Who Are The Men that Took The Mayan?

After they won the finals Janette Valenzuela interviewed Eli Torres and Yen Dorado. Unfortunately I can’t provide a back link for this interview as I’m not sure where Janette first published it. So far I’ve been able to track it back to Salsa Hotline Japan and one of Edie’s websites (from which I copied it).

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May 23, 2009 : INTERVIEW

MAYAN SALSA CHAMPIONS: ELI TORRES AND YEN DORADO.

by JANETTE VALENZUELA

Summary of the 14th annual Mayan Professional Salsa Championships. July 8, 2009

Hello Salseros,

I know this interview is long overdue. I want to recap for our readers what took place the evening of May 16, 2009.

History was made when we witnessed for the first time ever a couple from the international category, Eli and Yen, winning the 1st place professional title. Not only did it make news because of this, but also due to the fact that it was two men dancing together in the competition!

First of all, I was not judging this evening. I had been a judge in the semi-final round and, quite honestly, I was very certain that Cristian Oveido and Liz Lira would take the grand prize by a landslide. But low and behold, here out of nowhere, Eli and Yen show up to shake things up, and did they ever!

I will be honest. In the beginning half of the evening, I had mixed feelings with the Mayan allowing two men to compete together. On one hand, there is no stipulation in the rules of the Mayan contest prohibiting a same gender-couple from entering the competition together. I thought, ‘Would this be allowed in professional figure skating?’ Now, don’t get me wrong, prior to this, I thought I was one of the most liberal people around. During this contest, I discovered that I am in fact a purist. I found myself saying, ‘a dance should be between a man and a woman.’ OMG! I sound just like my worst nightmare, George W. Bush! If anyone had any reservations regarding this, Eli and Yen should have been allowed to compete. The rules were very clear. Nowhere did it say this wasn’t allowed. Then again, I am a former competitor. I can put myself in the shoes of the other competitors that evening. If I would have been competing I probably wouldn’t have been too pleased knowing that somehow the whole contest would have felt, shall we say, unbalanced? The argument could be that, technically, a man is stronger than a woman and would allow for him to be able achieve greater levels of technique. From an audience standpoint, it is a great treat to be able to witness something so unique and entertaining. For the judges, I’m sure it threw them for a loop! The question is how do I judge Eli(he was the follower) the same as the other female competitors? All the female competitors traditionally compete in heels. Don’t get me wrong, Eli did an amazing job. In fact, he was one of the best follow competitors I have ever witnessed. But the question is, ‘Can Eli do everything he did with 2 1/2 to 3″ heels?

In the end, Eli and Yen achieved what they came to achieve; they showed up to dance their choreography and have people love it. By the crowning of their title, I was a believer.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oq7gLdL4KCU&feature=related

In this interview, I found them to be pure artists who love what they do.

Enjoy the article as much as I enjoyed talking to these two fascinating characters!

Preview to the interview.

First of all, being the typical female Latina , I’m late! I have to text the guys because I can’t find them. I’m making my way through the lobby of the LA Salsa Congress until finally we locate each other. We proceed to make our way to a couch, have a seat and get started. They ask me if they can know the questions ahead of time. I say no. Then Eli confesses that he’s nervous. He tells me he’s never done an interview before. I’m thinking, ‘how perfect!’ I know I’ll get some raw sincere answers…..and sure enough I did!

JANETTE

Hello everyone! We are sitting here in the lobby of the LA Salsa Congress and today I am interviewing the 14th annual winners of the Professional Mayan Salsa Contest. I want to welcome Eli Torres and Yen Dorado.

ELI and YEN

Thank you.

JANETTE

Welcome. We will be having the first interview of the 14th annual champions of the Mayan 2009 Salsa contest. I want to welcome two talented individuals who did an amazing job and broke records and pretty much took the Salsa world by storm.

My first question to you is;

The Mayan crowd went absolutely ballistic with your performance. I was sitting in the balcony and you received a standing ovation. I’ve witnessed every single Mayan contest and the only time I witnessed this was the year Johnny Vazquez competed with Olivia Dasso. How did you feel that night after your performance?

ELI

Oh wow….now that you mention that I feel like wow! I felt great…I felt shocked but great. I felt like we deserved it we worked really hard for it…..

YEN

It was a relief that we were actually able to do a clean routine and perform all of the elements that we wanted to perform without having any mistakes.

ELI

…and the pressure was on being that it was two guys, of course, so for me it was very shocking that they would have even considered us and judged us without discriminating.

YEN

We were very happy about that.

ELI

I was just very happy about the whole situation.

