Edie & Al's Millennium Style Salsa

...as his mother was born and raised in Puerto Rico.  The result is a highly creative, expressive, economical dance that offers greater opportunities for individual interpretation and spontaneity.

Despite their star status on the Salsa dance scene, Edie and Al are genuinely warm, open and unpretentious. Over a coffee at Burger King on a recent stay in the UK, Al talks about the new dance form he and Edie are developing together.  “Millennium style is a bunch of different things.  It’s mixing up Hip-hop and Boogaloo – a mix of R&B rhythms and Cuban son – within Salsa partner dancing and footwork.  Millennium-style also replaces the back step with a body wave or other body movements. The days of the huge backstep are over!  There’s no more room in clubs for that style,” he says.

Edie takes up the story:  “Traditional Salsa is based on a walking step, executed to the Salsa rhythm of an 8 beat bar.  In Millennium-style, we stop walking, taking dancers out of the rut of the walking trait. Instead of moving forward and backward, a couple dances on the spot.  By keeping still, the couple can move to every beat of the music, rather than pausing on the 4th and 8th count, as in traditional salsa.  This allows the introduction of a range of body movements involving the legs, chest or hips.”

To demonstrate the difference between the old and new, Al and Edie give an impromptu performance of LA style Salsa.  It’s big, it’s brash, it’s bold and it requires a dance floor the size of Wembley stadium to execute.  They follow this up with a demonstration of New York style.  The contrast is huge - it’s minimalist in the extreme, barely involves moving at all and requires a floor no bigger than a postage stamp.

“LA style is awesome for performing because the steps are much larger.  New York style is On2, (the Salsa rhythm is 8 beats and the dance starts on the second beat, like rumba), and the steps are much tighter and it’s much better for club dancing. I realised I could take the back step out altogether and bring in Hip-hop body movements and Boogaloo variations from pop-locking and break dancing,” says Al.  

Millennium is a ground-breaking new Salsa style.  Eliminating the walking step - the basic building block of traditional Salsa – calls for new teaching methods, new techniques for leading, turning and spinning and footwork. 

“Everything we do now is in Millennium style, all our classes and all our performances, all over the world.  People are very curious and when they see it, they are blown away,” explains Al.

While remaining a male-led dance, Millennium style allows the woman follower more opportunities for styling and musical interpretation.  This incorporates Edie’s freedom concept. This allows the woman to execute a variety of body movements - like body waves, grinds, twists and kicks - at specific points in the music, without interfering with the man’s lead.

Edie has also introduced the concept of “hijacking”, whereby at certain hits and breaks in the music, the follower takes control of the dance and does her own thing.  “I would recommend a woman does this no more than twice during a track or she is liable to really upset her partner,” Edie says. 

Millennium style is easier to learn than traditional Salsa, according to its co-creators.  Based on a coupling of two of Salsa’s most basic moves – the underarm turn and cross-body lead – it allows beginners to get out on the dance floor pronto.  This simple combination is called a “Millennium Break”.  As dancers develop, progress can be reckoned in the increased sophistication of musical interpretation during the Millennium Break combination. 

Millennium style eases some of the only too familiar technical and dance challenges of traditional Salsa. It reduces pressure on leaders to develop a huge repertoire of turn patterns to “satisfy” women partners. It avoids the need to learn and execute long sequences of turn patterns parrot fashion, that don’t necessarily suit the music or ability of the partner. Finally, it removes the need for repeated multiple spins and remorseless turn patterns during fast tempo songs that can be exhausting and physically punishing for the follower.

“Our advanced students tell us we’ve got a lot of balls going over basic moves like this with them,” Al says.  Again, Edie and Al are up demonstrating the differences between the genres.  With Millennium style, Salsa’s simplest turn patterns are full of interpretative, expressive body movements and sabor, executed in perfect harmony with musical hits and breaks.

In Millennium style, the accent is on individual self-expression and interpretation of music. For instance, during breaks in the music, dancers are encouraged to simply stop dancing until the music resumes. Similarly, they are encouraged to perform dips to coincide with hits in the music. When music is staccato, dancers are encouraged to step with this, using staccato body movements or footwork.  “The whole reason for creating Millennium style Salsa is to encourage people to dance lyrically, to listen and enjoy the music and enjoy their partners,” says Edie. Ed, London Salsa Scene

Edie “the Salsa Freak” and Al “Liquid Silver” Espinoza are in town for one night only at Wessex House, 1a St Johns Hill, SW11 (Nearest Tube/BR: Clapham Junction), Thursday 17^th February 2005. Classes: Beginners and Improvers 7.30; Advanced Edie and Al (On1) 8.30. Price: £8.00 Advanced only: £12.00.
For more information contact:  Salsa-UK on 020 8776 9000, email info@salsa-uk.com or visit www.salsa-uk.com  Or, visit Salsoteca at www.salsoteca.com or call Andrea on 0207 729 5798 or 07891 446256.

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