SALSEEK.com this week is about Richie Bastar, who is the lead percussionist and bongo player for El Gran Combo, one of Salsa’s greatest bands.  They will be celebrating their 50th anniversary next year!  I was honored to have had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Richie about how he got to where he is today.  You’d think with all the success and fame, he wouldn’t be so down to earth, but Richie’s the type of guy you could chat about life’s ups and downs over a cup of coffee or beer. 

Unfortunately, we were unable to fit in a photo shoot with Richie due to his schedule.  He was performing for a sold out concert at Lehman College in the Bronx, where we met and then was off to the Puerto Rican Day Parade the next day as El Gran Combo was being honored as the Kings of the Parade!

Read his story on Salseek.com and here are some extra photos of Richie throughout the years…

Living the Dream One Beat At A Time

Richie Bastar

By Natalie J. Maniscalco

http://www.salseek.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=271%3Aliving-the-dream-one-beat-at-a-time-richie-bastar