The Soulful Sounds Of African & Cuban Rhythms...In Fresno!
Ahhhhh Salsa Music.......
When I think of Salsa, I think of Central and South America, communal get-together's, tropical weather, Fresno and platanos (plantains to many, "that banana looking thing" to most).
Wait. Which one of these do not belong on the list?
Unfortunately, it's Fresno.
Why? Because unless we're talking chip dip, I hadn't heard anyone speak of Salsa in this town, much less hear the music on any of the local radio stations until recently.
Sure, you will hear the beautiful sounds of the traditional Tejano and Banda music here in town on any given day--in any given Mexican restaurant/club or on the radio. But no Salsa. And many Latinos who travel here from outside of the valley wonder why.
Salsa is an overall "make you feel good" type of music. It's a communal music. When the sound of the claves, congas and timbales take a hold of you, you can't help but grab a partner and start moving!
I sat down with Salsa promoter and event coordinator Rowan Hernadez, who is doing big things for the music and dance here in Fresno. I also chatted with salsa music fan and dancer, Irene Canales, who reminded us that you don't have to be the 'Tony Manero of Salsa' to get down to this music!
***************************************************************
Raina: When did you start "Salsa Nights" at Starline?
Rowan: I started it about 5 and 1/2 years ago.
Raina: What made you want to start it here in Fresno? Did you grow up with the music?
Rowan: I've always grown up with Salsa music in my family. I'm of Nicaraguan ancestry and we'd have big family get together's and play the music. I was like 11 or 12 years old in the 70s and my cousins and I would pull out pots and pans--playing along with the music. Everybody would be dancing. Then I went away to college in San Luis Obispo and kind of got away from the music. There was a lot less Salsa music out there...more Rancheras and Cumbia and so on.
It wasn't until about 8 years ago after living here in Fresno that I got involved with Salsa dancing. I had taken a few lessons and really got into it! It got to a point where me and my friends would always go out of town because there was no Salsa music and dancing in Fresno. We'd go to L.A. or take road trips up to San Francisco but after a while that got costly. So I started doing house parties. We'd have little get together's where we'd pick a persons house and I'd bring the decorations and the music and invite people. What I tried to do was not just play music--but also give the ambiance of something tropical, like how they do in San Francisco, L.A. New York, Puerto Rico or Cuba. So it got the point where I was like "why not just start a Salsa club in Fresno?".
So I looked at several places---Smugglers, a few restaurants on the North and South side. Not a lot of them were receptive to it. They say they've tried it in the past and it never worked out, or that they didn't know what kind of crowd it would attract and they didn't want any fights, stuff like that. Knowing how the city politics and the police department is out here, it's really hard to get something in the works because if it looks different.....
Raina: ......if they're not absolutely 100% sure about something, they don't want to take any new chances. It's extremely hard to get events started out here.
Rowan: yeah, they said they didn't want to have to come at 1 o'clock in the morning and break up fights...clean up all the drunks, etc.
Raina: So how were you able to present this music and dance night to them and actually have them go for it!
Rowan: Well a friend told me about a place called 'The Starline' and I presented the night to them as Latin Jazz. They were cool about it, "Latin Jazz" sounded good to them. The obstacle was trying to find DJ's out here who spinned Salsa and I did find a few. Then when we told them it was called Salsa...they were like, "Salsa?! What;s Salsa? Is that like what we hear in the Mexican places and there's always fighting and people getting jumped!?"
I was like, "No! It's not gonna be ANYTHING like that. People come to dance, it's more of a dance thing and they come to dress to impress. You have to go to L.A. or San Francisco to see what I'm talking about. It's actually more World Music--more than just Latino based or Caribbean based. It's World Music."
They offered me Sunday or Thursday night and I took a chance with Thursdays. I went to Radio Bilingue and some of the other Spanish stations [to promote it] and talked to a lot of people, went to dance schools...made fliers. I wanted to make it an event more than just going and listening to a DJ.
At other places, you can go to a Cumbia club and there's an actual 8 piece band over there playing and people will plop down 10 or 15 dollars for that. But what's gonna get people to come here a DJ? And part of it is to take them outside of Fresno and take them into an environment like Copa Cabana in New York, or some place in the Playa in Puerto Rico.
So I put videos up, live percussionists on stage...we have a strict dress code...we give roses to the ladies at the end of the night...we make it a real event. People tell me they think there is an actual band up there and I've actually been asked by people where they can get "the band" to play, when really it's just me and another guy on congas with DJ playing!
Raina: Is there a large crowd for Salsa Nights?
Rowan: I was heavily promoting it in the beginning by newspaper ads and radio. Fresno State started a Salsa club so I worked with them to get the students discounts to get them in there-- it's important to build from the youth. So now there's a large number of students. I've put fliers everywhere inviting people to come out. It's kind of picked up. Although, lately, I've found it's leveled off. The biggest problem I'm having with drawing a larger crowd is the fact that people see the really good dancers and think that they can't go in or feel intimidated. So before they even walk through the door, they already have a preconception and don't want to go. But when people hear the music...it's like Latin funk! It's like, "ah man, that's good!"
Raina: I know! I love Salsa. I was brought up with the music myself, my background is Panamanian/West Indian so we grew up listening to Reggae, Calypso and Salsa. The thing that people don't understand is that even if you can't dance the choreographed Salsa moves, you can do your own little thing to it. It's all about feeling it.
Rowan: Right! It's like religious music in a lot of ways. It comes from the displaced people of Africa that were brought to Cuba and Puerto Rico and they came with what they had to make this music. There's a great book on the history of Cuban music that talks about the roots of all of the percussion instruments that we hear in Salsa. A lot of the rhythms come from the African tribes. It's been tweeked a bit and developed into this this off-shoot called Salsa Music but you've also got Rumba (and NOT the Rumba you hear on that T.V. show "So You Think You Can Dance"....I don't know WHERE they got that Rumba from!), but if you listen to Rumba Cubano! Oh, man...you can see the true influence of Africa.
If you listen to Son, Salsa, Cha-Cha-Cha, Mambo, you hear that. I've been to Cuba and when they start playing this music, you should see! It's all ages, kids are there with their families, all ethnicities and people don't care about getting tight. That's what it's all about! Out here we have a tendency to want to have a certain space between each other.
Raina: I'm thinking that could be a Fresno thing. When you came out with Salsa Nights, I was happy to hear that someone out here appreciates other forms of Latin music. Usually, here in town, you just hear the traditional Mexican music...which is cool...but there are so many different forms of Latin music out there that we don't get a chance to hear in this town.
Rowan: You're right. People always ask me why Salsa isn't as big here when there are so many Latinos. But you have to remember too that the demographics is more Mexicanos out here, so they listen to more of the Rancheras, Banda and Mariachi music. Whereas Salsa is more of the Puerto Ricans, and the Dominicans, Cubans, people in the Caribbean, Central America, New York and Miami. We don't have enough of those people out here, although it is growing.
When I go to Jelly's in San Francisco on Sunday's, all the Puerto Ricans and Dominicans are there dancing, etc. But like you said, maybe it is Fresno. I'm trying to get people to let there guard down. Just like you freestyle with hip hop dancing, you can do that to Salsa music. Just do what you feel. A lot of people think you can only go if you can do the choreographed moves. I mean, the dance classes we have right before Salsa Nights is important because it gets people interested and out of the 10 people you'll get 3 people that stick to it and keep dancing. Although, I feel they're learning how to march rather how to dance.
Raina: Do you throw Salsa events outside of The Starline?
Rowan: We do Riverpark once a month on Tuesdays. It's free and we do it outside between Yoshino's and Borders Books. We have a dance class before that too. It's really for the people who never go past Blackstone to come on out. We've also done Mexican Independence day downtown, events at the Convention Center, health fairs, Citron on Sunday nights...we're just trying to break down barriers and reach everyone.
What I've been trying to do in the last 3 years is bring out live music. You can do it with a DJ but it's just a different scene when you have a 10 or 12 piece orchestra out there playing and you can actually see the conga player and the singers...the nice thing about having the live bands at Starline is that there is a better connection with the dancers because they see each other a lot closer and we've had orchestras call dancers on the stage or they'll go play their instruments through the audience...it's a real nice feel.
IRENE-IRENE THE SALSA QUEEN!
In the movie, "Dance With Me," when referring to Salsa dance steps, Vanessa Williams' character exclaims, “it’s called choreography!” while Cheyenne says, “the music tells me what to do.”
Irene Canales has learned both styles of the dance.
She is heavily involved in the promotion of many salsa events here in town. She has even taken time out to teach the dance to her co-workers on a lunch hour -- having all of her students highly anticipating her next lesson! I sat down and talked to Irene about the dance and more...
Raina: How did you get into Salsa dancing?
Irene: I started going with one of the girls from work and we decided that we would go to Starline and take the free dancing lessons which happens an hour before the dancing starts on Thursday nights and that was being taught by Phoebe who ran the Studio 65 dance studio.
Studio 65 was starting beginning Salsa dance lessons so we decided to take the class which turned into intermediate which then turned into advance lessons. Then I started taking lessons with Carmen who has the Aikido Center and they also teach Salsa. I took those extra classes to get more experience in turns and different moves called "Shine Steps," when you're in front of your partner but you're not really holding hands.
Raina: Sort of like freestyle dancing?
Irene: ...yes, you're just doing whatever you want.
Raina: That's my favorite kind of dancing! I'm terrible with organized/choreographed salsa dancing. But just to hear the music, feel it and do my own thing...to dance with a partner but not actually do the steps. Although, watching others do the steps is great!
Irene: Yeah, it's good because you can really express yourself in doing Shine. But you can also express yourself when your dancing someone, and if he is a good lead then he can offer you so many different turns and moves...it's really good! And that's the idea of taking continuous lessons. You don't want to be with just one partner, you want to be good enough to go to any partner and be able to follow their lead.
Raina: How long ago did you get into this?
Irene: For 3 years now.
Raina: After a while, you became a teacher of the dance?
Irene: I would just teach people who were too afraid to take lessons. I would put on some music at home and show people the basics. Letting them listen and feel the music. With that, you're able to get the rhythm and the steps will come. It just takes practice.
Raina: Were you always into Salsa music?
Irene: I really got into it recently. But I've always loved different types of music and dancing. When I was a kid, I did tap dance, ballet, jazz...I did all that. Then I got married and had a family. All of my interest sort of went to the wayside because I was busy raising my family.
Lucky for me, I got separated (laughs) and I've been having a ball with salsa dancing ever since. The thing about the Salsa turn-outs is that there is such a diverse group, not just Latinos. Asians, Blacks and Mexicans all come out, it's great!
Wanna know where you can you find Salsa music and dancing in Fresno? Check out the following spots:
Thursday Nights at The Starline 10pm
(831 E Fern Ave Tower District next door to Livingstone's - 485-7517) 8:30-9:30 free dance lessons!
Sunday Evenings at Citron
(5123 N. Blackstone 224-6060)
Once A Month Tuesday Evenings at Riverpark
(North Fresno Shopping Center between Yoshino's and Borders Books)
**Rowan Hernandez has brought several popular Los Angeles and San Francisco Salsa bands to town including: Julio Bravo Y Su Orchestra Salsabar, Orchestra Borinquen, Avance, Charason, Tito y Su Son, and many more to come. Check out one of his events and get your Salsa on!**
-Raina
