Laura Canellius

Watching Laura dance has always been a thrill for me. When we were at the World Salsa Congress in Puerto Rico, I would always try to spot the best male dancers and drag them over to dance with Laura, just so I could watch. When Laura dances, it is an injustice to call it a "dance". A performance is much more appropriate. Her ability to quickly adapt to different men’s styles is amazing. One minute, you’ll see her dancing beautifully and eloquently with one gentleman, and the next minute you’ll see an exotic funk and sensual style with another. She always looks like she’s having the time of her life out there. Just watching her is a show.

Laura interprets Salsa through her body with every peak and pause in the music. She takes dancing Salsa to its limit as far as versatility, style, and beauty. When the name Laura Canellias is mentioned amongst friends at a club, it is always a very high probability that at least one or two of the people you’re talking with have taken classes with her at one time or another. She is one of LA’s top instructors, and has been responsible for the hundreds of Salseros in the LA area who’s lives have been dramatically changed by the music, the dance, and her thorough instruction.

To me, Salsa music and Laura Canellias are one in the same; stylish, sensual, beautiful, classy, and inspirational.

Ladies and gentleman, Salsaweb Magazine is proud to introduce, Laura Canellias, Salsa / Mambo instructor, Master, mentor, and friend.

Laura: I started when I was in about sixth grade. I was living in San Antonio. My family moved to a new home, and the family next door had three girls and two boys, they were all in dance classes, The girl my age became my best friend and of course I had to do everything she did, and since she was in dance class, then I wanted to go to dance class too. I started with Tap, Jazz, Ballet, gymnastics and Pantomime… we used to sing to Teresa Brewer songs. Later, I square danced with my brother in a children’s dance group.

Laura: Yes, but, I started ballroom dancing much later. I was about twenty-three years old. I answered an ad in the paper. It said something like, "Travel, see the world, make lots of money blah, blah, blah,… oh, and DANCE for a living" I thought, "Oh Boy! That’s for me!" It turned out to be a ballroom dance studio, so I gave them a call, was interviewed, trained for 2 months (8 hours a day) and started working there. I didn’t get to see the whole world, just on a couple of places like Acapulco and San Francisco. But, it was fun.

Laura: I had a couple of partners, but none of them who really wanted to work hard enough to compete. Although I did compete once, in a Rising Star category (which is for newcomers). We placed second, which was pretty good for our first competition. But, I've never competed since. It’s difficult finding a partner who's in sync with you and wants to express music the same way you do. Sometimes you get into arguments or egos get out of hand and although I’ve never been married, they say, having a partner can be worse than being married. Competing is also very expensive. You have to pay for your costumes, entry fees, airfare, hotel, etc. and all that just added to the stress and made it more difficult.

Laura and Jody Lang, two great LA instructors!

Laura: Professionally, yes. I taught Ballroom for about 5 and half years, but I stopped for a little while and danced in musical theater while living in Houston. I stopped because I got really frustrated by not being able to find a dance partner that I could dance and compete with. At the time, my love was performing more than teaching. So, I danced in musical theater and other venues for about 4-5 years. Then, in August of 1987, my friend and I decided that because we couldn’t get our Equity card (like SAG) from the theater in Houston, we thought, well, we’ve got to move somewhere else to further our dance careers cause it wasn't happening in Houston, so we hit the road. It was either New York or LA, and we didn’t like the cold, so we chose LA. I started teaching Salsa here about a year later.

Edie: Why got you interested in Salsa?

Laura: A girlfriend that I met here in an acting class, used to date Robby Rosa, who was the star of the hit movie, "Salsa." She dated him when he was in the singing group "Menudo," long before the movie came out. We had to go see him in the movie, and that inspired us to start searching for Salsa clubs around LA. We would look in the LA Weekly, and half the time, those ads would be outdated, and we would get there and the clubs would be closed or no longer have a salsa promotion. We got so frustrated that we eventually gave up. Well, one evening, we had just eaten this huge Italian dinner, and I told her, "Gosh, I feel miserable, I just have to dance this off!" So she suggested we go downtown to a disco club called "The Stock Exchange." We walked into the club, paid our money, started to walk up the stairs, and as we were entering there were a group of people leaving the club saying "Yuck, Salsa, I’m not into this at all, let’s get out of here." We just looked at each other in amazement and ran all the way up the stairs and through the door as fast as we could! We were so excited! We walked into this packed night club, with a live band playing, people dancing Salsa, Ohh! we were on cloud nine! We danced ALL - NIGHT - LONG! I had a pair of brand new shoes on, that I broke in that night and had blisters the next day, but I didn’t care…

At the time Ron Arciaga was promoting a Salsa Night there, I think it was like a third Thursday of every month. So I decided I was going to go every month! I went by myself the following month, and I had an incredible time, because it had been so long since I had partner danced. I missed it so much. Toward the end of the evening, I was talking to a young fellow, and I pointed over to a couple on the dance floor, and said, "You see those people over there, they're teachers, I can spot them, because I used to teach." So I walked over to the couple, and turns out the gentleman was Ron Arciaga. I said, "Excuse me, what studio do you teach at?" He looked at me, kind of surprised, and said, "Well, I have my own studio".

