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Latin Dancing NYC

Latin dancing in NYC is mostly reggaeton, salsa/bachata/merengue, tango, cumbia, swing, and house.

Latin Dancing News

Quinteros Salsa Project sings Venezuelan Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Thu, Oct 21 from 9:30-11:30pm. 🇻🇪

Willie Villegas y Entre Amigos play Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Fri, Oct 22 from midnight – 2am. $20

Lalo Mora plays Regional Mexican at La Boom in Woodside, Queens on Sun, Oct 24 at 10pm. $35. laboomny.com 🇲🇽

Coming Soon

All-blind band Los Ciegos del Barrio plays Latin rhythms for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Thu, Oct 28 at 9:30pm & 11:30pm. $10

Elvis Martínez plays Dominican Bachata at La Boom in Woodside, Queens on Fri, Oct 29 at 9pm. From $48. 🇩🇴

Salsa Dance

Talia Castro-Pozo’s Latin Mondays at Taj is at Taj in the Flatiron District, Mondays at 7pm (5pm doors). From $10 🇵🇪

Talia Castro-Pozo’s Sunset Salsa dance party is at Pier 45 in Hudson River Park in the West Village, Thursdays to Oct 28, from 6:30-9pm. Free. 🇵🇪

Gonzalez y Gonzalez Fridays-Saturdays, some Thursdays and Sundays.

Bachata Dance

La Boom in Woodside, Queens on Saturdays.

Reggaeton Dance

La Boom in Woodside, Queens on Saturdays.

Tango Dance

Tango La Nacional is at La Nacional in Chelsea, Thursdays, 8:15pm-1:30am. 🇦🇷

Cumbia Dance

La Boom some Fridays and Saturdays.

Sabor Latino in Elmhurst, Queens various nights. 🇪🇨

House Dance

House of Yes

Regional Mexican Dance

La Boom Sundays 🇲🇽

Swing Dance

Swing 46 in Hell’s Kitchen, Tue-Sun. swing46.nyc

Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks play Hot Jazz for Swing dancing at Bond 45 Downstairs in the Times Square Theater District on Mondays and Tuesdays from 8-11pm. $25 + $25 minimum 🇮🇹

Previously

Jimmy Bosch “El Trombon Criollo” (Rubén Blades, Spanish Harlem Orchestra) plays Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Sat, Oct 16 at 11:30pm and 1:30am. $20. Happy Birthday Jimmy! 🇵🇷

Anissa Gathers sings Puerto Rican Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Fri, Oct 15 from 12-2am. $20 🇵🇷

Willy Torres plays Puerto Rican Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Thu, Oct 14 at 9:30pm – 2am. $10 🇵🇷

Afro-Dominicano plays Bachata for dancing at the “Brunchata” Bachata brunch at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Sun, Oct 10 from 12 noon to 10pm. $10 cover after 5pm. 🇩🇴

Sebastian Natal plays Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Fri, Oct 8 at 11:30pm & 1:30am. $20 🇺🇾

Grupo Aurora plays Bachata for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village for the “Brunchata” Bachata brunch on Sun, Oct 3 from 1-6pm. 🇩🇴

Grupo Encanto plays Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Sat, Oct 2 at 11:30pm & 1:30am. $20 cover after 10pm.

Sonora Nuyorkina plays Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Thu, Sep 30 at 9:30 & 11:30pm. $10 cover after 9pm.

Los Hermanos De Leon play Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Sat, Sep 25 at 11:30pm & 1:30am. $20 after 10pm.

Last chance to do the Central Park Tango at the Shakespeare Statue in Central Park, Sat, Sep 25 from 6-8:30pm. $15 suggested donation 🇦🇷🇺🇾

LowerEastSalsa plays Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Fri, Sep 24 at 11:30pm & 1:30am. $20 after 10pm.

