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World Salsa Championships are major international salsa dancing competitions held throughout the world. There are several competitions around the world that claim to be "World Championships" of salsa.
The oldest international salsa competition is the "Mayan World Salsa Championships", hosted by Club Mayan in LA. Publishing video-clips on this site did much to publicize salsa, especially LA-style salsa. For many years Johnny Vazquez dominated this competition before relocating to teach throughout Europe.
The WSF World Salsa Championships are organized by Isaac and Laura Altman, who formed the World Salsa Federation (WSF) in 2001. The competition is held every year in Miami, with the first competition held in 2002. The competition features 13 different divisions including solo, couple, and team competitions, and there are separate age divisions for Adults (18+), Youths (ages 13–17) and Juniors (ages 12 and under). [1]
The WSF is recognized by the Amateur Athletic Union, the largest amateur sporting organization in the U.S. with over 800,000 members, as a governing body for salsa dancing and competition in the US. [2] Isaac and Laura were successful in bringing Salsa and DanceSport as official sports in the AAU Junior Olympic Games in 2002 and Isaac became its National Director.
The World Salsa Open is an international salsa competition held every year at the Puerto Rico Salsa Congress. The first competition was held in 2002, and the competition draws a large attendance of competitors from South America.
2005 saw the birth of an alternative "World Salsa Championships", created by Salsa promoter Albert Torres and a group of other promoters called the "Salsa Seven", and broadcast live on ESPN. Competitions were held in four categories: "On 1", "On 2", "Cabaret" and "Groups", such as "Rueda de Casino", a variation on Cuban style.
The 2008 competition was cancelled due to the 2008 Global financial crisis, and the last World Salsa Championships were held in 2009 and the competition ceased operations due to financial troubles and a falling out among the event organizers. However, the World Salsa Championships was re-launched successfully under new ownership (World Dance Group) in 2016 from December 9-10 in Atlanta, Georgia. As in previous years the event was broadcast on ESPN network. The event takes place every four years following the olympic format. The next edition of the World Salsa Championships will take place in 2020. [3]
In 2010, the salsa promoter Albert Torres started a new salsa competition called "The World Latin Dance Cup" (WLDC), which included other Latin dances besides salsa, such as Cha Cha Cha, Bachata, and Cumbia and divisions for amateur competitors, youths, and seniors. One of the biggest latin dance competitions in the world.
The first annual WLDC was held in San Diego, with the second competition held in Las Vegas. In 2012 the competition was moved to Miami. In 2016 the competition was moved to Orlando. In 2019 the competition was moved to Medellin, Colombia. [4] The competition moved to an online-only format in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. [5] The 2023 World Latin Dance Cup have been announced. [6]
The World Salsa Summit is a global salsa competition first held on January, 31st 2013 - February 3rd, 2013. [7] The competition is organized by Katie Marlow (multiple world title holder in dance, choreographer, producer, and performer), Nelson Flores, and Billy Fajardo (former head judge of the World Latin Dance Cup) and is held at the DoubleTree Miami Airport with over 50 different divisions.
Ballroom dance is a set of partner dances, which are enjoyed both socially and competitively around the world, mostly because of its performance and entertainment aspects. Ballroom dancing is also widely enjoyed on stage, film, and television.
Salsa is a Latin dance, associated with the music genre of the same name, which was first popularized in the United States in the 1960s in New York City. Salsa is an amalgamation of Cuban dances, such as mambo, pachanga and rumba, as well as American dances such as swing and tap.
Latin dance is a general label, and a term in partner dance competition jargon. It refers to types of ballroom dance and folk dance that originated in Latin America.
The Canada Cup was an invitational international ice hockey tournament held on five occasions between 1976 and 1991. The brainchild of Toronto lawyer Alan Eagleson, the tournament was created to meet demand for a true world championship that allowed the best players from participating nations to compete regardless of their status as professional or amateur. It was sanctioned by the International Ice Hockey Federation, Hockey Canada and the National Hockey League. Canada won the tournament four times, while the Soviet Union captured the championship once. It was succeeded by the World Cup of Hockey in 1996.
Dancesport is competitive ballroom dancing, as contrasted to social or exhibition dancing. In the case of Para dancesport, at least one of the dancers is in a wheelchair.
The World Dance Council Ltd (WDC), is a registered limited company, the legal successor to the International Council of Ballroom Dancing, and was established at a meeting organized by Phillip J. S. Richardson on 22 September 1950 in Edinburgh, Scotland. From 1996 to 2006 the WDC was known as the World Dance & Dance Sport Council Ltd (WD&DSC). The stated mission of the World Dance Council is to inspire, stimulate and promote excellence in education for the World Dance Council and Amateur League community.
