John and Liz: On performing and choreography An interview with John Narvaez and Elizabeth Rojas of Salsamania By Andreea Arion and Manuel Pineault

How long have you been dancing salsa?

John: We have been dancing salsa for about fifteen years, ten of those with our dance company Salsamania.

What keeps you motivated to teach after fifteen years of dancing?

John: Wow, I’ve never been asked that before, that’s a very good question. In the last fifteen years, I have met the most amazing people in the world- I’m talking about dancers and friends from different international congresses. Meeting new people, year after year, is what keeps driving me to continue doing this. It’s going to change your life one way or another. I have met my best friends through dance, I have met my soul mates through dance and if you take a look at what life is - it is the art of getting together. I always go by that philosophy and salsa keeps people together no matter where you’re from or what colour, race or age you are. Once you have that in your life you won’t ever want to stop-I continue to meet more amazing people that continue to change and shape my life.

What do you do to overcome a creative block, when you’re feeling uninspired or bored? What do you look to as a source of inspiration to get past that block?

John: I learned a long time ago, by admiring somebody like Picasso or other great artists -Michael Jackson, an inspirational singer/dancer- that they do not require someone to inspire them. They all continued working really hard, and so the harder you work, the more inspired you become. The harder I work at my craft, the more inspired I get. I’m constantly trying to create and create and stimulate my mind, but the more I study my craft, the more inspired I become. Rather than seeking other means to get inspired, as many others do when looking at a particular person for inspiration, I believe that creation can come from within. It is something I learned from my business mentor a long time ago. She would ask me, “John, why are you looking at other people to get inspired, why don’t you start working your ass off and maybe you’ll get inspired by your own work?” Excluding the time at the beginning of our dance company ten years ago, thank the Lord, I haven’t been stuck yet because of this philosophy.

When you are choreographing a routine, what percentage of the content comes from you (John) or Liz (we interviewed her separately for a truthful answer), do you ever need to compromise on certain things and is there an ultimate veto? How do you make those decisions and choices?

John: Well, that’s another very good question. Liz and I are the luckiest people in the world because we think very much alike. Liz knows exactly what I like and don’t like and I know the same about her preferences. When it comes to choreography you have to think of it as Liz and I building a house. I’m going to create a foundation and a frame, then Liz comes in and chooses the colour of the house, she decorates it, she knows what everything needs to look like in the house; I just build the walls. That’s the process that Liz and I take, so I can say it’s a 50/50 percentage because I can construct a good house, but without a good colour scheme or proper decoration you do not achieve a successful finished product. I create the patterns and the shines, and Liz chooses which of them to go with in the performance.

Salsamania performance, Vancouver 2008

I respect her opinion, so I come up with many different options, and she chooses which one she likes-that’s how much I truly appreciate her taste. So, she lets me be the creator, but at the same time, I allow myself to become the criticized one and let her judge what works the best. I’m very much alright with accepting her constructive criticism because it helps the overall final presentation.

Liz: I feel that we work together in choreographing routines, but a lot of the partner-work has to do with the lead so I trust him, when we play around doing patterns, to come up with different options. We give ourselves a lot of time to come up with work because we end up making a lot of changes; we’re not afraid of making frequent changes as it always turns out better. So, basically we put in about half and half of the work, but I respect him a lot as a leader and trust him to put in a lot more as the leader. I only put in the nice styling and make it look good, but he puts in a lot of the subtle technique into it. So I love working with him because we try to understand each other and I also know my place, what to put in, as well as what he will put in.

The salsa community is a very small, tight knit community of friends that often include promoters and event coordinators. Salsa is also your livelihood, but often, when business and pleasure intermingle, differences arise. How do you deal with having your toes stepped on, if it ever happens? Do you deal with it at all, for that matter?

John: My experience locally has been that we try to help each other. For example, I have friends that are club owners, business owners and I do shows for them. The exchange is that they allow me to distribute my flyers and business cards in their clubs or at their events, they announce my classes, they allow me to use their venues for very little rent money (they make almost nothing) so we can raise money for our team’s expenses. We always go by the exchange philosophy of “I scratch your back, you scratch mine”. So, locally, we help each other by exchanging services (not necessarily for money). So far we have not gotten the short end of the stick, but that has a lot to do with integrity and respect.

Internationally, I have not had any problems with promoters either. There is a level of integrity and respect that you, yourself are expected to put across and clarify all expectations in the beginning. I am very straightforward with what I want and what I need. Most often, I am able to distinguish who I can trust, I don’t know how, but I am able to tell who I will have issues with or who I can trust completely because they will be good to me. There are others that I have a strange feeling about because of the way they handle business, and if that is the case, I have them send me a contract to ensure a smooth deal before I get there. It’s really about who you are, as long as you are humble and professional in your business dealings when it comes to being on time, to being grateful to your promoters, even if they do small things like opening up a door for me. It is so exhausting to host people and because I am very aware and grateful for their efforts, I don’t end up having problems with them. It just works that way!

Like any relationship, it goes both ways. We often only hear about bad promoter dealings, but how often do we hear about dancers causing problems for them? They do this by missing a plane, not showing up on time, being rude to their students in workshops, being unprofessional in their manner of dressing or end up drinking too much the night before and showing up hung over to their workshops the following day. Sometimes they don’t practice enough for their performances or workshops because they have done the routine hundreds of times and think they don’t need to practice. Even if you know the routine inside and out, you still have to practice prior to a performance. So I see promoters having problems with these different artists, showing you that it goes both ways.

Find out more about John and Liz, and Salsamania, at salsamania.org