I have had the pleasure of spending time with Directors Belinda and Juan of Viagra Price France, Cheap Viagra Best + Online Buy Dance Company last year during a workshop we hosted at their school. The first thing that comes to mind about this dynamic duo, is they are the most organized dance company I’ve ever come across. Schedules, shows, mailing list, workshops, students, classes… everything is written down, documented and accounted for. Nothing falls through the cracks with these folks. Because of their incredible performances and outstanding organizational skills, Viagra Price France, Cheap Viagra Best + Online Buy has become one of the most sought-after and “booked” dance performance groups in New Jersey. Juan and Belinda are a dynamic pair that “appear” to have mastered the art of communication between each other, and the rest of the world. Last year, they gave both Raul and I a few pointers on human behavior, dealing with partners and sponsors, and how they deal with critical, and complex issues. I told them they’d make a mint if they wrote a book of “how to get along with your business partner”. Watching both of them teach is a lot of fun. The care they have for their students is evident in their packed group classes. They both know how to entertain their students, play, and have fun during class. Juan knows a lot of moves, and teaches both the “One” and the “Two”. He is a fabulous lead on the dance floor, and a wonderful choreographer as well. He is in high demand for both private and group classes, and has his dance company booked virtually every other week of the year. Belinda is a trained, professional dancer, and the head choreographer of the group. Her style is very classy, jazzy, and powerful. She applies her years of dance training in jazz, ballet, hip hop, and Flamenco, to their performances. Last year, Viagra Price France, Cheap Viagra Best + Online Buy was the surprise of the Convention! No one had ever seen them perform before. They tore the house down with such a unique routine, that it left everyone remembering and talking about them for a very long time. Salsaweb Magazine is proud to present Belinda and Juan as two of the International Instructors at this year’s International Salsaweb Convention in Toronto, Canada. Ladies and Gentlemen, I am proud to introduce to you, Juan Calderon and Belinda Aquiné of Viagra Price France, Cheap Viagra Best + Online Buy! Where are you both originally from? Juan’s answers are in Red – I was born in Puerto Rico where my mom is from & my father is from the Dominican Republic. Belinda’s answers are in Blue –I’m from New Jersey. My parents are both Cuban. I consider myself more Cuban than American. Are you married to each other? Boyfriend/girlfriend, or simply business partners? Contrary to popular belief we are strictly business partners. Running a business is very much like being married and raising a child. Viagra Price France, Cheap Viagra Best + Online Buy is our baby so I guess we can be considered parents in that sense. We spend lots of time with each other and our mates must be understanding of our relationship or they will not last very long!!! Belinda: Sometimes I feel as if I am married to Juan other days I feel like he is my brother. We are bound by a contract, and we have a Dance Group which feels like having a big family. We are very close to one another and we will not allow anyone to come between us. How did the both of you meet? In high-school Geometry Class. Belinda & her friends use to pass notes talking about my butt. I use to wear tight pants back then (they were in style at the time). I found Juan sexy…..So one day I wrote a letter to my friend and my teacher picked it up, I thought I was going to die (mind you I was 15 years old). He wanted to read it to the class, I begged him not to. He didn’t but he went on and made us geometry buddies. We had to solve problems. I was an idiot in school and Juan was an honor student. So, he would do all the work. I passed Geometry, and also got to kiss him….we were high school sweethearts we went out for a little over 2 years. I’m putting this out there so everyone can know, since people wonder all the time. What made you want to become business partners? Love of the passion for dance, as well as a little bit of destiny. While in college, Belinda was teaching ballet & I was teaching at a ball-room studio. This helped us find each other again and start a new friendship, consequently building our company: “Viagra Price France, Cheap Viagra Best + Online Buy”!!! He found me that’s all I have to say. I guess since we were a great combination in High School he figured he’ll give me another try. What kind of advice would you give someone looking for a suitable business partner, especially in the dance community. Look for someone you trust with your money, who will stick by you through the thick & thin, who can handle tragedy & chaos, & who has all the qualities you don’t