2001: A Salsa Odyssey

Wow! What a Party! in Miami, Let's Dance LA just hosted the World's Greatest Salsa Cruise and Party at the incredible Calle Ocho! Check out the pictures from last year's Swing cruise and this year's

and sign up soon for your space on next year's cruise!

Joining Enio & Terryl on this year's cruise were some of the worlds best Salsa teachers for this once a year event. Heading up the staff were 7 time US Latin Champion Ron & Karla Montez- San Diego, California; Albert Torres- Santa Monica, Ca. Maureen Hickey- Rochester, N.Y. Glenn Braunstein- Spokane, Washington; Carlos Tellez- Miami, Florida; Jamie Josephson, Miami Florida, Tony Piniero, Miami, Florida Edie Lewis & Al Espinoza- Owner of SalsaWeb, L.A.; and Isabelle Pampillo- Santa Monica, L.A. . From Holland came: Annetje and Marlon Castillo- Haarlem, The Netherlands; <

Although many of our partyers started arriving as early as Wednesday into Miami, the first official night started with a private welcoming dance party at Mystique- Miami's #1 Salsa Club! A radio broadcast from Miami's Salsa station from 9-11 followed that and at midnight the band started up. Unfortunately Miami's Best Salsa band the one and only Hansel Martinez y La Orchesta Calle Ocho had a last minute invitation to perform at the Baranquilla Festival in Colombia and wasn't in town. On Sunday morning we boarded luxury coaches that whisked us dockside in preparation to board the beautiful Norwegian Sky. In addition to all the great shipboard activities we has daily workshops by the absolute best teachers in the world and nightly dances poolside or in some of the many lounges. One day after a stop in the Bahamas we arrived at the Isla de el Encanto San Juan- Puerto Rico. The highlight of the week for many was the wonderful workshop given by Puerto Rico's best dancer- Felipe Polanco! The following day we arrived at the site of one of the world's 10 best beaches - the beautiful Caribbean Island of St. Thomas, V.I. The freaky weather caused the beach to be closed to swimming for the first time in many years. After a day at sea we spent a day on Norwegian Cruise Line's private island- they Great Stirrup Cay - where we had a barbecue, lots of, and Rueda dancing on the beach and a Dance contest.

Returning to Miami on Sunday, we disembarked exhausted from all the dancing and partying, checked our bags into the Hilton, and headed off to the World's biggest Salsa festival - Calle Ocho. Sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Little Havana, this event draws over 1 millon salsa fans to a 24 block long street party. With major players like McDonalds,Bacardi Budweiser, Univision, Coca Cola, each sponsoring a stage and try to top each other with top drawer entertainers, we danced from stage to stage dancing Rueda in the street like all the locals! Last year we saw among others Celia Cruz, El Gran Combo, and Tito Nieves. This year it was the super Fruko y Sus Tesos from Colombia, Elvis Crespo, El Gran Combo, Eddie Santiago,and superstars, Willy Chirino and Oscar D'Leon were just some of the ones that we heard play! Returning that night to the beautiful Hilton on the Lagoon those who were still standing rubbed elbows with many of the bands that played at Calle Ocho. The following morning lots of hugs and kisses to all our newly made friends.!

Start planning now for 2002 we're going to do it again!!!

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