Its been a while since my last post and things are so crazy for me right now. I cannot honestly say when my next post will be, but today I am making time to share one of the many in the works with with you.
A bit of history to this post. I LOVE social salsa dancing, its one of my top 3 favorite things in the World. Now in the past 3 weeks, I have danced every single day, but only 2 of those days have been social dancing. The other 19 days have all been spent on training & practicing for a performance and teaching, . Hence the inspiration for Today’s blog. I want to share with you my Top 8 solo performances by Salseros that have just blown my mind. I can just imagine the amount of training and practice that went into them & I am sure you will enjoy them as much as I did (especially the Salsera’s). So, here we go:
NO.8 – Lucky Sipin (Merecumbe)
Merecumbe happens to be my favorite Salsa song of all time. Lucky’s routine is fun & cool to watch.
No. 7 – Alex Lima
The original Salsa soloist who is hitting those shines On1. (Totally destroying statements and myths about Musicality and the like. You can dance On1 or On2 and still be musical and amazing). Anyway, as a friend of mine mentioned that this list would not be complete without him and I have to agree.
No. 6 – Adolfo Indacochea & Juan Matos
Technically speaking, this is not a solo performance (and I will break this rule 1 more time in this post, so let me just get that out of the way now). However, if you know me, you will know that these 2 guys are favorite salsa dancers and the Mambo style of Eddie Torres is what resonates with me. So this performance which is a tribute to the King, just had to be here…
No. 5 – Terry Tauliaut aka The Beast
If you have seen Terry dance you will know why his nickname is the Beast & his solo performance would be no different…
Fyi: there are 2 Salseros who are called Beasts on the Salsa dance scene & for 2 very different reasons. They are Terry and Sean.Terry is nicknamed the beast because he has such an insane energy when he dances. Its raw yet controlled with an effortless touch of musicality. To put this in perspective, watch the video of him doing shines in the middle of a social dance: Click Here.
Alright, from here on out, things get tricky. The Top 4 could easily all be No.1
So I chose to list them in order of who surprised me the most. So here we go, the top 4 Solo Salsa performances of all time.
No. 4 – Frankie Martinez
One of the kings of the solo performance and a master at musicality, here is Frankie with his insane speed and unbelievable footwork at the peru salsa Congress.
No. 3 – Oliver Pineda
Arguably one of the best solo performances out there. This man needs no introduction. World Champion Oliver is in my opinion the most musical social dancer I have ever seen and it therefore comes as no surprise that his solo is just as musical:
If you like Oliver, then you might enjoy watching this other performance with him Johnny Vasques & Adrian Rodriguez. Its not in my personal top 10, but its a rare treat to see these 3 artists all perform together: click here.
No.2 – Fred & Marc
Remember how I said I would break the rule again and include another duo? Well this is it. They are Fred and Marc and I had never heard of them until I saw this piece For that reason and the absolutely brilliant routine, they earn the No.2 spot.
No. 1 – Yand Klaise
Yand Klaise actually came to SA a few years back. I took his workshops and actually had a private class with him on Afro-cuban body movement and this guy is definitely talented. I just never knew how talented until I saw the performance he did at the Puerto Rican Salsa Congress. So he gets the Top spot as the No.1 Salsa Solo performance in my books. Well done Yand.
Alright all. I sign off here. See you next week which marks my Blogs 3rd year Anniversary! WOWZA!
Live, Love, Salsa & Bachata!
Chillys Blog 
Hey Chilly, Laurence here (from the bootcamp)
The title of your post didn’t indicate any gender, so how come there’s no female solos in your list ? :)) Some of the ones that I enjoyed watching :
Griselle Ponce : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWD27kCEVE8
Shani Talmor : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYoC179BtQw
Sheila de Jesus : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoycIH9NDm4
Hey Laurence (yes I remember) 🙂
9 out of the top 10 solos on my list are by Salseros. I will check out the links you have posted and will let you know if I decide to alter my list after viewing them. In mean time, tell me – Whats your top 5?
Sweet videos lad. This is the kind of motivation we need to keep moving forward with our own practice. And here’s an early Happy Anniversary for your blog. Keep the good ones coming.
Nice list! I’d never seen Fred and Marc before! I’ll have to do a female list 😉
Interesting, but it seems you are partial to mediocre lock’npop dancing to salsa music. If you want to see real lock ‘n poppers, I recommend Slim Boogie, Sala, Remote Kontrol, etc. That is real skill in that genre.
The uniqueness in salsa is isolating WHILE moving the feet on the count and tempo of the music…the examples of lock and popping to salsa you show basically stand in place while isolating the body, which is nowhere close to the mastery that Frankie Martinez or Oliver Pineda have.
Anyways, it’s your opininion, but objectively speaking…those can’t compare to real salsa masters dancing salsa.
four your enjoyment, here’s a masterful solo performance by Mikel Fonts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1v6J5YbcU0&list=PLkeIdEYE05T77ygQAzxZrMNjQgf9eey2J&index=69
Hey Alberto,
Thanks for the comments, I really appreciate it.
I2 Things:
1. Objectively speaking: 600 years BC people believed the Earth was flat. Objective is just another way of saying: Majority of peoples SUBJECTIVE OPINION. However its still just that – Opinion.
Art by its very nature cannot be Objective otherwise everyone would have the same taste in music, paintings, beauty e.t.c. The beauty of life is that we all see things differently.
So to elevate your opinion over mine, objectively speaking is baseless.
2. Maykel Fonts is an Amazing dancer – hands down. But that was a a “Freestyle” infront of an audience and definitely not a performance.
But thanks again for sharing your opinion.