SALSA COMPETITION SONORA CARRUSELES, NUEVA ERA
Bell Harbor Plaza, Pier 66, 628-0888 $30/$35 door 8 p.m. Sat., Sept. 22
YOU DON’T GENERALLY think of Seattle as a hotbed of Latin culture, but all that’s about to as Pier 66 plays host to a salsa-dancing contest—a contest worth $10,000 for the lucky winners. According to organizer Jairo Sanchez, who is producing the event with Claudio Valentino and technical director Fausto Torres, “It’s the single biggest prize ever given for salsa dancing.”
The contest also represents a huge step forward for the promoters themselves, who staged a similar event last year with a prize of $1,000. For this one, they’re looking to attract the cream of the salsa-dancing crop. “We’re only going to take 24 couples,” Sanchez explains. “We’ll do a qualification round to bring it down to 12, then another to bring it down to six. They’ll have to do a choreographed dance for two and a half minutes. The judges will look at the timing, the appearance, and every single thing and decide first, second, and third place.”
The judges will be picked from musicians, dance instructors, and dancers, most of whom, Valentino notes, “are coming from out of town, so there won’t be any kind of clique.”
A world-class dance contest demands top-notch music, and Sonora Carruseles will be the headline entertainment. The Colombian 12-piece band have established themselves as one of the biggest names in salsa since their formation in 1995, when they immediately “started winning awards all over South America,” explains Sanchez. “They’ve been nominated for a Grammy. When it comes to South American awards, they’ve won them all. They’re the hottest act around right now.”
“They play all upbeat music,” adds Valentino. “It’s perfect for dancing.”
Rather than break new ground, Sonora Carruseles use their full percussion and horn sections to return to the driving salsa sound of the ’60s and ’70s, the time of classic groups like the Fania All-Stars. It’s both ideal for the dance floors and guaranteed to challenge and delight the contestants.
“It’s going to draw two different crowds,” Sanchez notes. “The contest will bring one crowd, and the band will pull another. A lot of Colombian people will come and see the band.”
It’s a coming-of-age for our burgeoning local salsa craze, which crosses all manner of ethnic boundaries. Couples are happily spending up to $70 an hour for salsa lessons and are routinely filling clubs like Century Ballroom with 500 or 800 people on a Thursday night.