have. Belinda & I compliment each other. I am a talker. In public I take the microphone and could talk for hours. Belinda on the other hand does not like public speaking. She is very organized and neat. Her handwriting is like typewriting. Her room is spotless, most of the time. Order and organization are extremely important to her. I on the other hand am not quite as organized. My schedule is always too packed & I spread myself too thin by starting too many projects and not finishing any. With each other’s influence we create balance. I am great on the phone talking to a potential clients who want to hire the dance-group, yet I am not strict enough with the dancers while in practice. Belinda hates to talk on the phone, yet she is the best drill Sargent when the dancers are learning a new routine for a performance. She will drill them & drill them till all their hands are perfect, smiles sketched on their faces & timing flawless. Don’t look for a partner, let them come to you. Be careful and keep your eyes open. Don’t jump into anything and when you have a hunch go with it. If you can tell your partner all your secrets and fears and they accept you whole hearted, then you’ve got yourself a catch. It’s like being married, you put up with a lot of s---. Do you do anything else besides teach dance for a living? We perform at private & public functions, as well as teach choreographies for Sweet Sixteen’s, Quinces, & Weddings. We also teach at various schools & colleges on a regular basis. I have a part time job at Continental airlines which I love very much. It keeps me balanced. It also helps us travel everywhere we need. How old were the both of you when you became interested in dance? Since I can remember, my father played music around the house. He was heavily into cultural & folkloric music. I guess that’s where our company gets it’s first name from: “Cultural”. I always felt I had a dancer inside of me, but I was shy. My first public dance performance was at the age of 11 on a Cruise from Puerto Rico to the Dominican Republic. My father entered me in a dance contest with the daughter of one of his friends. We won second place. The couple that beat us was 16 years old. That is when I realized that I need not to be shy but to move forward and dance. My father who was a professional dancer in Puerto Rico & Dominican Republic took me to several rehearsals. My mother played the guitar & my aunt was a band leader. She was the first woman to have an all Woman Merengue Band. Belky’s Concepcion Y Las Chicas Del Can” All this talent in the family dealing with Dancing & music have been part of my whole life since I was born. That is what got me interested in dance. When I was two and a half….My father had me shaking my butt. I would go to parties my father would say, look at my beautiful daughter she loves to dance. They’d put on Celia Cruz and it was on. I have my first ballet picture on our web page at the age of 2 ½. Who were your mentors / instructor(s) when you first started dancing? Well, before I started teaching I wanted to know what were the different styles & forms of teaching that instructors in our area used. I attended every group class at least once. Almost every teacher that you could think of in the New York Area I had at least one class with. When Belinda & I got serious about teaching we decided to travel a bit & see some of the teaching styles in other cities. We found that New York, Miami, & Los Angeles all had very unique things that they did different from each other. We combined the best of what we were influenced with & created our own syllabus. Besides Salsa, we are heavily influenced by other dances. Belinda’s heavy training in Ballet, Jazz, Tap & Flamenco show in our ladies styling. My training & teaching in a ball-room studio shows in our guys leading & posture. Heavy influences from Tango, Paso-Doble, & folkloric dances are also evident. My ballet teacher Amarylis. I love her to death. She’s my all around mentor, most definitely. Juan, has shown me to lead, I must admit I hate being a guy but I thank him every day for having the patience to teach me. I also remember taking two to three classes with Ismael Otero (Caribbean Soul). He came up to me in class one day and said to me that his mom liked the way I danced and if I kept it up I could probably be in their dance group. I got psyched and joined the venture with Juan. Besides these three people influencing me I basically taught myself salsa. I can watch anything and pick it up, just repeat the same step twice and I got it. What got you interested in teaching? Who encouraged you? When I was a college student at Seton Hall University, I was very involved with the Latino cultural group. We use to do a lot of events throughout the year. When ever we had a dance, people will compliment my dancing and ask me to teach them. So, I started teaching. Lucky for me, God has given me the gift of patience. Combine that