JANETTE

When did you feel discriminated?

ELI

Well, at the World Salsa ESPN. I think I took them by shock and I think because of that we weren’t judged correctly. They didn’t know what to think about what we were doing. So I felt like we did it just to do it anyway, to be known, but we weren’t recognized.

YEN

I think they were shocked. I think the judges didn’t know how to judge us, whether to judge us the same way they judge the female followers or should it be different? Should they have a higher standard for us or not? It was just both parts. It was completely new shocking and people just didn’t know how to handle it and that’s why the result of the worlds were how they were.

note: Yen and Eli competed in the World ESPN Salsa Championships in Dec of 2007 and were eliminated during the semi-final round.

JANETTE

So tell us how is it that the two of you decided to work together? How did this dance partnership come about?

ELI

Well, Yen came to me four years ago to audition for my company.

JANETTE

What’s the name of your company?

ELI

Aru N’egwu Dance Company, it means body in the state of dance in Nigerian.. He came to audition for the company and I saw talent in him.  I brought him in and have been training him for four years.. But three years ago we decided to partner together.  Every time I trained him, he had the best lead in the whole company. The guy is something and I said, ‘you know, I’m short and I haven’t been able to find a female partner back home.’ I found one that was in Italy, but the traveling distance, back and forth, back and forth, it was too expensive and I love leading….in fact I wanted to compete originally just as a leader. Then I said, ‘why don’t I do something different?’ I see this all the time in the congresses, girls dancing with girls, guys dancing with guys, ‘Why don’t we take it to a different degree, a totally different level?’

YEN

We’ve been dancing for three years…well, I started from scratch, from  zero when I started with his company…..

JANETTE

So you had no dance background experience whatsoever? Wow…no formal training?

YEN

No formal training.. When I auditioned for his company that’s when I decided I wanted to take it to the next level, do something more serious…take my dancing more seriously… when I went to his company I liked his style. It has a lot of technique, very jazzy, but at the same time stays true to Salsa.  I love that… when I saw him in the club dancing I said to myself I want to learn from him. I don’t want to learn from anyone else. I just want to learn from him.

JANETTE

I know! Like I want to learn from him.(group laugh)

YEN

I partnered with him for four years. We’ve been doing performances together locally for the past 3 years so we decided to take it to the next level by going to ESPN Worlds.

ELI

That was our main thing to see if we could take it to the next level. It was a little bit of a disappointment not going all the way at worlds…..but you go home and then you say, ‘Let’s do it again!’

YEN

Well you learn from it.

ELI

Yes, you learn from it and see what you can clean up to make it look even better. Let’s do it again. Let’s try this. Don’t let them take you down in other words. Basically, I don’t want to grow old without showing what I can do. I can do both parts and I like both parts and I think I need more opportunities to express myself through dance.. That’s how he became my partner and we just partnered ever since. I’ve just been training him, and kind of molding him to be my lead (Eli laughs). He’s a good lead. All the girls say he’s a good lead. He’s like the one-finger man (now Yen laughs), because even with one finger he’ll still be able to turn you.

YEN

Yes, they all joke around with me because I can make them turn with one finger.

ELI

….I also don’t have prior training.

JANETTE

Wow…. wow, wow….ok, that’s fascinating. You gotta be careful with those fingers though because after a few years there going to start not working anymore(group laugh).

JANETTE

Tell us who and what were your artistic and musical influences during your childhood. Where did you grow up? How and when did you start dancing?

ELI

Well, for me it was Tito Puente. I love Tito…I love his music. All the beats in his songs…that’s what made me go and I felt it. I grew up in Philadelphia , born and raised in Philadelphia . I started dancing when I was 20 and I’m now 29.  I’m going to be 30 this year(eli says it with hesitation)…but

JANETTE

You don’t look it. You still look 20.

ELI

So I started dancing when I was 20. I was just coming to the congresses, watching you, watching everybody else that I saw, all the Salsa Brava members….and I guess in a sense everybody was my instructor without even knowing it….because growing up poor I could make it to the congress but then it was, I either go each night and try to watch as much as I can to learn or go to the workshop and then miss the night. I had to play it out.  If I was making it down here I had to make it where I would just kind of do one or the other and then go eat at McDonald’s. It was more like…..I was just focused every time. I went out at night just to watch all the dancers and be inspired. So everyone in a sense was my instructor I would say, even though nobody formally trained me.

JANETTE

So you really learned how to budget?

