Salsa Del Peru

In January 2007, MidwestLatino representative Rob Rice traveled to Peru on a search for salsa talent. He reports his findings below:

Anywhere there is music, there is dancing. However this notion doesn’t hold true in Peru. Although Salsa music has come to dominate Peruvian musical tastes, Salsa dancing has been slow to follow. I first visited “Daddy-O”, a trendy night club located on the town square in the city of Arequipa. I thought for sure that I would find some amazing dancers. However, I witnessed only dancing in place to the salsa music. Dancers would just stand across from their partner and move there feet in place. No partnering, No turns, No Variations. For Merengue music, there was only slightly more variation witnessed, with only a few people partnering up.

On to the city of Cusco, gateway to the famous ruins of Machu Picchu. In Cusco, I was pleased to see an advertisement for Salsa lessons at Club Mythology located in the main square. I shined up my dancing shoes, check the battery on my video camera, and stocked up on dinero. At Club Mythology, I witnessed for the first time Salsa line dancing. This would not be the first time that I witnessed such an activity. One salsero would lead the group into various shines or combinations. Well, a picture is worth a thousand words and a video is worth a thousand pictures, so check out the photo gallery for a better idea of what this craziness is all about. Everyone there danced on 1 and the cross-body lead style was by far the most popular style.

On to the city of Lima, by far the largest city in Peru. Since the guidebooks and websites did not mention anything about salsa venues in Lima, I resorted to asking some young hip Peruvians at the airport. I was told that the best places to search for Salsa talent would be three dance clubs: Timbaloo, La Victoria, and Son De Cuba. Son De Cuba was located in the trendy, ritzy Miraflores district. At Son De Cuba, I was pleased to find some solid Cuban style dancers. Still, I would definitely assert that Cincinnati has better talent. See the photo gallery for some videos of the Cuban style dancing there along with yet some more salsa line dancing.

Unfortunately, I was unable to visit Timbaloo and La Victoria due to time constraints. I guess I will have to leave that up to another Salsero or Salsera.

To see pictures/video from this trip, click here...