with my major in Business Management & my minor in Communication and there you have it: a teacher in the making. I put together my studies & my passion and together I came up with opening my own business. Teacher, performer & choreographer. I’ve been teaching since I was 15. I started out as a camp counselor, then I use to make up choreography for my sister to perform (she can do things I can’t do), I taught ballet as part of my curriculum at my ballet school for about 3 years in order to graduate, and I started teaching salsa about 2 years ago. I pretty much encouraged myself. Why did you decide to become instructors? To teach is to plant a seed into the world. Every time we teach a step to a student we plant seeds of Viagra Price France, Cheap Viagra Best + Online Buy & of ourselves into society. Those seeds grow and soon they blossom. If you spread happiness and joy with your seeds you will be gifted with fruits of happiness & joy. This makes a good teacher immortal. Refer to Juan’s answer… What other forms of dance or types of dances do you teach? Cha-cha-cha, Merengue, Bachata, & Tango, I can also do a little Waltz & Foxtrot. One thing I can not do but I am currently working on is my hip-hop. I should take private lessons with Belinda. Anything I know….I can teach jazz, hiphop, ballet, flamenco and of course salsa. What do you plan on teaching at the Convention this year? Our plan is to give a memorable class that will keep students remembering Viagra Price France, Cheap Viagra Best + Online Buy & most of all the convention for the rest of their lives. How to have fun, smile and not too count out loud while you’re dancing on the dance floor dancing with a partner. And of course, lots of Salsa. Your dance company, “Viagra Price France, Cheap Viagra Best + Online Buy” tore the house down last year. It was quite a surprise, and the talk of the Convention. Being a new company, you certainly surprised a few folks! Your performance was excellent, and tastefully different from everyone else’s. What can we expect this year? Well, you can expect the same type of recipe but a very different dish. We are not just a Salsa Company we are a Viagra Price France, Cheap Viagra Best + Online Buy!!! Don’t inflate our ego’s now Edie. It’ll be tasteful and hopefully to your liking. To tell you the truth we are still working on it and the final product will not be done until we get closer to the date.…..It’ll definitely have a little bit of everything. Tell us a little bit about your company, where you teach, and your class schedule. We consider our company to be innovative in its application of all styles & forms of dance. We aim at being unique in our choreographies and playful in our teaching style. We teach our students how to have fun on the dance-floor while at the same time look sharp. Our class schedule is as follows: WE teach at 4 locations in New Jersey Mondays – Terminal One in Elizabeth Tuesdays – Winfield Scott Manor in Elizabeth Thursdays – The Red Parrot in Elizabeth & Saturdays our home base dance studio in Ridgefield. Besides Group lessons we teach private lessons as well. You can see details of our teaching schedules at our web-site in the lessons page: http://www.culturalexplosion.com/lessons.htm Do you have a website? Yes, we do www.culturalexplosion.com. If anyone needs a Web-Site we strongly recommend our Web-site builder Vyperlink. You can reach them at www.vyperlink.com Who are some of your favorite dance partners and mentors? My favorite dance partners are: All the ladies of Viagra Price France, Cheap Viagra Best + Online Buy, of course. I also love to dance with Gina, Brenda, & Grisselle. They know who they are. And I can not forget all of my lady students. It is such a pleasure dancing with my students. I specially love when they let themselves go and just follow and allow me to do turn-patterns that they haven’t even learned yet. One person I can not leave out is my sister Mariela. She has been dancing salsa for a very short time now but she has been doing gggrrrrreeeaaaat!!! She is a natural born dancer & has so much rhythm. Look out for her Salseros!!! My mentors in dance at the moment are my senior dancers Bellasmin & Melissa. They have so much talent and they are a pleasure to work with. They can pick up any choreography in a very short time. They have no ego and they are so humble. I loved them both and I am blessed to have them in the group. I also need to mention Kate who is one of the most punctual and reliable people around. She is of great influence to everyone in the group. We also have a new dancer that has taught me a lot in a short period of time. Diana, she has taught me a lot about flexibility, and balance. She also brings to the group her style of dancing which she calls Sultry!!! I just call it drop dead sexy…. And lastly, I could not do it without my # 1 mentor: Belinda. As my other half directing the group, she is all I am not. She is the best