YEN

That’s the life of an artist. I was born and raised in Bolivia. I’m half Bolivian half Chinese. I started dancing when I went to Philadelphia for college. I went to college there to U PENN.  I first saw him at a club. I loved to dance my entire life. I was like the life of the party but there was no training there. When I saw him dance at one of the studios in Philadelphia …..I couldn’t stop watching. I just couldn’t understand how his connection with the females was so different. It set him apart from everybody else. You could be in a crowded dance floor and he would stand out.

ELI

I wasn’t following at that time.

YEN

Yeah, he wasn’t following. I didn’t know he followed back then but I had been told you should see him follow a little bit because every now and then they’d say they would see him.

ELI

There was another guy in the company that would kind of throw me around a little bit..

YEN

……throw him around a little bit…but it was like every now and then but I never saw him follow. So when I saw him I said, ‘let me just try it.’ My artistic influences, since I’m half latino and was raised in Bolivia , listening to all latin music not just Salsa, merengue, cumbia…..

ELI

(turning to Yen) But, do you have a certain artist though that you really…

YEN

Yeah, Celia Cruz was back then one of my biggest influences. I like her music a lot……

ELI

When she sings she makes you want to move…

YEN

…because of her voice. You know how some artists have the band and the band usually takes over the entire song and the artist is kind of part of the music? Well her voice was like an instrument. Her voice carried out above the band. That was the most I liked about her.

JANETTE

What did your parents do for a living?

ELI

My parents…my mom was a school assistant teacher and my father was a street salesman. He was a street vendor selling bicycles, stuffed animals all that kind of stuff, shirts, and now he has a store where he does it all. When I grew up he was doing it in the street.

YEN

My mom is a teacher but now she’s a housewife. She used to teach a lot and my dad is in government, works for public service.

JANETTE

What do your parents think of your success/career?

ELI

Um…they think it’s funny acutally..(laughing). They think it’s funny. They don’t knock it. They think I do good dancing both parts. They know that I’m doing it for a profession not something that you know….

JANETTE

…a hobby?….

ELI

Yeah, like a hobby. They know it’s a professional thing so they take it serious and they’re supportive.

YEN

My mom is very supportive. First, I thought my dad was going to be a little….um…judgemental…but when I told him about it because he’s very asian and he’s very conservative….

JANETTE

…and he’s a government official!…

YEN

…but, he actually likes to dance a lot. He likes ballroom because in China ballroom is big. It’s a big deal and there’s a bunch of studios over there apparently and he likes to dance chinese tango. He loves to dance. So when he heard that I was in the company he was very happy and when I told him what I did ….he was like, ‘oh, ok.’ He had to get used to the idea but when I showed him a video on youtube of us performing he was very impressed. My mom and dad are very supportive and now they’re very happy that we’re doing this.

ELI

And we still have our female dance partners that are in the dance company…the girls, one is a mom, his dance partner…

YEN

…two kids…

ELI

…two kids so she can’t travel as much. My dance partner is still in school. Traveling for her won’t happen right now until she graduates.

JANETTE

So, when you were either kids or teenagers did you ever imagine, or did your parents ever imagine, that this is what you would be doing?

ELI

(long pause) …………….Hell no(group laugh).

JANETTE

Hell no?

ELI

Hell no….

JANETTE

What did you think you were going to be doing?

ELI

Well, I graduated with a business degree in management and I was getting ready to go into being a financial analyst?

JANETTE

Really???

ELI

Yeah, and I never thought that I was supposed to dance…….but ever since I discovered dance I just want to dance. That’s it. I wouldn’t even trade it.  I know I should have conquered school and I feel like I’m a little behind now because I don’t have all this dance training and I’m lacking the degree in dance but I still feel like this is my calling. This is what I was meant to do.

JANETTE

Amazing..(turning to Yen), what did you think you were going to be doing?

YEN

I thought I was going to be a doctor.(Yen laughs) But, I did find the middle of the road.  I just graduated last year from the University of Pennsylvania . I have a business degree from The Wharton School and I have a nursing degree from the school of nursing in UPENN,  I’m both a nurse with a business degree at the same time.  I’m a registered nurse right now and I’m going for my masters this coming year to become a nurse practitioner but I’m still going to continue pursuing dancing.  I didn’t quite make it to being a doctor but I guess being a nurse practitioner will give me enough time to dedicate to my artistic life.

ELI

So he kind of wants to 50/50 it….he wants to still do this and do that…

YEN

…because I think life is very multi-dimensional. It has to have many different levels, many different phases, otherwise you get bored with life. You can’t just do one thing. You have to have another thing on the side. That’s why people have hobbies.

