She never knew that salsa existed until she heard salsa music for the first time when she was 20 years old. She was a Junior in college in Alabama when she began dating a young man who was born and raised in Cuba. He introduced her to the music of Marc Anthony, DLG, and Frankie Ruiz and before long she was hooked. He also showed her the basic cumbia step. A few months later, she saw people dancing salsa, merengue, and bachata at the wedding anniversary of a Dominican couple while she was spending the summer of 1998 in New Orleans working for her cousin. There was something about salsa that drew her in immediately. Especially after seeing the movie Dance With Me in 1999, she was eager to learn all that she could about salsa and soon developed a passion for it. However, she quickly realized that the salsa dance scene was non-existent in Alabama and she became very frustrated. She had to wait 2 years after learning the basic step before she was able to dance on a regular basis. In the meantime, she learned some cumbia steps while studying abroad in the Dominican Republic during the Fall of 1999. One of the female students in the study abroad program was a salsa dancer that had a smooth natural style. Joy was fascinated when she would watch this young lady dance at the club. She became even more motivated to learn hoping that some day she would be able to dance on her level.
Joy moved to North Carolina shortly after graduating from college in May 2000. She actually was coming to visit some friends and family in North Carolina and had no intention of staying. Her first week in North Carolina, she went out to three different salsa clubs. She was in “Salsa Heaven.” During her second week, when she should have been focusing on her trip back home to Florida, she was making plans to stay in N.C.
She learned the basics of salsa by dancing with experienced dance partners at local salsa clubs and by watching beginning salsa videos. The first style of salsa she learned was Miami style casino rueda. Because of the dedication and patience of one of her dance partners and her ability to learn steps quickly, Joy began dancing with a casino rueda group within less than a month of moving to N.C. The group performed at Salsa Carolina during the Summer of 2000 and performed at a few Latin festivals including Fiesta del Pueblo in Chapel Hill.
Joy attended her first Salsa Convention in Washington D.C. in October 2000 and was amazed at the different styles and caliber of the dancers who attended. She was intrigued by many of the ‘on 2’ dancers including Ismael Otero and Yesenia Peralta of New Jersey and James and Milton Cobo of North Carolina. She was also fascinated by Super Mario of London, who was mainly an ‘on 1’ dancer at the time. After being inspired by so many of the dancers at the convention, she began dancing L.A. style ‘on 1’. During the months of January and May 2001, she organized four salsa workshops featuring Super Mario. In March, she went to “Pontins,” a salsa convention that is held in England and she was Super Mario’s partner for his workshops. She was highly impressed by the level of the dancers at the convention who came from countries such as England, Ireland, and Switzerland.
While social dancing with Super Mario her dancing improved significantly. First and foremost, he taught her how to listen to the music and find the count and stay on the beat!! After that, there was no more looking down at her partners feet if she got off step. Her following also improved as she was challenged by all the innovative turn patterns he had up his sleeve. He also had her focus on doing more shines and helped improve her multiple spins. She is grateful for the efforts he made to develop her skill as a dancer.
She kept on practicing and learning by frequenting the salsa clubs and in July 2001, she met her current dance partner, Betto Herrera. The first weekend he visited Montas, she was in Florida visiting her family, but she heard from a friend that there was a new dancer at the club that had a nice style. She went to Montas the following Saturday and after dancing the first salsa with her friend John, Betto approached her and asked her to dance. She could tell right away that he had some sort of background in salsa and was very curious to find out where he learned. She soon found out that he had taken classes from an instructor in New Jersey and that he shared the same passion for salsa as she did. They both consider themselves to be “Salsaholics.”
Joy and Betto began dancing together every weekend. They admired the style of the New York Mambo dancers and decided to begin dancing Mambo ‘on 2’ in November 2001. Because of their strong understanding of the music, it only took them two weekends to convert from dancing ‘on 1’ to ‘on 2’. