Exclusive Interview with EDIE ‘THE SALSA FREAK’ on her own invention: Musicality

On Monday November 26, 2007 I was still ‘high’ on the Musicality workshop we followed the day before given by Edie the Salsa Freak and Fabrizio (Fab Salseros Dance Company). I heard from Nucita (the director of the Club Fiera Salsa dance school franchise) that Edie was still in Holland and that she was going to the Salsa bar Vissotsky in Amersfoort (a city in Holland) to dance at the party organized by Salsa Perfecta. I could not resist going there to have an interview with the person whom I consider to be one of the best Salsa dance teachers, performers, and Salsa trendsetters of the world.

At the end of the party Edie and I went to sit at a table together with my girlfriend Evie(Salsapunt). Randolph (Salsa Royale), DJ Incognito, Astrid (Ya Salsa Holland), Esther and Frenkie (Salsa Perfecta) and a friend soon joined with us around the table. My originally intended ‘one on one’ interview with Edie became a very interesting group discussion.. 

Sederick: Edie, what has been the response you got after your Musicality Bootcamp ? 

Edie: The response has been amazing ! They’re all very positive. Some of the participants have sent great testimonials to me. For example: A male student who has an intermediate Salsa dance level wrote to me that because of the Musicality Bootcamp he discovered what the great advanced dancers were doing. They were working with the music, using the hits and the breaks, and they were using relatively less turn patterns but still looked awesome. Before the Musicality Bootcamp he was focused on knowing how to perform as much intricate turn patterns as he possibly could master. Taking part at the Musicality Bootcamp has changed his perception towards Salsa dancing. 

Another example: A female student wrote that she was a ‘tomboy’ and that she didn’t feel sexy when dancing Salsa. The Musicality Bootcamp made her feel like a lady for the first time in her life, and she learned that it was O.K. to feel sexy and to be feminine. The kiss on the hand, ‘tell him he’s handsome / tell her she’s beautiful’ and the ‘high ten’s’ are good tools to use during the Salsa classes to make the students feel good about themselves. And they’re also great to keep the class on a good resonance level. I will send the testimonials to you. 

Sederick: Since the introduction of American Style Salsa dancing here in Europe (in 1998 at the first European Salsa Congress held at the city of Haarlem, Holland and at which Edie was a main attraction) we have been getting very good Salsa dance classes from great international Salsa dance teachers like yourself, but you always applied the music only as ‘background’ to practice the turn patterns and shines which you thaught us. So why, how, and when did you start with Musicality ? 

Edie: That’s a good question! 15 years ago, when the Salsa became popular in L.A., most of the Salsa dancers were dancing ‘off time’. Mainly because of the way the teachers used to count back then (‘123 456’). I went to New York where I learned the proper way of counting (‘123 567’). After this new experience I went back to L.A. and started using this way of counting as a standard. I had a dance partner with whom I won several Salsa Dance Competitions. He could not find the ‘1’ in the music, but he was very good at hitting every single break in the music. That’s the main reason we won all those competitions. Every time we danced it looked like the dance was choreographed. But because of him I eventually lost the proper counting for about 13 years. Together with Al (Liquid Silver Espinoza –S-) I was making dance choreographies using a lot of Musicality. Because of that, and because I enjoyed dancing with the guys that used the music during their dance, I decided to start teaching Musicality for social dancing. In time I matured in Musicality. Musicality is actually a man’s thing. He takes over the whole dance. And if a lady is a Musicalist, she will follow his lead, stopping when he’s stopping, etc. 

Sederick: So now that you are teaching Musicality at your Bootcamps, what is the strategy are you planning to execute for spreading the ‘Musicality Fever’ all over the international Salsa dance community ? 

Edie: The success of the Musicality Agenda, as every other business enterprise, has a lot to do with marketing and marketing strategies. At some international Salsa congresses a teacher can call his or her dance workshop a mambo dance workshop, and there will be like 10 persons attending it. If the same teacher use the same turn patterns but call it a Salsa dance workshop then there will be about 100 persons attending it. So the amount of success has everything to do with branding: invent a unique concept and turn it into a coveted and saleable product. I have a ‘Mastermind Network’ spread all over the world. These are friends with whom I occasionally brainstorm trying to find solutions to certain problems, or to explore new ideas with. So I popped the question to them: ‘What is a person who dances on music ?’. After brainstorming together we agreed on the term: 

‘Musicalist’ 

Having this new brand I wrote an article and sent it to everyone on my mailing list, and I put it on my website. The heading of the article: 

‘What do all these men have in common’ ? 

I know for sure that a lot of people thought that I had slept with all of them (Edie laughs out loud -S-). So that was an eye catcher that made them curious and eager enough to actually read the article that made them discover the musicalists. About 14.000 persons read the article in 1 ½ month period ! All these persons then talk about this article with their (Salsa) friends, and as a result of that many people worldwide will familiarize themselves with this new ‘hype’. By giving Musicality Bootcamps all over the world and promoting my first of many Musicality DVD’s Musicality will in time become a worldwide phenomenon in the international Salsa dance scene. Next weekend I’ll be teaching Musicality in India , after that in Wales, etc. In about 80 % of my Bootcamps and at every international Salsa congress I’m invited to teach I’ll be conducting a Musicality workshop or two. 

The second part of this interview: 'Edie on Salsa Ethics' will follow in a short while.