JANETTE

Very good. So now, let’s go back to the Mayan. As you are aware, this is the very first time we’ve ever witnessed a same-gender couple win a major Salsa dance contest, did you experience any backlash as a result of this bold move?

ELI

Backlash?

JANETTE

Anything? Any criticism?

ELI

I did receive some…one of the competitors, I won’t mention her name, but she did give me a negative response. She said that I was lucky to have won. She gave me the finger in my chest like I was lucky.

JANETTE

Hard core like that?

ELI (Eli proceeds to go into an impersonation of her), Yeah, she said, ‘you got lucky!’  That stuff happens whether it’s female/male, male/male. I think it’s just people that just don’t appreciate each other as dancers sometimes. That stuff I just brush off my shoulders.

JANETTE

But, I think if you’re envied that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

ELI

Yeah, if you’re not spoken about you’re not important. Let them talk all they want because I must be doing something right……and they’re always going to talk badly and we expect it being same gender….

YEN

We expect going into anything we do, we expect them either to …..

ELI

…..boo us with a tomato….

YEN

…..or really like us. We expect anything, anything goes. We prepare for whatever happens. When we went to the Mayan, we said to each other whatever happens happens. Let’s let everything fall where it falls.

JANETTE

Really good so what are your career plans from this day forward?

ELI

I want to continue competing. I do teach professionally back home, I have a studio. If you want more information my site is www.elitorresdance.com. I teach full time, and I perform back home.  My plans for the future, I want to continue competing with him. I do want to compete with my female partner too. I don’t want people to just notice me because I’ve been dancing now for 9 years. People noticed me the first 6 years as a leader and I was starting to establish my name as a leader.  I like that and now I’m establishing my name as a follower. We get a lot of different reactions from people like last night some guy came over to him and said, ‘would you mind if I danced with him?’ We’re  not gay nor are we partners like that, people think they have to ask me to dance with him…..

YEN

…if anything we’re like brothers…

ELI

..it doesn’t bother me. I laugh at it but at the same time I know what they’re thinking and I don’t want that to….because I do want to re-establish myself again as a leader because I really love to lead.  I think that’s where I want to take it. I’m still going to compete with him. I’m still going to do this with him professionally but I want to show my leading skills and I want to continue competing if there’s any competitions coming around.

YEN

We want to take it globally too….

ELI

…take it globally yeah…

YEN

…go to Europe , Asia …

ELI

…travel more…

YEN

…and we feel as though we want to show people what Salsa can be, how it can be danced with technique and flavor and how versatile it can be,  how anybody can do it in any type of way. And we feel if we go onstage and we have people forget that it’s two guys dancing and just appreciate the art of dancing, that we’re doing what we want to represent. It’s not a statement of anything else or a sexual orientation. It’s not a political statement for us. It’s just showing art….

ELI

…and specifically my spins. That’s what I want to show because I haven’t seen many people do what I’m doing, female or male.  The fact is that I’m coming out with a bunch of creative forms. That’s what I want to be noticed for too as a follower. I’m not trying to be the female. I just want to show there’s so many things you can do as a follower as well as the lead.

JANETTE

Well, at this point, I don’t think traveling globally is going to be any problem. I think you definitely made your mark at the Mayan. I think that’s your take-off point. I wish you a lot of success with that. I have no doubt you’re going to achieve that.

JANETTE

Let me ask you what does a typical work week look like for you guys?

ELI

Well, he’s in school. For me it’s teaching everyday all day. During the day it’s privates and in the evenings it’s group classes. I teach monday through sunday, 7 days a week. It is getting popular. I had a little bit of a down time with the economy and people have to pay the bills and taking care of their kids but it’s coming back up because summer is here, so I’m teaching a lot.

JANETTE

Do you teach at one studio or several different studios?

ELI

One.

JANETTE

Do you own the studio?

ELI

Yes.

JANETTE

What’s the name of your studio?

ELI

EliT   Dance Academy .

JANETTE

How many hours a week do you dedicate to private and group lessons?

ELI

For privates I would say 30. Privates are more popular.  For the group classes I would say 8. So 38 hours total.

JANETTE

So how many hours do you dedicate to train yourself?

YEN

It’s very hard….

ELI

…..to train myself? when he’s free….it’s very hard actually. Believe it or not we don’t get enough time. I want to practice more and we don’t get the time to practice. Also it puts us in a very weird position when we go to congresses, we don’t get enough time to practice. It’s just very fortunate that we have a very nice connection with each other. It’s about 3 hours every other day, Tuesdays, Thursday and Sundays.

JANETTE

So about 9 hours a week you dedicate to practice? It seems like you dedicate a lot more time.