Boogaloo or bugalú is a genre of Latin music and dance which was popular in the United States in the 1960s. Boogaloo originated in New York City mainly among teenage African Americans and Latinos. The style was a fusion of popular African American rhythm and blues (R&B) and soul music with mambo and son montuno, with songs in both English and Spanish. The American Bandstand television program introduced the dance and the music to the mainstream American audience. Pete Rodríguez's "I Like It like That" was a famous boogaloo song.
Formation dance is a style of ballroom dancing. It is pattern or shadow team dancing by couples in a formation team. The choreography may be based on a particular dance or a medley of dances. Formation dancing may be done for exhibition or for competition between teams. There is also a type of formation in Bhangra.
The cha-cha-cha, is a dance of Cuban origin. It is danced to the music of the same name introduced by the Cuban composer and violinist Enrique Jorrin in the early 1950s. This rhythm was developed from the danzón-mambo. The name of the dance is an onomatopoeia derived from the shuffling sound of the dancers' feet when they dance two consecutive quick steps that characterize the dance.
Pachanga is a genre of music which is described as a mixture of son montuno and merengue and has an accompanying signature style of dance. This type of music has a festive, lively style and is marked by jocular, mischievous lyrics. Pachanga originated in Cuba in the 1950s and played an important role in the evolution of Caribbean style music as it is today. Considered a prominent contributor to the eventual rise of salsa, Pachanga itself is an offshoot of Charanga style music. Very similar in sound to Cha-Cha but with a notably stronger down-beat, Pachanga once experienced massive popularity all across the Caribbean and was brought to the United States by Cuban immigrants post World War II. This led to an explosion of Pachanga music in Cuban music clubs that influenced Latin culture in the United States for decades to come.
Román Aureliano Torres Morcillo is a Panamanian professional footballer who plays as a defender for Cartaginés and the Panama national team.
Tony Meredith is an American professional ballroom dancer, choreographer and United States Professional Latin Champion.
A Salsa congress is a multi-day dance festival featuring workshops, social dancing, performances and competitions focusing on Salsa dancing. The format was first pioneered at the Puerto Rico Salsa Congress in 1997.
The annual United States Dance Championships (USDC), previously called the United States Ballroom Championships (USBC) and the United States DanceSport Championships (USDSC), is recognized by the National Dance Council of America (NDCA) and the World Dance & DanceSport Council (WD&DSC) as determining the majority of the United States national professional ballroom dance champions.
La Palabra is a bandleader, singer-songwriter, pianist, record producer, and arranger, known for his versatile approach to music, particularly his invention of the Salsa romantica Latin music genre and his signature style of Afro-Cuban-influenced, sensual Latin jazz.
Monsieur Pierre was the professional name of Pierre Jean Philippe Zurcher-Margolle. He was a professional dancer and dance teacher, largely responsible for introducing the Latin American dances to England, and for codifying them, and laying the groundwork for their use in competitions and in social dance. The system he and his colleagues developed became the basis for all Latin and American competitions held under the World Dance Council (WDC).
The International Latin American Dance Championships were created after the Second World War in England by Elsa Wells, and are now organised by Dance News special events. The current full title is the Elsa Wells International Dance Championships, and includes all categories in Standard and Latin American ballroom dance.
The World Strongman Federation ("WSF") is a worldwide organization within strength athletics, founded by Vlad Redkin, a prominent figure in the history of the International Federation of Strength Athletes and World Strongman Cup Federation. The WSF has organised a number of grand prix events and national championships featuring some of the world's leading strength athletes including 5 time World's Strongest Man winner Mariusz Pudzianowski, Brian Shaw, Mikhail Koklyaev, Krzysztof Radzikowski, Tarmo Mitt, Kevin Nee, Stefan Solvi Petursson, Laurence Shahlaei and Mark Felix. The WSF's flagship programme is the WSF World Cup.
Swing Latino is a salsa dance school academy in Cali, Colombia, founded in the late 1990s by its current director, dancer and choreographer, Luis Eduardo Hernandez.
Albert Torres was an international salsa dance promoter from Los Angeles. He is known for being the organizer of the LA Salsa Fest, the longest running salsa congress in the US, as well as one of the organizers of the World Salsa Championships and later the World Latin Dance Cup.