The Art of Perfection An insightful interview with four-time, undefeated International Mayan Champion Charlene Rose By Laureano Ralon Facchina

For those in Vancouver who might not know who you are, kindly introduce yourself and tell us how you got into Salsa.

People in Vancouver would know me mostly from the partnership that I had with Alfonso Caldera.

To tell you how I got into salsa, I would like to first tell you a little bit about my background in dance.

My first love as far as dancing goes was ballet, in which I began my training at about 8 years old. I was so devoted to just doing ballet, that's why I didn’t start dabbling into any other dance forms until I was 17, at which point I began taking classes in jazz, lyrical, hip-hop, and tap.

At 18, I decided to continue pursuing my love for dance at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, WA.
It was during my tenure at Cornish that a friend of mine invited me to a salsa club for the first time.

I fell in love right away with dancing salsa, and all the other latin dances. At Cornish I had a rigorous program in which I was dancing six hours a day, and the salsa club became my getaway where I could just dance and enjoy myself, and not have to think so much about technique, my grade, or being corrected.

Who was your first instructor and what was the most important lesson you learnt from him/her?

I can’t remember who my very first instructor was, but I would like to quote a couple of my ballet instructors because they are who had the most influence over my dancing.

When the students in my ballet class would start to get cocky and give attitude, my instructor, Ceci Klein, used to say “once you feel that you’ve ‘arrived’, your level and progress can only go down from that moment on”. If you stay humble and keep pushing yourself, your talents can reach unimaginable heights.

Regarding technique, she used to say: “you have to know even what your nose hairs are doing”.
When the students would get lazy in class, one of my instructors at Cornish, Pat Hon, would say: “to be a dancer you have to sweat blood! Dancing is hard work, and you have to really want it!”

At what point did in your dancing career did you decide that you wanted to take your Salsa to the next level?

I saw some of the videos online of the Mayan Salsa Competition, and also the West Coast Salsa Congress videos. I had only seen salsa in clubs before then, which was more like cumbia than anything else, and that made me see the level to which salsa could be taken.

When did you start performing/competing? Actually, let me rephrase the questions slightly: what does it take to be a good performer and a good competitor?

I competed and won my first competition at the Mayan in Los Angeles after only dancing salsa for 3 months! I had done several performances in other dance forms before that, though.To be a good performer you have to have a love and passion for what you are doing. Of course it is nice to see a performer that is clean and has good technique, but I would much rather see a performer with less than perfect technique who loves what he/she is doing, than someone with perfect technique who dances without feeling.

To be a good competitor, you also need to have passion, but when there is money and a title at stake, just your passion alone isn’t going to get you the prize. As you prepare yourself for a competition, you really need to put your passion towards practicing as much as possible and making your routine extremely clean and presentable. The judges and audience will see how passionate you are by how much work you put into your routine.

What were some of your accomplishments with Salsa?

I am a 4 time undefeated Champion of the Mayan Salsa Competition in the International Division, 2006 Vice World Champion of the World Salsa Federation Showdance Division, Winner of the 2006 Northwest Salsa Congress Competition, and I have performed and taught internationally with some of the most world renowned Salseros.

I'm curious to know how you met Alfonso and how the two of you managed to train and win living in different cities...

I met Alfonso at a workshop that I assisted in Vancouver in 2002. Then he started competing with his partner at the time, and I assisted in the choreography of a couple of their routines.

Their partnership ended abruptly, and he needed someone to choreograph a salsa routine for a ladies’ group that they had started. I did that for him, and I also performed with the group at the 2005 Vancouver Salsa Congress, and the 2006 West Coast Salsa Congress.

While I was choreographing and rehearsing with the girls, Alfonso and I decided to put a routine together for competition. We commuted between Seattle and Vancouver every weekend for 5 months to choreograph and practice. It was difficult, but we were both very dedicated and devoted to making an amazing routine.

At the end of September of 2006, I moved to Los Angeles because I got some dancing opportunities there, but we still had plans to compete at the WSF in Miami in November. After not having danced together in over a month, we arrived in Miami a week early and practiced day and night before the competition. It goes to show that distance can’t stop the will to win!

How long have you been teaching and what's in your opinion the attributes of a good instructor?