ELI

I wish. Sometimes my body is too dead to do it as I’m teaching all day and he’s ready and really spunked up

YEN

As a nurse usually you work 12 hour shifts and I work 3 or 4 days a week and sometimes we have to practice because we have to dance on the weekends. So I have to come out from a 12 hour shift to go to the studio and he has classes from …

ELI

…and I have a 10 hour day from classes, so we’re kind of forcing ourselves and basically it’s a rough time for muscle memory. At least if we get together for muscle memory for an hour we feel accomplished.

YEN

We feel comfortable.

JANETTE

Well, now that you say that, I don’t know about this next question. It seems like it doesn’t even fit. Other than Salsa what do you do for fun? It seems like there’s no time for fun.(group laugh)

YEN

Oh my gosh!

ELI

When I do have free time like in holidays I love to go to the movies. I love the movies. My fun is to relax. My fun is doing stuff at home. I’m a homebody. I like to be home, watch movies and be quiet.  I’m always listening to music and sometimes I just want to be quiet. I don’t want to go home and I don’t want any noise. No tv, nothing and I love being in my own apartment where I can have nothing, do nothing…

JANETTE

…..so that’s your sanctuary?….

ELI

….I love that, just some solo time, just some quiet time and the movies. I like to rollerblade and if I get a chance I go to the gym.

YEN

Same thing, after being in the hospital and you go home and you still hear things…… you’re still hearing the beats of the pump and sometimes you can go crazy because you’re in your room with no noise and all of a sudden you hear a ‘beep, beep’ because you’re so used to hearing all the med pumps at work. I swear sometimes I scare myself. I’m like ‘am I going crazy here?’ So I too like quiet time but I’m a tv fanatic. I could sit there and watch tv forever. That’s how I relax. I lay in my bed watch tv. Outside of that I like bowling, going to the movies, running, rollerblading, just hanging out with our friends. We’ve made a lot of friends out of the company and just kind of hanging out with them. We do other stuff with them that’s not Salsa, not related to Salsa…

ELI

Our relax time is totally not Salsa.

JANETTE

Do your co-workers know that you dance as well as your patients?

YEN

Yeah

JANETTE

….and what do they say? Do you show them videos?

YEN

…actually, because it’s the hospital you really can’t show YouTube videos but some of them know. My boss definitely knows and they are actually very supportive with my schedule. They allow me to switch my days so I can make an event for the weekend.

JANETTE

So what did they say when you told them, ‘I’m going to LA. I’m going to Hollywood?’

YEN

..actually, they don’t know yet…

JANETTE

They don’t know yet?

YEN

…well because we decided to keep this a little down low.

ELI

We didn’t say anything to anybody, not even anyone in Philly knew we were actually coming to LA…

YEN

…yeah, until the very next day when we won, thank God we won, everybody knew..

ELI

…well, sometimes you say stuff so much and then you jinx it. So it’s better to keep things you know…

YEN

…keep it to ourselves. So no one at my job knows that I’m a champion. For them I’m just a nurse.(I laugh). A regular nurse.

JANETTE

What do you refer to this music? Do you refer to it as Salsa or mambo?

ELI

Both, because I love dancing on 2 as well as on 1.

JANETTE

Ok. So what does Salsa/mambo, music/dancing mean to you?

ELI

For me everything. It’s my life. That’s it. Because even when I’m frustrated, I dance, I dance that off. When I’m happy and I dance, I dance even happier. My emotions come all out in my dance.

JANETTE

..and when you’re sad?

ELI

Everything. I feel like that’s all I need to make myself feel better. So for me it means everything. That’s why I don’t really plan anything else but expanding my studio and continue teaching indefinitely. So this is everything for me. I found total passion in this and that’s why I want to do this all the time.

YEN

For me, at first it was a hobby but since I’ve been so immersed into this whole Salsa scene and community, it’s becoming my second life….because I have my one professional life and I have my Salsa life…and now it’s definitely not a hobby. I take it more seriously than I did before because now that we’re champions and now we’re trying to expand the Eli and Yen brand all over the world, we take it as a business. So I have a business degree and he has a business degree it’s going to help us with promoting EliT Dance.

JANETTE

There’s an article that came out with Tiger Woods and I believe it’s called, “5 Rules for Total Domination” and he’s obviously one that’s dominated golfing. He says the #1 element is having unlimited reservoirs of passion but yet maintaining total emotional control over what you do.

ELI

Interesting.

JANETTE

It sounds like what you described to me is just that. Because there are champions but then there are world class champions and the rest. Make sense?

