The Mission & Purpose Behind the Salsa De Hoy Dance Studio
-by Carlos Vasquez

Maintaining one’s cultural roots and passing it along to future generations has been the objective of La Salsa De Hoy Dance Studio and it’s founder Carlos Vasquez. Carlos has strived to keep alive the Latino experience that has suffered gradual loss through the assimilation of mainstream American culture.  Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, Carlos actively participated in various programs that kept the Latino culture alive in his community.        

In 1995 La Salsa De Hoy Dance Studio opened it’s doors in Sunset Park Brooklyn as a Bi-lingual, Bi-cultural dance program providing dance instruction to neighborhood residents. The program furnishes its participants with the basic understanding of the historical and cultural evolution of Latin music, artist and current dance trends.  The school teaches dance styles which include Salsa/Mambo, Cha Cha, Hip-Hop and styling with Rumba classes beginning in March 2001.  Neighborhood children are the studios pride and makeup a large portion of what La Salsa De Hoy is all about. The Sunset Kids dance program teaches children the basics in Salsa/Mambo and prepares them to perform at their yearly recital as well as in the National Puerto Rican Day Parade. Carlos emphases are not only on dance but on instilling the importance of academic excellence to the children. It is his belief that there is a strong affinity between self –esteem and knowledge of one’s culture. The Kid’s programs are designed to promote self-esteem and
self-discipline with participants meeting role models that foster interpersonal relationships and healthy attitudes about themselves, their heritage and communities.

Students of La Salsa De Hoy have gone on to dance with such groups as Eddie Torres Dancers and Dance Sport Kids as well as various cultural affairs throughout the city and state. The Revelation Dancers are the dance troupe that represents the studio and will perform in the 2001 Congreso De Salsa in Los Angeles California this spring.  Instructors of La Salsa De Hoy come from diverse backgrounds and have many years of dance experience and instruction.  One of our instructors has graced the Broadway stage in such productions as Little Shop of Horrors, Pippin, and The Alvin Ailey Dance Company while others have danced in various well-known Latino dance groups and won numerous competitions.      

La Salsa De Hoy Dance Studio is easily accessible and is located in the heart of Brooklyn’s Fifth Avenue commercial district. Sunday’s are the studios socials where students and their guests are invited to come and dance the afternoon away from 4:00 to 6:00 P.M.  Coming this March 2001 we will begin Havana Nights on Friday’s from 10:00 to 3:00 A.M. with a variety of Cuban Song and classic Salsa. The studio has grown over the years and we now have three locations conveniently located within the same area which amounts to well over three thousand five hundred square feet of dance space. La Salsa De Hoy invites all who want to experience the best and largest dance studio in
Brooklyn to come down and take a small taste of what we’re all about.