Laura getting ready for one of her many shows

I said, "I know that you’re a teacher, because I can tell by the way you dance. I used to teach myself." He looked at me as if to size me up and said, "Oh really? Do you dance on Two?" I said, "Is there any other way?" (Ha-Ha). He took me onto the dancefloor and started me off very slowly you know, sort of testing the waters with me. When he found out I could follow, he cut loose and we tore up that dance floor! By the end of the dance, he asked, "Now what was your name again? The rest is history. I started teaching for him and for several months we danced and partnered together then, went our separate ways. That's when I started teaching at the Studio of Performing Arts, around 1990.

Edie: I know that you bring to the Studio of Performing Arts a tremendous amount of business. Do you hold the largest classes there?

Laura: I think my classes are some of the largest, I'm not sure. The Swing classes are also pretty healthy as well. They also advertise in the Learning Annex as well, and that brings in a lot of new people too.

Edie: What gave you the idea to start a Cardio Salsa class?

Laura: It was really for selfish reasons. I have a membership to a gym that I never use. I enjoy doing aerobics, but I get really discouraged when the instructors crank up the music pitch so high that it sounds like chipmunks singing. I just hate that!

Laura on the left, in red, teaching her Cardio Salsa class and that's me (The FREAK) taking this picture at the far right in my sweats - which is what you wear to one of Laura's INTENSE Classes! .... Oh, and DON'T FORGET TO BRING YOUR TOWELS AND water bottles 'cuz Laura WILL make you SWEAT!

To me, music has to be inspiring. You’ve got be disciplined to exercise, and if the music you’re exercising to is not inspirational, then it’s twice as hard to get motivated. What’s the point? I don’t consider myself to be a real disciplined person, so I have to be inspired to so something, and music does that for me. If the music’s not good, then forget it! So, what I did was design the class for myself, and thought that perhaps other people felt the same way I did, and it turns out that they do!

Laura: In 1995. I first started at a studio in Santa Monica, and now I teach at Studio of Performing Arts here in Los Angeles.

Edie: Why do you think that people get so addicted to Salsa? What is it about this music?

Laura: This music is so contagious. It makes you want to get up and dance whether you know what to do or not. It speaks to people's sexuality. I've seen it happen time and time again at parties where the people know nothing about this music or dance, but when they hear the music, they throw their arms up in the air and start shaking their bootys! They totally abandon all inhibitions and start moving their hips. I also think it’s a sign of the times. You know, people want to get close again, and because of the way things are socially now-a-days, it's kinda scary. But people still need to express their sexuality an Salsa is a very sensuous dance! It’s very flirtatious and you can have a lot of fun with it. You can dance with a lot of handsome, sexy men, and likewise, men can dance with a lot of beautiful, sexy women. Salsa is a form of safe sex - you can dance all night long and go home feeling satisfied. People have missed the closeness and touch of another human being. We danced apart for such a long time which I also think was necessary. But, like I said, it’s a sign of the times. Everything old is new again. We’re circling back, we’re touching again, and learning to communicate non-verbally through dance. There’s nothing like partnering with another person. The dance apart is fun on occasion, that's why we include shine steps in this dance too. We see the value of that as well. But, partnering is so much more challenging and stimulating. When you can really connect with someone then you begin to create something very special on the dance floor.

Edie: What is most rewarding for you as an instructor?

Laura: As a teacher, the thing that is most rewarding for me is to see how it changes peoples lives. I’ve seen it happen time and time again with a lot of my students, how their lives have totally opened up and changed. I had one student who had been taking group classes with me for about two years. He had a white-collar, very technical job, and the only physical thing he ever did was go to the gym. He had never done anything creative or artistic in his life.