ELI

Total sense.

JANETTE

Right now who are your favorite Salsa artists?

ELI

El Gran Combo. I like them a lot. La Sonora Poncena and…..

JANETTE

Are you puerto-rican?

ELI

Yes.

JANETTE

That’s what I thought.

ELI

Gilberto Santa Rosa .

JANETTE

Oh, yeah, he’s great.

ELI

..sometimes I like those really soft ones, Eddie Santiago..

YEN

…La Sonora Poncena, Celia Cruz, Tito Puente, Angel Canales….., Eddie Palmieri….

ELI

….oh yeah!

YEN

…very jazzy, I like that..

JANETTE

..gotta dig that piano… he’s bad!

JANETTE

Who are your favorite Salsa dancer artists?

ELI

Frankie Martinez has been my influence in my body movements. I like watching him. I love the way he has total control of his body. So when I think of body movement and I think of putting something together in choreography I think of how he would interpret that. For ladies styling, I’ve always loved Griselle Ponce….she’s sexy!..She’s like sex on the dance floor..

YEN

You might want to edit that out.

ELI

I L-O-V-E Griselle Ponce!

JANETTE

We’ll put sexy.

ELI

…..and male I like Adolfo and his combinations and the way he puts his choreography together. I like the way he thinks with all his turn patterns. Also John and Liz, they’re one of my favorites. I love the way they work together. They work very nice together.

YEN

For me in terms of a group that inspires me right now it’s Salsamania, John and Liz’s group. Just yesterday, we we’re watching Son de Mania, the semi-pro team and we were admiring the fact the couples on stage mimic exactly how John and Liz dance…

ELI

..they were so in sync, just watching them on the floor, ‘is that John and Liz?’ or ‘is that their company?’ You can see that they work really hard.

YEN

..to train people to have your own style and to convey that on the stage it takes a lot of work and we appreciate that. They are wonderful performers. They’re wonderful teachers. They’re wonderful social dancers. I like that about them….

ELI

…and they’re humble. That’s one thing that I like. You like certain people because of they’re talent but when they have a total overall package, it’s even better because you feel so much more comfortable talking to them. There’s no standoff-ish type feeling there. You come in and you’re comfortable, you’re ready to talk, you’re ready to exchange talent and knowledge. I like working with them.

YEN

We dance on 1 when we compete, but we borrow on 2 styling and blend on 1 and 2 styling together. Eddie Torres has a wonderful on 2 style and he taught Adolfo Indacochea.

ELI

…and taught Frankie Martinez.    So mambo is actually coming from Eddie Torres, so recognition to him big time.  We also like Tito and Tamara because their choreography is very creative and just beautiful.

JANETTE

Describe to us what is the Salsa scene in Philadelphia like?

ELI

It’s getting bigger. It’s doing well actually. Philly is also starting to get recognized as having good dancers because when we would go out of town people would say, ‘oh, where you from?’ and we’d say, ‘Philly, Philly’s got dancers? ‘Philly?’ So they’d give us that look like ‘really?’ But now they’re starting to recognize, ‘oh Philly.’ They’re no longer saying, ‘Philly?’with a question mark. They’re starting to recognize that Philly has talent.

JANETTE

Well I think you’ve definitely stamped it on the Salsa map.

ELI

That’s good.

JANETTE

So what cities have you traveled to perform and compete?

ELI

This year we went to Hawaii , San Francisco , Texas , Orlando …

YEN

..Virginia,

ELI

..Los Angeles,

YEN

… New York ..

ELI

..we definitely traveled more this year taking this to the next level. It’s helping us getting recognize that we’re trying to make this work and have people take us seriously.

YEN

…and the interesting factor for us is that the ballroom world is actually also welcoming us: two guys dancing not in competitions but actual regular ballroom events. They’ve actually been welcoming us more and they’ve warmed up to our act…

ELI

…right because the ballroom world can look down upon Salsa dancers..

JANETTE

..absolutely..

ELI

..because they treat us, ‘oh these street dancers!’ I don’t even like the terminology these ’street dancers.’ I like to say that we do have talent and we can do a lot of stuff as much as they can do it’s just how everybody works on how they do it….

YEN

..and they’ve been appreciating it a lot. So we’re very happy that we’re breaking through the Salsa world and the ballroom world. I hope that we can be liaisons between these two worlds because sometimes there can be a little division between them.

ELI

Going back to Philly because we went off on a tangent, Philly is moving up now. We have a lot more dancers in Philly. I’m proud to say that.

JANETTE

What about clubs? What about bands?

