Sabor
Latino
Viscount Ballroom
722 E Burnside St., 233-7855 Tango 6-9 pm, Salsa at 9:30
pm
Sabor Latino performs at about 10:30 pm
$6 men, $3 women
Sabor Latino
leader Maggie Gould appeared in the 1987 movie Salsa.
On Friday nights, stretches of East Burnside Street look
like something from a publicity photo for The Exorcist:
Blue mist rises from desolate sidewalks, empty except for
you and that vaguely menacing other guy. It'd be a ghost
town--if not for the bass thump and timbales chimes wafting
down an anonymous staircase like exotic flower petals.
Above the cars and streetlights, the Viscount Ballroom's
salsa night is like a stray piece of Cuba floating on a
collision course toward los Estados Unidos. Lights
flash, couples move and the mist turns to steam, steam,
steam.
An incredibly diverse slice of Portland's Latin dance scene
shivers and shakes though the quick rhythms of the mambo,
the uninhibited intensity of the salsa, a saucy cha-cha
or two. Even the wallflowers gyrate their hips.
Then DJ Mi Gente introduces Sabor Latino, and the floor
clears.
Portland's only performing salsa dance group, the eight
members of Sabor Latino flip and spin through numbers both
synchronized and freestyle. Suddenly, the ballroom-dancing
contestants on PBS look like a bunch of squares walking
a tightrope. Sabor Latino's style is completely its own,
from tight Cuban rhythms to electric near-acrobatics.
Just six months after its October birth, Sabor Latino has
staked out a stronghold of innovative moves and traditional
flair in the city's burgeoning Latin scene. Its formations
blend a fixating story of Carnival and modern ritual. Over-the-top
or not, Sabor Latino has scored a run of gigs, from its
monthly performance at the Viscount to the worldwide salsa
convention the group will attend this month in Toronto.
"It's not the traditional style that we dance," says Maggie
Gould, Sabor Latino's choreographer. "It's more showy and
more technical."
Gould moved to Portland from Los Angeles. She found few
opportunities to scratch cash out of hip-hop and jazz dance,
so she started teaching and choreographing Nordstrom fashion
events. In fact, Sabor Latino was originally just an attempt
to lend some spark to one of the retailer's apparel shows.
"I'd been choreographing hip-hop for them for a long time,
and I just talked them into something different," Gould
says. "It's gone so well we just started doing a lot of
other things."
Sabor Latino unites some of the glitterati of Portland's
Latin dance scene, including four dance instructors (Kimberly
Krishnamurthy of Fernando's Hideaway; George Caceres, formerly
of La Rumba; Joshua Faulkner of Fred Astaire; and the infamous
Andrea Cha-Cha, owner of Andrea's Cha-Cha Club). Dancers
Slim Simpson, Sarah Riddle, Margarita Barragan and Gould
have been mainstays of the Latin scene almost from its inception.
Gould scouted the clubs for other dancers, rounding up a
diverse crew.
"Everyone has a distinct style and flair and different
strengths," Gould says. "There's a little something in there
for everybody." Her eye for talent pays off. The group incorporates
tango and mambo steps with shimmery gymnastics and hip-hop
to form a unique recipe for its fire-hot salsa.
"We're trying to bring in different Latin steps with Maggie's
choreography. It's like salsa with spice," says Andrea Cha-Cha.
Simpson agrees: "Even the Cubans don't necessarily dance
some of the stuff, because it's not as traditional or classic.
The salsa we do is flashy, and that's how it's changing.
It's becoming more and more showy."
An awe-inspiring three-minute gander at Sabor Latino's
performing explosion proves exactly how showy salsa has
become. Peppery energy flashes from each new sequence. Gould's
choreography is seemingly inspired by her love for atypical
steps that showcase the dancers' every forte. According
to Gould, the combination of raw sweat and heady technical
prowess puts Sabor Latino on par with its national peers.
"We've been doing a lot of dancing when we've been on trips
to L.A. and New York, and it's really comparable," she says.
"There are a lot of good clubs in Portland and people are
really interested and good dancers."
"There's no doubt that salsa is popular in Portland because
of the growing Hispanic community," Barragan says. "It's
really spreading all over the population. It seems like
everyone wants to salsa. It's so accessible, from street
dancers to professional ballroom dancers. Everyone can be
creative and have fun with it."
On the first Friday of every month, the rhythm doctors
of Sabor Latino stage a sweaty exorcism on East Burnside.
Those with a demon in them are advised to check it out.
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Willamette Week | originally
published April 5,
2000
|
