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Irene Miguel talks EXCLUSIVELY to  www.londonsalsascene.co.uk - about Mambolifestyle - It’s salsa instruction, Jim, but not as we know it...
There’s Mambo in her Method

Irene Miguel with dance partner Edgard del Rosario.

Whether you’ve been dancing salsa for a few weeks or for years, there’s probably one element in your dancing you’re not totally happy with; musical interpretation.
     This is where the best of us fall short; experienced dancers and instructors as much as beginners. Many instructors feel under pressure to offer students new turn patterns without necessarily relating these to the music. Naturally enough, students tend to reproduce those turn patterns on the dance floor – whether they fit with the music or not.
     If you’ve been on the scene for years, you’ll know Irene; she was one of the original founders of salsa in the UK, along with Elder Sanchez, Homero Gonzales and Robert Charlemagne, teaching and performing in the UK and internationally with Susana Montero, Leon Rose, Iris de Brito, Terry and Yolande when these now prominent UK and international salsa stars were still to make their mark.
     While others went on to build their names in the UK and beyond, Irene moved to New York. Here, she and dance partner Edgard del Rosario danced and performed with the Masters of Mambo;the renowned Eddie “Mambo King” Torres and On2 wizard, Nelson Flores and Descarga Latina. An important breakthrough was to teach and perform at the celebrated Puerto Rico Congress in 2000 and again in 2001.

     With Edgard del Rosario, Irene dedicated herself to developing and teaching a wholly new method of salsa instruction, Mambolifestyle. This combines salsa with pilates and yoga to create a disciplined system of dance training, enhancing flexibility core stability and good posture, essential for good body movement.
     Now, Irene’s back in the UK and is running introductory classes on Mambo Lifestyle at Expressions Studios in Kentish Town.  On Tuesdays, there is an open class for everybody while on Fridays there is a performance class  – where students are working on a debut dance show at the UK International Salsa Congress in September.
     I went along to Irene’s open class on Tuesdays to find out for more about Mambolifestyle for myself – how different could it be?
     “A lot of people learn salsa in bits and pieces,” Irene explains. “But they haven’t been able to integrate these bits and pieces – Mambolifestyle is a developmental and systematic approach that enables an individual to realise their own ability at their own pace.”

Do you want to dance to the music? Throw away your crutch of the count and dance to the clave, the cow bell and the congas??? (You know, those funny things the Latins bang or whatever it is they’re doing when we’re dancing??? Find out how... Please forward this information to your mates so we can get the word out there...email: editor@londonsalsa scene.co.uk for more on how you can join Mambolifestyle classes and events.

     By combining salsa with yoga and pilates, Mambolifestyle creates a wholistic approach to health and fitness. “I want Mambo Lifestyle to inspire people and for them to go on and inspire others,” Irene says. “I want people to see whatever their age, their weight, whatever they feel limits them, that this can be overcome.” Irene’s her own best example – currently, she is nine months’ pregnant, looks gorgeous and moves with fluidity and grace on the dancefloor. “If you feel good and you move in ways that make you feel good, you look good,” she says

   Mambolifestyle is a real break away from a conventional salsa class. Firstly, it’s a hour’s class, not a club; it’s body movement and footwork, not partner work and most of all, Mambolifestyle makes music king. Say adios to the count, hola to salsa’s individual instruments and allow the dance to become a search for body movements that mimic the individual instruments.
   “When we started to teach salsa in the UK, we taught Cuban style without a count – it was only when cross body LA style came in, that the count took over,” says Irene.
     For Irene, the count creates an artificial distance between the dancer, the dance and the music. “Using the count can make the dance mechanical. We need to go back to the music, and dance to individual instruments in the music.”
   So what Irene’s advocating is we all throw away our crutches

of 1- 2- 3-5-6-7 and learn to start dancing salsa all over again with new ears, new, complex body movement and footwork that echoes the sounds made by individual instruments. You know. The cow bell. The congas. The shakers. That gourd thing that sounds like a plastic comb run against a washboard. You know, all the things the Latins bang together or whatever is they do when we're dancing. Yeah, like I know how to do that.
   I’m in Irene’s class and I'm having a lightbulb type epiphany. Hey, somebody pinch me or something. Why hasn’t anybody told me this stuff before? I’m dancing to the music, moving my body in rhythmical ways mimicking the rhythm of individual instruments. The piano’s fine – it’s like the dominant instrument – the cow bell’s earthy, heavy so the movement’s earthy, heavy but the slap of the congas - I can’t even hear it.
     “It took me ages to really hear the congas,” Irene says.  Phew, that’s reassuring.  I’m pretty convinced now that with enough practise, listening and dancing, I’ll genuinely pick up the slap of the congas and mimic the distinctive “coo-coom ba” in terms of body movement.
     If you want to try out this innovative approach yourself, catch one of Irene Miguel’s Mambolifestyle workshops at the UK International Salsa Congress at Butlins resort at Bognor Regis, September 22-24. Alternatively, join one of  three new Mambolifestyle courses – including foundation, performance and advanced levels – that get underway in October.  These will run alongside a nation-wide tour and workshops.
   Irene Miguel may have been away awhile, but she’s back in the UK now and Mambo Lifestyle was definitely worth the wait.

Weekly Classes at Expressions Studio:
Open classes every Tuesday at Expressions Studio 39-51 Highgate Road, Kentish Town London NW5 at 8:15 pmTel  020 7813 1580 www.expressionsstudios.com
 Workshops and Performance:
More information from: Irene Miguel at mambolifestyleuk@yahoo.co.uk or call:
tel: 07950475078
See EVENTS Section

Update posted wed 30 Aug 2006 2.00 by Gordon the Budgie.

©London Salsa Scene is an online, independent magazine guide covering salsa and the Latin lifestyle in London and beyond. The views published  are not necessarily those of the Editor. All rights reserved. London Salsa Scene retains Copyright over all the articles and photographs published on this website - it is an infringement of that right to use this material elsewhere without our written permission. Disclaimer: London Salsa Scene publishes information on behalf of promoters, organisers, dancers and others in good faith but is not responsible if these events are cancelled, altered or if performers and instructors billed not not appear; this is exclusive liability and responsibility of the event organiser.

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