ELI

Bands in Philadelphia. . .we have a local band, Jorge y su Latin Express. They’re moving up. I think they’re very good.

YEN

New artists, Annette Carrion.

ELI

…a new Salsa artist. She just came out with her new cd and she’s from Philadelphia .

JANETTE

What about clubs?

ELI

Clubs, we have a club every night.

JANETTE

..oh good..

ELI

..Monday through Sunday we have a club…

JANETTE

…just one or several?…

YEN

..several, we have an event every single night there’s Salsa dancing..

ELI

..and it’s good because the students get to go out wherever they want to practice.

JANETTE

Other than Philly, what is your favorite city to dance Salsa? Where have you had the most fun?

ELI

San Francisco .

JANETTE

Yeah? Why is that?

YEN

Very welcoming. Humble people over there when we went for John and Liz’s Salsa Festival everybody was just so welcoming. They just wanted to dance nothing else.

ELI

It reminded me when I was first dancing where I was dancing all the time. They were very welcoming. We had a good time..

YEN

…and sometimes we know some salseros get carried away and they just want to show off on the dance floor, but in San Francisco we felt everyone just wanted to dance, just social dance, it’s not about showing off. It’s just about having fun so we had the most fun there and we were dancing with Adolfo and his partner, Carla, from Italy . They were there so we had fun dancing with them…

ELI

…that’s when all the dancers do the best when they’re actually having fun. When they’re thinking about it, they’re thinking about who’s watching and who’s doing what…and I think that when we get to a certain level sometimes that takes over too much. That holds everybody back. You have to be able to recognize that you’re moving up but stay humble because if not it turns off many people..

JANETTE

….Yes, and we go back to that maintaining that emotional control. That has a lot to do with it. Never stop your growth.

ELI

To never think you can’t learn something new.

JANETTE

Exactly.

My last question to you is and I’ll finish with a comment. If you were to do everything all over again what would you do differently?

YEN

Not holding back at the Worlds.(Yen and Eli laugh)

ELI

..because we did, because we were really nervous to see if they would accept us…

YEN

..we held back a lot at the ESPN Worlds..

JANETTE

….held back what?…

YEN

…everything…

ELI

…..I felt like we didn’t dance at all like I was supposed to dance..

YEN

…we didn’t style as much as we wanted to….

ELI

…I just didn’t know what they were going to think and I let that kill me at the moment.

JANETTE

You allowed it to throw you out of the game?

ELI

It threw me all off. And so I went out there not nervous but thinking about what they were going to think.

YEN

We got worried about what everyone was going to think about us than just doing us. So we would do that…

ELI

…each and every time that I would have done something I would have done it more like a performance should be…

YEN

…not holding back anything…

ELI

…at times, I felt like we could have done even much better if I didn’t hold back and so now we’re going for it.

JANETTE

But don’t you agree that the experience is what helped you make that decision?

ELI

Right.

YEN

Yep.

ELI

It was a bonus and a minus. A plus and minus because it helped….

YEN

…it helped us grow professionally and we realized if we’re going to do this we need to do it 100% not just give it 50%. If we’re gonna style, we’re gonna style as a follower and leader should style. We need to perform it how it should be performed. No more thinking about what they were going to think. Just do your performance. Do us, and then let the crowd respond.

JANETTE

Very good.

I was judging the Mayan contest in the semi-final round. Every time they switch the judges from semi-final to final round. So they call me for different things so this year I thought, ‘what article am I going to write if I won’t be a deciding factor for the finals?’ My thought was I’ll just interview the winning couple!(group laugh)

ELI

I thought you were going to be a judge actually.

JANETTE

Yes, I thought, I’ll do that and me just thinking hands down it was going to go to Christian Oveido and Liz Lira and so then I see you guys and said holy *%^^!(group laugh). It was very awkward for me. I never thought I was going to to come up to you and say, ‘excuse me, can I interview you guys?’ But then I thought how interesting this interview was going to be.

ELI

Christian and Liz were very good competition. I actually love the fact that we competed against them.

YEN

Yes.

ELI

I love competing against really good talent…

YEN

..really good people..

ELI

..I want them to motivate me…

JANETTE

…absolutely….

ELI

That’s what motivates me. Instead of it being an intimidation factor, I love it when there’s 10 of all of us. Imagine that? You know how good of a show we would give everybody? I think we would all work so hard….

JANETTE

…because Christian and Liz had dominated the semi-final round, I had completely ruled out the international category, because let’s face it they’ve never really done anything. I wasn’t thinking there would be any competition, but on the other hand you never know who’s going to show up. But that night was wham in your face! All the rules were changed! All the rules were broken!

