STEPPING UP
Sandia Resort & Casino hosts Fire & Ice Salsa Winter Ball
Spice up the dead of winter with some hot salsa dancing at the New Mexico Salsa Congress’ Fire & Ice Salsa Winter Ball.
The event starts tonight with a pre-party Salsa Social at 9:30 p.m. at La Bodega. Rise and shine the next day, with workshops beginning at noon at Sandia Resort & Casino. The workshops vary in skill level from beginner, intermediate to advance and some classes are open to all levels.
Take advantage of the free Salsa Boot Camp, Part One, with Edie “The Salsa Freak” Williams of Denver, from noon to 12:50 p.m. Saturday. The class is open to beginners. The other workshops are $15 per class and $30 for a twohour Salsa Boot Camp.
Workshops include Salsa on 1 with Joseph Chavez, Cha-Cha with Chip Hindi, Pachanga with Jen Henzler and Zona Pachanga, Sensual Suave Bachata with Mohan and Angie, and Musicality and Movement in Shines with Lawrence Garcia and Mambo Exquisite.
“Honestly, some of the intermediate and advanced classes go back to technique fundamentals,” said James Foley, executive director of the New Mexico Salsa Congress. “We have advanced dancers taking salsa boot camp. They want to take it with Edie ‘The Salsa Freak.’”
The Fire & Ice Salsa Winter Ball begins at 8 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom at Sandia Resort & Casino. The event will feature dance performances as well as entertainment by the Los Angeles-based 11-piece band the Boogaloo Assassins.
“There will be a ballroom set up for close to 900 people,” Foley said. “There is an enormous dance floor in front of the stage and in the middle of the ballroom, and you can watch and listen to the music and watch the dancers. There’s a half-hour of dance performances midway through the show. There is a complimentary lesson for the evening program that we have from 8:30 to 9 p.m.”
The event was created to bring those from surrounding areas together to celebrate Latin dance.
“This event is born out of the realization of recent events that we’ve done,” Foley said. “Albuquerque is a neat geographical gathering ground for larger markets surrounding us.”