He's now a very popular guy on the dance floor. But, while learning Salsa, one of his biggest problems was that he just couldn’t stay in time with the music. It wasn’t until he started taking Casino Rueda classes that he finally picked up on it. In a Casino Rueda, you stay on time, because you have to stay with the group. So between him taking my classes, and then doing the Casino Rueda, he’s now a wonderful dancer! He can now go anywhere, and anybody can dance with him - and have a good time doing it! Salsa totally opened up the creative artistic side to him. I’m just so proud of him. Another personal friend of mine, Brad Gluckstein, studied privately with me for over two years. Salsa soon became his passion, so much that now he is going to open up his own Salsa night club! Since he started, he’s been to Cuba and Columbia… he totally absorbed himself into the culture, he speaks Spanish. That’s how much it has changed his life. William Ochoa’s life was changed as well. Before Salsa, he had done Hustle and other forms of dancing, and now he’s teaching Salsa… the same with Jodi Lang. She’s a trained dancer who’s danced all of her life. A couple of years ago she got hooked on Salsa, and now she’s teaching! I love seeing this. How people's lives have changed and feel really good being a part of it. I wanted so much to perform when I was younger, and didn’t really get the chance to. I perform more now, but seeing the impact this music and dancing has had on people is the most rewarding.

Laura: I think what’s difficult is that when you teach for a living, you lose the desire to go out dancing for your own enjoyment. If I was just dancing for my own enjoyment, I would be out there three or four times a week. That’s one of the drawbacks about teaching so much. I’ve already done my 3-4 hours of dancing, and I do have a limit to how much energy I can put out. The thought of dancing for another 3-4 hours just isn’t that appealing. Sometimes for P.R. purposes, I have to make an appearance because of a club promotion or it’s somebody’s birthday or anniversary, or a special band is playing and I’m asked to be there, when I really don’t feel like it. But I know that as with any job, that’s part of what's expected of me.

divas2.jpg (12136 bytes)
Eva, Laura and myself on the Beach in San Juan, Puerto Rico, at last year's World Salsa Congress

Also, not being anonymous. I recently went to a swing club one Tuesday night and I had so much fun because nobody knew me. And even though there were a few students there from my studio, I was not their Swing teacher, I was the Salsa teacher, so it was a totally different dynamic. When they asked me to dance, I was thrilled and ready to go! They didn't feel intimidated dancing with me, because they weren’t thinking that I was their Swing teacher who might be critiquing them. I could just enjoy the dance or sit back, relax and listen to the band. I had a great time!

Edie: When you go out to Salsa clubs, do you have a lot of your students come up and ask you to dance quite a bit?

Laura: Not too often. A lot of them are afraid and intimidated to dance with me. But, some do and it’s very touchy, because they are your students and you hate to turn them down even if you do feel really tired. I try to accommodate as many as I can.

Laura: Albert and I met about eight years ago at a whole-in-the-wall nightclub called Miami Spice. I found Miami Spice by way of Ron Arciaga. He used to teach there on Monday nights. It was a restaurant with a tiny club on the side. The room capacity was about 85 people. The fire department was always coming by and busting the place because there were always too many people. There was always a line at the door. People just packed the place. They would dance around the tables on this thin, worn-out carpet to whatever band happened to be playing on their tiny little stage. It was a great place, and we were all saddened when they lost their lease and it closed down. One night, Albert was there dancing, being his outrageous self, and asked me to dance. Albert wasn’t a promoter at the time. He just danced for the enjoyment of it. We always had a great time dancing together. He always draws an audience and in that place it wasn't hard cause you were usually dancing right in someone's face. Many times he would sit me down right in some guy's lap as he was dancing with me, just joking around with the "innocent bystanders." He's such a character! In 1992, at Miami Spice, the producers of the movie Mambo Kings and Armand Assante found Albert and wanted him to audition for the movie. He called me and asked me to audition with him, we got the job and have been dancing together ever since. Dancing in the movie was a lot of fun. Of course, from a dancer's point of view, the film would have been a lot better if they wouldn’t have cut so much of the dancing out. The director was adamant about making the dancing authentic. He wanted all of the dancers to dance on two. Well, at that time, there were not a lot of young Salseros who knew what two was, much less dance on it.

Laura, Jody, and The FREAK at Fox Studios Lot, Hollywood, CA

They tried explaining the clave and that didn't work, so finally they brought in a congero who played a basic mambo rhythm on the congas and that's when most of the dancer's got it --- not all, but most of them. It was a great mix of dancers that worked on the movie. We had street dancers, jazz dancers and young Salseros, along with the older generation of dancers, most of whom remembered and lived the Palladium days in N.Y. They not only shared some great stories about those days but some incredible knowledge about the history of the music and the dance, the bands and the dancers. One of the most well known dancers during that era was Cuban Pete who was hired as a consultant on the film along with Joe Cassini and Josie Powell.

It was an unforgettable experience working with all of these people.

Armand Assante and Antonio Banderas were such a pleasure to meet and work with as well as choreographer, Michael Peters, known for several Michael Jackson music videos and Kim Blanc, his assistant. Kim is another person who's life has changed due to her exposure to Salsa. A talented dancer and choreographer in her own right, she fell in love with the dance during the filming and went on to choreograph an ensemble, "Club Tumbao," which Albert and I were proud to be a part of.