YEN

…before going to the Mayan one of our friends in Texas told us, ‘you do know that no one in the 14 years in the history of the Mayan, no international couple has ever won the Mayan?’

JANETTE

That’s why I ruled that category out.

YEN

Right. So we were kind of a little bit discouraged coming into the Mayan but we were like, ‘you know what….’

ELI

I just wanted to show our talent…

YEN

…let’s just do this. We were thinking, ‘look what happened to us at worlds?’ We held back. No, just do us. so we did…

ELI

…and surprisingly, the crowd loved it…

YEN

…yeah…

JANETTE

…I’m telling you they went ballistic…

ELI

…and we had nobody in that crowd…

JANETTE

…..that’s when you know…

YEN

….we didn’t know anyone there. We only had one friend.(I start cracking up) Our one friend came over…

ELI

…..from Philadelphia and she said, ‘you guys are going to be good.’(group laugh). So we told her, ‘yell at the top of her lungs because you’re the only person we have.’ But everyone was so supportive. That was really nice..

JANETTE

Also, the feedback on the internet was very supportive. Everyone was commenting on how you were so refreshing, different, entertaining, it was great to watch. It was everything.

JANETTE

I’m just so glad that we were able to do this interview live in person.(Since Yen and Eli were flying back to Philly after the contest we were contemplating doing a telephone interview).

ELI

I wanted to do it in person because I wanted you to see our expressions.

JANETTE

Absolutely. Going back to the ESPN I think if anything that was the greatest practice you could have done being that it’s the biggest competition there is. To have made that decision at such a big event was your turning point.

ELI

…and we do plan on doing it again..

JANETTE

Good.

And the last book I want to leave you guys with and I know you’re going to love this book, because I’m into reading a lot. This is a must read for you. It’s a book you will study, study, study. It’s called “177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class,” by Steven Seibold. Get that one and read the article with Tiger Woods.

ELI

That would be nice.

YEN

..I’d like to read them! I like to read.

ELI

(turning to Yen)You can read them and tell me all about it. I don’t like to read that much,

but um..

JANETTE

…You know what? This book is more like lessons and it’s a book that you’ll really study. What I really really really encourage you to do, looking back now at my career, is to journal everything that you’re currently doing because when you look back these are going to be the best moments of your life. You’ll have recorded everything that you’re going through, just journal it, journal it, journal it and I promise looking back you’ll be so glad you did…

YEN

…then 20 years from now we’ll be like, ‘Oh my gosh, we can’t believe we went to the Mayan to compete as two guys.’….

ELI

…and I’ll be like, ‘what was I thinking?’(Yen laughs)

JANETTE

…and all that stuff could end up becoming a book. You never know. People are hungry for these stories..

ELI

…that would be a good idea…

JANETTE

….they really are and we have to acknowledge the fact there are many people out there that don’t get to experience things that you’ve experienced but yet they want to live through you and want to know these things. What’s holding them back is either the fear and or the fact that they don’t believe in themselves. And so, if we could share our stories from people exactly like yourselves that never thought they would be doing this, you could make a strong impact.

YEN

Many people have come up to us and told us we’ve inspired them….

ELI

…we’ve been an inspiration for them to try new things….

YEN

….because many people get so nervous when they’re about to perform onstage and they say, ‘if you guys as two guys went up there and did what you guys did and you guys weren’t nervous and not anxious but you still had the courage to go onstage and do what you did, why can’t I do that to?’

ELI

…and that feels good to have inspired somebody else because I’ve been inspired by all you guys that I was watching until I became noticed now. I know what they’re feeling and for me to be inspirational to somebody else I feel like that’s great.

JANETTE

Where it starts is with this love for dancing. You’re just in it so in it because you love it so much that you have zero clue that you’re inspiring people. When they start telling you and you start to see the impact that you’re having then you realize, oh my God, it’s transcends from inspiring people to empowering people.  You are truly empowering them with what you do..

So I wish you more, no, I don’t have to wish you success. You are already success and you are going to achieve more and go farther and farther.

ELI

We’ll take blessings.

JANETTE

I will bless you from this day forward.(of course we’re being totally silly now)

ELI

We always thank God. He is always by our side.

JANETTE

Thank you so much for taking the time.

ELI and YEN

Thank you. It was really nice of you.

JANETTE

It was fun.

Janette teaches at Mama Juanas on Saturday evenings in studio city, www.mamajuanas.com

and The Artists Studio on Sunday afternoon in Burbank, www.theartists-studio.com