Cosa Seria plays Salsa for dancing at Gonzalez y Gonzalez in Greenwich Village on Thu, Sep 23 at 9:30 & 11:30pm. $10

Los Hacheros play Salsa for dancing at Latin Mondays at Taj in the Flatiron District on Mon, Sep 20, 2021 at 7pm (5pm doors). From $10. 🇵🇷

Latin Dancing Archive

Salsa Festivals

New York Salsa Congress 2019

Labor Day Weekend
DANCE PARTIES
Sat-Wed, August 24-28, 2019
DANCE FESTIVAL
Thu-Sun, August 29-Sep 1, 2019
MARRIOTT MARQUIS
Times Square, NYC
A week of dancing in spots all over Manhattan ends with a weekend of salsa workshops, performances and dancing to live music by Tony Vega, Moncho Rivera and Doug Beavers

Continue Reading New York Salsa Congress 2019

Bachata Dance

There are many small places to dance bachata uptown and in The Bronx. A form of bachata called “Sensual Bachata” is popular with Europeans at dance studios in Midtown.

Tango Dance

Argentine Tango came to New York City when Juan Carlos Copes’ tango show “Tango Argentino” ran on Broadway in 1985. The performers taught at Stepping Out Studios and seeded the first generation of tango teachers in the United States. A couple of the first generation of U.S. dancers are still active in New York.

Most of the current generation of tango teachers were taught by performers from Luis Bravo’s “Forever Tango” which ran on Broadway in 1997, 2004, and 2013.

The Palladium Ballroom

A night of dancing at the Palladium Ballroom to Tito Rodriguez

The Palladium Ballroom at 1698 Broadway on the northeast corner of Broadway and 53rd St became legendary when it opened its doors to Latins on Sundays in 1947. It was the first place in New York where all peoples could mingle freely, regardless of skin color or social class. The format was so successful that the Palladium soon went all-Latin.

Two bands performed nightly. The “Big Three” most popular bands were Machito and his Afro-Cubans, Tito Puente and Tito Rodríguez. The club was near the row of jazz clubs on 52nd St from Fifth Avenue to Seventh Avenue. Latin musicians would go to 52nd St to listen and sit in with the jazz cats, and jazz musicians would do the same at the Palladium. There was a whole lot of mixing going on.

In 1948, the Mambo Craze swept the United States. It wasn’t really Cuban mambo and nobody dances quite like that today, but Palladium Mambo popularized Latin dancing across the United States and paved the way for the Cha-Cha-Cha craze of 1953 that spread from Havana to Mexico City and around the world in 1955.

The essence of Palladium Style evolved in the late 1960s and early 1970s into salsa dancing and even break dancing when Puerto Rican kids in the Bronx brought their parents’ Palladium moves to hip-hop.

The Origins of Latin Dancing

Dancing for Yemayá. Thank you @bjoycedj in Miami for sending us this. 🇨🇺

This is where culture begins. In the same way that European classical music developed from the chanting of monks, African Diaspora culture (the roots of popular music and dances of the Americas) developed from rituals of faith in Mother Africa.

We learn at home to drum, sing and dance with our family, from the womb really. As soon as we can walk, we start to dance because that’s what Mom and Dad and our brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and cousins do. It is an expression of belonging to our family and community, but also an expression of our individual identity within those frameworks. It’s also a way that we heal our problems. We dance them away to face another day.

The dances in the video are already one step removed in Cuba, but the same rhythms and movements have been used in ceremonies for thousands of years and probably from the beginning of people time. That’s why the “batey” (what we call the dance circle in Puerto Rico) is sacred space.

The music in the video is Afrosideral, an Afro-Cuban Electronic Ensemble. It’s the project of Kumar Sublevao Beat.

Once you are aware of the sacred rhythms and movements, you start to see them everywhere in cumbia, tango, salsa, meringue, merengue, bachata, and reggaeton. They are probably in swing too. Most people don’t realize how that cool dance move you like is a direct connection to Mother Africa.

The chorus says, “they are children of the sea.” Yemayá is the mother of the fishes and that would be us. We come from the sea and your mother’s womb was filled with basically her own seawater.

¡Maferefún Yemayá!
(God Bless You!)

Dance Me to the End of Love

Latin Dancing (Mihai Blanaru/Adobe)

“Show me slowly what I only know the limits of.
Dance me to the end of love.”

Leonard Cohen, “Dance Me to the End of Love” (1984)

Leonard Cohen, a Jewish poet who wrote in English from French Canada, wrote some of the most romantic words ever.

Dance

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