We performed at the John Anson Ford Theater during the Kaleidescope Dance series in 1995. Since then, she has gone on to choreograph the movie "Out To Sea" just released this summer with Jack Lemmon & Walter Matthau. Once again, Albert and I were fortunate enough to land roles as featured dancers in the movie. I even got to dance a swing in one scene with one of my idols, Donald O'Connor ("Singing In The Rain" was one of his claims to fame), with which I got one line! I also danced a mean mambo with Hal Linden ("Barney Miller" series) who dances on two by the way (he grew up in N.Y.). Most recently, Albert and I danced in the soon to be released movie, "Shut Up And Dance" which stars Cheyenne and Vanessa Williams. There's a lot of great salsa in that one! Watch for that to open on Valentines Day in '98 and it may be under a new title "Just Dance." I kinda like the first one better but, I didn't get to vote. (Ha Ha)

Laura: That’s a good question. At least the next couple of years, I would hope that I’m still teaching, doing choreography, and still performing before I get too old to walk. (Ha Ha) I want to continue with my Cardio Salsa class. I think that the growing interest we have in our health and wellness is important, and dancing is a good way to approach that area of our life. Most people think of exercise as a chore and something that's difficult and not fun. I want to try to make it fun for everybody. It’s a low-impact class and not hard on the body’s joints. Several of the women who started with me were in their 40’s and 50’s, out of shape, and were really just learning how to move. One lady lost 35 pounds in the first 6 months and has more energy sometimes than I do. Not only did she lose weight and get back into shape, but she learned a new dance, got her husband to learn the basics and now they have something they can do together. All because it was fun and the music was inspiring. I think Richard Simmons does a wonderful thing with his workout programs for people who are overweight. Why? Because he adds a lot of enjoyment and pleasure to the workout itself. I think it’s a great thing.

salsaerobics2.JPG (10705 bytes)
Laura teaching her Saturday morning Cardio Salsa Class at the Studio of Performing Arts, 3rd Street, near La Cienega in Hollywood.

Edie: Will we see a Cardio Salsa Video in the making?

Laura: I would love to do something like that as well as a Salsa video. As for an exercise video, I would personally like to learn more about nutrition because the two should go together. I love food and I love to eat -- mmmm! Puerco asado, black beans and rice! I'm getting hungry just thinking about it! Anyway, I think the most important thing for people to do is to simply just get up and move, get started! That’s the first step and don’t compare yourself to others, because everyone has genetically different bodytypes, different lifestyles, etc. But we all have the same choice: To do nothing or to do something.

Laura: I’m living my dream right now. I used to work for Rhino Records, which is an independent record label in Century Century. I was the Execuutive Assistant to the Senior Vice President of A&R. That’s where I produced my three Mambo/ Salsa CDs for Rhino. The first was "Mambo Mania, The Kings And Queens Of Mambo," which was a 50’s collection of famous artists like Machito, Celia Cruz, Tito Rodriguez, Tito Puente, India, etc. The next was the "Mondo Mambo, The Best of Perez Prado," and the most recent one was "Salsa Fresca, Dance Hits of the 90's," which DJ Robby and I compiled together. They’ve all done very well. All three of the CDs hit the Billboard charts. I had my students in mind for "Salsa Fresca." I wanted a CD where you could just throw it on and practice. Actually, it’s a great party CD too because, it’s a various artists compilation and all the songs are good.

I buy a lot of CDs and it's a drag to spend $15. on an artist’s CD, and there’s only one or two good, danceable tunes on it and sometimes you only get 8 or 9 songs. On my (Rhino) compilations, I want you to get your money's worth. I have the best of both worlds now, I still get to do compilations for Rhino and I get to do what love for a living. One of the greatest rewards when live your dream is that the universe supports your efforts and lets you know that you're doing the right thing. One way is through the love I get from my students and friend. It's easy for them to see that I'm happy doing this and while I encourage them to learn, they encourage me to keep doing what I'm doing. I'm really, really blessed with all the people I’m surrounded by on the scene. I have such a wonderful mixture of students from all walks of life who are just fabulous to be around and the nicest people you'd ever want to know. The biggest thrill is to see all of us developing as dancers and people. To see how we learn from one another and continuously develop something new within ourselves. Life is amazing that way. I'm grateful for the opportunity.

About the Author:
Edie Lewis, also known as "The Salsa FREAK" is Editor-in-Chief and co-founder of Salsaweb Magazine. Together with Benjamin Rapoport, and an amazing team of dedicated volunteers, they have developed the largest Salsa dance website in the world. Over 3,000 printed pages of fabulous advice, humor, and information, both educates and entertains dance enthusiasts in every country where Salsa music is enjoyed. Edie can be reached at (310) 764-0623