Estilo Dance Studio - A Tribute to La Lupe and Celia Cruz

Posted on September 12th, 2008 by Allan Tabilas

Where would the dance be without music?  Continuing its theme of highlighting musical artists, Estilo Dance Studio in Philadelphia and South (New) Jersey held their Fall Student Showcase on September 6, honoring legendary vocalists La Lupe and Celia Cruz.  The staff at the studio, including founder Michael Andino, and instructors Darlin Garcia, Irina Pistolet, Uriel Garcia, Elizabeth Becerra, and George Dennis, choreographed routines for several student groups, all to music inspired by salsa royalty.  (In the Spring of 2008, Estilo’s Student Showcase was a tribute to Hector Lavoe).    We enjoyed the student and professional performances (including Darlin and Irina, and Cultural Explosion’s Juan Calderon and Christina Piedra, the interludes on La Lupe and Celia, and the social dancing!

To hear some of La Lupe’s music, go to the La Lupe page at Last.fm or iMeem, including her mostly English version of Fever, and the complete Spanish version, Fiebre.  To hear some of Celia’s music, go to the Celia Cruz page at Last.fm or iMeem, which feature tracks such as Quimbara and El Rey del Timbal (Tito Puente).

Below is a short preview performance of the Finale, featuring all the student groups! (Sorry, we do not have a timeframe for the video gallery/dvd yet). Click on the image or click here.

In one of the more lighthearted moments of the night, Philly’s very own DJ La Clave closed the night with some crazy music, because there’s more music than just salsa out there (honestly). Watch the video below with salsa dancers gone country (Cotton Eyed Joe, thanks Zoe).

Tags: Celia Cruz, Darlin Garcia, Estilo Dance Studio, La Lupe, Mike Andino
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MamboNYC - Interviews with the cast of Celia & Yamulee performance

Posted on April 29th, 2008 by Allan Tabilas

MamboNYC, the online salsa community and media organization that covers salsa events in the New York area, has recently interviewed a few cast members from Celia Cruz - The Musical. This off Broadway theater production covers the life and music of the legendary Cuban singer and artist. Go to any salsa (or Latin) event, large or small, and Celia Cruz’s musical impact is ubiquitous (think “Quimbara” among dozens of songs). The cast members interviewed by Jazz Bianchi include Anissa Gathers (understudy for the Celia character), Pedro Capo, and Grizel (”Chachi”) Del Valle. We have watched Chachi in the salsa world as a member of Caribbean Soul and Taima Dancers. She is an accomplished vocalist and performer, where she also appeared most recently as a dancer and extra in the Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez film about Hector Lavoe, “El Cantante”. Nuevotec saw Chachi in 2004 / 2005 in the Latin musical revue “Havana After Dark”, in Atlantic City. She also sang an impromptu song with our own Raul Santiago, Jr. at the 2006 NY Salsa Congress.

The Celia musical is currently playing at the New World Stage on 340 W 50th St in New York., with English shows on Tuesdays at 8pm, Saturdays at 5pm, and Sundays at 7pm. All other performances are in Spanish. For more information, please go to the official website.

WayGee Ho, the founder of MamboNYC, has posted a number of interviews from some of salsa’s best known divas, including Magna Gopal, Ahtoy Wonpat-Borja, and Duplessey Walker. These interviews are of the full length / unabridged variety, where we learn about the artists’ background history, dancing and teaching styles, and most memorable moments. In other words, we get to know the artists fairly intimately, as Jazz Bianchi talks to the talent in a very casual and candid manner.

We would also be remiss if we didn’t mention that MamboNYC has gone high definition, with incredible image quality. Waygee has posted the most recent performance from the New York based mambo group Yamulee, led by Osmar Perrones. New hotness? Yamulee is among the world’s finest performance teams, and in 2006 were one of three groups that were chosen as exhibition performances in the 2006 World Salsa Championships broadcast/DVD (along with Karisma Dancers and Al and Karla Espinoza). Waygee captured their performance at the Nelson Flores party recently at Dancesport Studio. We saw this performance at the Boston Salsa Congress, and were simply blown away! This routine is absolutely ridiculous. Don’t believe us? Click on the image to go to MamboNYC.

Yamulee performance from MamboNYC

Tags: Celia Cruz, Grizel Del Valle, MamboNYC, Osmar Perrones, Yamulee
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