I taught my first workshop in 2002 after only dancing salsa for a week! Prior to that, I had taught ballet to children and teenagers.

To be a good instructor you have to be very patient, and you have to pay very good attention to details. Most of the time it’s the little things that can change the whole look and feel of your dancing. You also have to be able to explain whatever step it is that you’re teaching. Every student is different, and sometimes they won’t understand something until you describe it a certain way that clicks with their minds, so they can then transfer it to their bodies.

Lady's styling: if you don't have any you look plain; if you have too much, you can get a lot of attention, but not always the kind of attention you might be looking for. How much is enough?

The amount of styling that is right should be determined by the music and how you feel it. You want to make your dancing look like the music is moving you. The movement and the music should work in unison.

The reason that I teach combinations in my styling classes is for my students to build a vocabulary of dance steps to draw from when they go dancing. At first, they will look like they are doing choreographed combinations and not paying heed to the music and it’s subtleties, but the more and more vocabulary that they learn and get into their bodies, that is when they will be able to start playing with the movement in relation to the music and making it their own.

The typical progression of dance is like this:

- First a person won’t have any styling because they are still getting used to following their partner and dancing on beat.

- Then once they get used to the flow of the dance, they will want to add styling, so they start taking classes to spice up their movement.

- Once they’ve taken several classes and have a good vocabulary built up, this is when you will see the dancer who looks like they have too much styling. This is because they know a lot of steps, but don’t yet know how to use them with the music. They are just counting out choreographed combos that they learned in class.

- Once they’ve gone out dancing and have practiced their steps over and over again, it is then that it will be so much in their bodies that they don’t need to think about it.

- It is at that point that they can then start playing with the music, and letting the music tell them what to do with their bodies. That is when a person can say that he or she is a dancer and really mean it.

This progression applies not only to salsa and salsa styling, but other dances as well. Actually, you might even say that this is the natural progression of learning anything.

What do you make of dancers who break apart for shines and take minutes at a time dancing with themselves, obsessed by their own images?

Bottom line: Salsa is a partnering dance, so whatever you do, you have to maintain a connection with your partner, whether it’s with your body or your eyes. I don’t mind it if the person I am dancing with wants to break away for minutes at a time for solo shines, just as long as he make is apparent that he is dancing with me and not just himself.

I do have to admit that for a long time I hardly looked at the person that I was dancing with. It began with the fear that if I looked in the other person’s eyes he would think that I wanted to do more than just dance with him. Don’t ask me how I got this idea, because I don’t know. Anyhow, it became a habit, and it even carried into my performances.

It became such a bad habit, that I didn’t even notice it until recently, when Alfonso and I were practicing for the WSF in Miami. Isaac, the organizer of the event, took a look at our routine, and that’s the first thing that he pointed out.

We worked on it, and it completely changed the look and feel of our choreography! Like I said, it’s the little things that cause that effect. It automatically made the routine more like a story about a man a woman, rather than just 2 bodies moving around each other and doing a cool trick here and there.

Now I consider it one of the most important elements in salsa choreography, as well as in social dancing.

I know you have recently moved to L.A. How's that working out for you?

It’s working out really well so far! I am amazed at how many opportunities there are here for dancers! I have only been here for 7 months, and I have done just as much (if not more) than what I did in the 6 years that I was in Seattle! I haven’t had to get a “real” job yet because I’m getting so much consistent work just dancing, performing, and instructing.

What are your plans for the rest of the year?

I don’t really have any specific plans for this year. I’ll keep taking things as they come, and continue doing what I am doing. When I came here, I didn’t know what to expect, and my plan was really just to do as much as I can. The more different things that I do, the more of an idea I get of what I like doing, and what I don’t like so much. Once I narrow in more on what I enjoy doing in this industry, that’s when I will be able to develop a plan for the future.

What would you like to accomplish with Salsa in the next five years?

I would like to get into choreographing more, and of course, continue performing and traveling. I don’t have a consistent partner right now. I’ve just been doing gigs with different people as they come up, and I’m fine with that. However, if someone comes along that wants to compete and make a partnership, and we work well together, I would be open to that as well.

For more information about Charlene, visit her website charlenerose.com