Hurricane Tumbao An interview with Ricardo of Portland's Hurricane Tumbao By Laureano Ralon Facchina

 

For those in Vancouver who may not know who you are, please introduce yourself.

My name is Ricardo. I have been dancing salsa for about 5 1/2 years now. I started in April/May of 2002. I dove right in when I started and haven't slowed down since. I have a Master's Degree in Education from Southern Oregon University and I lived in Mexico for about a year and a half. Those are some things that not many people know about me besides my salsa dancing. I also performed my solo routine at the Vancouver International Salsa Congress in October 2006.

How did you get into Salsa, who was your first instructor, and what was the most important lesson you learned from him/her?

Let me start by saying that I had gone to salsa clubs for about 7 months and just watched. I never really learned anything. I tried to dance, but I could barely summon the courage to ask 1 or 2 girls to dance per night. I decided after going out one night in late March of 2002 that I needed to take classes and that learning would allow me to know what I needed to in order to dance with the good dancers in
Portland. And that was how it started. My first real salsa instructor was Remos Reynosa. He teaches latin dances at Satin 'n Latin Dance Studio in Portland. There I learned how to dance basic Casino [Cuban Style Salsa]. Shortly thereafter, I learned of an instructor whom I had seen out in the clubs, named Joshua Faulkner; he was amazing when I saw him social dance. Once I found out about his classes and I decided to attend without hesitation. And I am glad I did! I learned many things from him: the most important being how to take care of your partner on the dance floor; that is something that has stayed with me ever since. Shortly thereafter I was invited to audition with Sabor Latino Dance Company, and after 3 years with them, I started the Hurricane Tumbao dance company.

I heard somewhere out there that your "Salsa trip" actually began with a real trip to N.Y. City. I also heard that, since then, you go back almost every summer. Tell us about your adventures in N.Y. - what does this city mean to you?

It all started in 2004, when I met Duplessey Walker. She was in town for workshops and performing at 2004 SalsaFest in Portland along with Juan Matos, Olivia Dasso & Troy & Jorjet. I was talking to her and told her how great it would be to go to New York to learn salsa. She said that it was a very realistic possibility and that she knew someone who could have an open space for me. So I decided that 9 months would not be long enough to save money and made my target date for summer 2006. By then I had plenty of money
to make my trip memorable. While I was in New York, I took classes with Eddie Torres, Frankie Martinez, and Santo Rico. I learned so much, and even lost about 10 pounds! I went back in the summer of 2007 for about a month and took classes primarily at Empire Dance with Frankie Martinez and about 10 classes with Eddie Torres and a couple of drop-ins with Santo Rico. At that point, I learned so much more about the depth of the dance and dance-related concepts that it has really enhanced my social dance and my performance skills. New York has forever changed my life personally and professionally. I will always consider it a home of sorts. The people are so different than any perception that people on our coast have. There is no more magical salsa place in the world than New York City, and there is no more surreal salsa lesson than dancing 1 foot behind Eddie Torres.

I had the opportunity to see your solo act a couple of times now, and I'm always impressed by your ability to fill-in an entire song as a one man show without ever losing energy. How did you come up with the idea and what does it take to put a successful solo act in Salsa?

At the time that I choreographed the Acere Bonco solo, it was actually a 2 man footwork performance. This was coming at a time where (my best friend at the time, Ian Girelli) and I were both going through some
personal issues in our own lives and we wanted to channel those frustrations into a performance. The result of it was the original choreography. We performed it a few times in Portland, and around the area. After performing it a few times, the performance piece was put on hold. Ian moved away and I had to rethink the choreography, but didn’t have enough time to do so because I was working on a partner piece with my new partner. In July of 2006, I went to Puerto Rico and performed solo (my partner at that time backed out of the Puerto Rico performance one month before the event, 4 days before I left for New York). Since then I knew I would not be performing with a partner, I took my costume and music for the other routine and performed that in Puerto Rico instead. It went over extremely well. Puerto Rico and Vancouver, B.C. have been the warmest receptions I have received for my solo performance to this day. Since then I have performed this piece at the NW Salsa Congress 2006 in Tacoma, the Vancouver International Salsa Congress 2006 in B.C. and the Salt Lake Salsa Congress 2007 in Utah, and most recently the Seattle Salsa Congress 2007 welcome party. I thought carefully about this routine and my motivation was to bring power and fury to the hard driving drum beats. I was very motivated and inspired to put what I call power movements (hard body movements) to the music. That was how I was able to maintain a high level of energy. As far as putting on a successful solo act, it definitely takes confidence. A belief in who you are and that what you are doing is self-fulfilling is necessary. I believed that the people would love my performance, not because I was the most graceful dancer, but because I was bringing a raw energy that sometimes can't be found in performances today. You have to know you are going to deliver the goods when you perform. I knew it and thankfully the routine became an instant success!

