The Illegal & Creative Economics of Salsa Dance Congresses

The story of Salsa Artists not getting payed for their services in Bremen is just one of many things going wrong in the international Salsa Dance industry, with special emphasis on the role most international Salsa Dance Congresses and Festivals play in maintaining a buzzing black market afloat.

Over the past ten years, Salsa Dance Congresses and Festivals have gone from one congress or festival being organized annually in a certain country to several congresses a week held in different cities. Europe is by far the ‘Champion Salsa Fest Continent’ with 167 Dance Congresses planned for the year 2010. The major part of these gatherings of dance lovers has Salsa or Latin dances as their main theme. The amount of Salsa dancers is not growing in the same exponential rate of the explosive growth in numbers of these dance instructional and entertainment get-togethers. More anglers are fishing at the same time in the same pond, causing congresses to reschedule or stop their activities.

This development correlates with the evolution of Salsa Dance instruction: the amount of Salsa Dance instructors has been growing in a steady rate, but the amount the amount of Salsa students has not. Salsa Dance aficionados visiting congresses to follow workshops or only to attend parties are ‘die hard addicts’: they spend a lot of money to get their weekly ‘salsa shots’. The Salsa junkies are practically forced to make difficult choices with a tight budget in these times of global economic crisis. Most Salseros and Salseras choose to attend the well-established congresses having a solid reputation for delivering quality instead of them attending new Salsa congresses. New bee organizers in the international Salsa Congress scene seem to dismiss these obvious and important facts entirely.

An Illegal Foundation

Most new Salsa Congress organizers think they can imitate the same tricks their more seasoned colleagues apply. This failure in judgment is made after they discover the driving force behind the successful organizations:  most of the artists are booked without the arrangement of official working permits. This situation will never change, because the organizers would have to pay considerably large amount of taxes if they arrange the whole Congresses or Festivals via the official channels. Not a single Salsa Congress will be organized if the organizers would adhere strictly to the official rules of permits and governmental proceedings in their countries. Contrary to the general notion, Salsa is not a large moneymaking industry. Most of the organizers are driven by their passion for the dance and to gain a certain prestige among their peers.
The new Salsa Congress or Festival organizers start as participants of Congresses. Some of them end up being completely blinded by the amount of paying participants and partygoers dancing on the venue’s dance floors in the same fashion Salsa students do at regular Salsa schools. Most of them end up making the same mistakes Salsa students starting their own dance schools make: they conduct Salsa business based on ‘window dressing’.
European ‘Salsa and Congress organizers of the first hour’ are now experiencing the negative effects of this lack of insight and unchecked ego-tripping of their new colleagues. They find it more difficult to sell enough full passes to maintain their congresses as profitable as they were in years long gone, while their new colleagues are just gambling on the popularity and the number of Salsa artists they book. The Brussels Salsa Congress had not been organized in a while: the effects were clearly felt.  Most new congress organizers do not even know the artists vary their fees according to the popularity or seniority of the congress: the newer the congress, the more it will have to pay the Salsa artist.

Unfair Competition

Other continents such as North America, Asia, and Australia should look very carefully to the developments in Europe and act accordingly. Many American Salsa artists spend a great deal of time in Europe while earning a good living with Salsa. Some of the greatest Salsa instructors and performers from the North American continent such as Luis and Johnny Vazquez, Juan Matos, Magna Gopal, and Orville Small now live permanently in major European cities. They start by staying three months at a time in Europe – the maximum length of their visas – and travel back and forth between their native countries and major European cities until they can arrange the necessary paperwork to become permanent European citizens having a double nationality. They get in front of the line of European Salsa instructors who technically have first pick out of the available jobs. The popularity of these highly coveted North American Salsa professionals makes European Salsa entrepreneurs decide to house and nurture them. It is just good business.

Their European colleagues need a working permit to teach Salsa for a weekend at Salsa Congresses in the States, which amounts to 52 festivals this year; less than a quarter of the amount of European festivals. Most of these European Salsa artists lie to the U.S. immigration officers by telling them they visit the United States only as tourists. The artists who are betrayed by unsatisfied costumers or by jealous colleagues are immediately banned from the U.S.A., and have to pay all the taxes the U.S. government lost on them.

The following is a videoclip of Magna Gopal, currently residing in the Netherlands, dancing social Mambo together with Alyra Lennox of the famous Tropical Gem from Italy.

Union of Salsa Congress Organizers

The core business of Salsa dancing is the fine art of caressing (large) egos. Drug dealers do not consume their own products, because it is bad for business. All potential Salsa Congress and Festival organizers will be wise to heed this warning. The European congress organizers should work together to determine and spread their congress dates, engage in joint ventures, or organize a kind of ‘Salsa Congress Union’.

The last thing the international Salsa scene needs right now is for potential Salsa clients to get insecure about paying their full passes in advance.