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Latin Dancing NYC

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

COVID-19

During the COVID-19 Pandemic, there isn’t much dancing in New York City. Be smart. Be safe. Live to dance another day.

Latin Dancing Archive

Reggaeton Dance Venues

Reggaeton is the popular dance of the young.

Salsa Dance Venues

Salsa dancing is a Caribbean cultural expression.

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.

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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