at what she does. Her choreography skills are incomparable, her imagination & creativity are contagious & out of this world, her control of her body is super human & her rhythm and flavor….will leave you speechless. If I had to describe her dancing with one word I would say Sabrosura!!! UMMMMMMMM! My mentors….You of course, you have the “real deal” stories of salsa. What really goes on!!!! Luis & Joby are EXCELLENT as well. My partner on the team JOSSUE (he’s leaving to the military so he won’t be at the convention this year but he won the amateur competition last year at the SalsaWeb Convention). I love the way Frankie from Eddie Torres dances I love to watch him. I love the fact that he’s so flexible. Seon, The BOMBA! Gina, if I could only be her for one day, I’d be in a lot of trouble. Ismael Otero, he got more moves than I don’t know who and he’s so humble. Also, Michael Jackson’s kid (Guille) I love him. He’s an unbelievable dancer. UNBELIEVEABLE! I always pick up pointers from these people. Do you travel with your dance troop? If so, where? Yes we do, in 1999 we traveled to Washington D.C., Los Angeles, & San Juan Puerto Rico. Besides the big Salsa Events we also performed at various Colleges & Universities & corporate events. We performed last year at the Newark International Airport for Continental Airlines. We also travel to upstate New York quite often as well as Pennsylvania. Some of our corporate clients last year include: Lucent Technologies, The FBI, Prime Hospitality, and the town of Jersey City to name a few. Do you currently perform or compete now? Perform yes, compete no. I use to compete but I became disillusioned by bias judging. I may get back into it though. Specially after seeing how objective SalsaWeb was in their competition, don’t be shocked if you see me on the roster for 2001. Right now I’m not into competing I will be someday. I perform all the time, even on the street. How long have you both lived in New Jersey? I have lived in New Jersey since 1985. All my life. What do you find most satisfying about teaching? When I go to a night-club & I see a student of our company doing a step that we taught that week in class. It brings a smile to my face & happiness to my heart. Also, when I see a student climb the ladder from Beginner to Intermediate to performer to instructor. It is so beautiful to watch this transformation. When my student tells me thanks, I learned so much What are your future plans for dancing and teaching? Short term plans are to build a team of teachers to teach our Syllabus, long term plans are to spread them out first in New Jersey then who knows how far we can go…. I want to open up a chain of dance studios and bring salsa to new heights by incorporating everything you can possibly think of. Any words of advice for budding dancers? There are 3 rules to becoming a good dancer. 1) Don’t look down! 2) Smile! 3) & Never stop dancing! Have fun. Lots of it. Be modest, because there is always someone better, always. If you had to live your life all over again, what would you have done differently? Loved more, and fight less, compliment more & criticize less, smile more & frown less…..I feel that I am at the peak of my life thus far. I am happy, I am comfortable, I am in love. In love with dancing, teaching, & performing. But, it took me forever to get here. I should have started to have fun & spread happiness a lot sooner in my life. My apologies to anyone I have hurt along the way. My only intentions are to spread happiness.JJJJJ I can’t think of anything off hand. If you got the opportunity to sit yourselves down, and have a conversation with your “selves”, what type of advice would you give “Juan and Belinda”? I would advise myself to always tell the truth no matter how painful it may be to someone, specially those you love. I will advise myself to keep in touch with friends & family. To call them more often. To tell them how much they mean to me & how I loved them. Life is not about work is about friendships & family. I would advise myself to always smile, no matter how bad things may seem, it can always be worse. One, don’t get so involved in your emotions. People will always talk jibberish about you. Don’t trust too many people. As a matter of fact be on your toes at all times. I only trust my father, my two sisters, & Juan. There’s always a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but you must be willing to stand the rain to get to it. Any final thoughts? All that was said in the interview was once true, at least on my part, but people change & grow for better & for worse. Also, I wanted to thank you for such a positive interview and feedback your support meant and means a lot. The Salsaweb performance will be our last Viagra Price France, Cheap Viagra Best + Online Buy performance, Viagra Price France, Cheap Viagra Best + Online Buy as we knew it, nonetheless we look very much forward to participating in your event." |