Let's change the subject. How did the name Hurricane Tumbao originate and what can you tell us about this dance company?

This is an interesting question. The name originated back in 2004. I always knew that I wanted to have my own dance company. I had seen so many names that were so similar and boring that I just thought and
thought about it. I knew what I liked about salsa, which was that beat of the conga drum. The name Hurricane Tumbao popped into my head. (This was about 6 months before Katrina hit.) I was concerned afterwards about using the name, because I didn't want to offend anybody and come off as if I was insensitive to the hurricane victims, but I decided to keep the name. What I can tell you about this dance company is that we are 18 strong. There are 4 of us who perform and the others train in dance
techniques, isolations, shines and partner work for the possibility of performing in the future. I have represented the company as the founding member in solo performances starting in Puerto Rico (July
2006), Vancouver, B.C. (2006) and Salt Lake City (2007).Since our team performance debut on April 28th, we have performed in Los Angeles at the West Coast Salsa Congress (May 23-25), the San Francisco Salsa
Congress (November 1-4) and the Seattle Salsa Congress (November 23-25). We are currently confirmed to perform next year in New York City at the New York Salsa Congress (August 28-31), among other
possibilities. We are two couples that are dedicated to raising the level of salsa dancing and performing in Portland, routine by routine, performance by performance and practice by practice. If you would like
to check out a video clip, here are a few of them:

Video 1: Solo routine

Video 2: Hurricane Tumbao Team Debut

Video 3: Hurricane Tumbao (Ricardo & Celeste)

Video 4: Hurricane Tumbao (X-treme Salsa Weekend)

What does Hurricane Tumbao bring to the Portland Salsa scene?

Hurricane Tumbao brings a newness and freshness to the Portland Salsa scene that had been lacking for a while. Our group hasn't been around long and that creates interest among our audiences. In addition to
that, we produce quality routines. One of the measures of a routine and its progress is if you can continue to perform it and people don't get tired of seeing the routine. People are not tired of our 1 routine
to this point, so that is a good thing. We bring an authentic NY flavor to our routines that can't be seen otherwise here, because of my experiences in New York. I think that traveling outside of Portland has given us an advantage stylistically in some ways. Hurricane Tumbao brings an emphasis on technique and musicality. That is something that we are really working on with the training team, is partner technique.
You will see some speed added to our routines in the near future. That is something that people can expect to see from Hurricane Tumbao upcoming.

How does the Portland scene compare to other scenes in North America?

Portland is very young, new and inexperienced in comparison to other salsa cities in North America. Out of towners love dancing in Portland because of its friendly nature, but from a dance ability standpoint, we still have a long ways to go. We have no world-class professional dancers from which to take classes, and considering that, we are doing well. It is hard work, however because of that. People like me go out of town whenever possible to learn from the world-class dancers in order to improve our dance ability and dance visibility among the other salseros. It is a process.

What did you make of the Seattle Salsa Congress?

I really was pleased with the turnout over last year and the overall quality of the event. I think I was most impressed with the quality of performances both locally and internationally. Everybody really brought it! Many thank you's to Rico Sr. for putting on a first class event. I already put in my RSVP for being a part of the schedule next year. I am encouraged about how this congress will improve the years to come.

What would you like to achieve with Salsa in the next 5 years?

There are several things I would love to achieve in salsa over the next 5 years, but I will just name a few of them.

1. I would like to train and construct a team that not only qualifies for the World Salsa Championships, but finishes in the Top 10. The two main ingredients to that are retention/longevity and constant
improvement through training.

2. I would like to teach at the Los Angeles (West Coast), New York and Barcelona Salsa Congress/Festivals. I believe that I am good enough to teach there. I say that because I have been teaching for quite a long
time, not just salsa. I also know that you don't have to be the best performer, to be one of the best teachers. I believe I have a gift to teach and I would love to share it with others around the world.

3. I would very much like to grow Hurricane Tumbao to over 100 dancers in the Portland area. This will take a tremendous amount of work; however, there is great reward in hard work. I also believe that there are people out there who want to learn how to dance well. It takes time to develop the right system (marketing, training regimen, looks, performance skills, etc.) to attract many people. I am working on that.

Finally, I want to be responsible for bringing joy to people's lives through teaching them dance. I want to see many smiles on people's faces and know that I put that smile there because of what I taught those students. That will make me happy.

 

For more information on Hurricane Tumbao classes, workshops & events or to book Hurricane Tumbao for your event, visit their website: hurricanetumbao.com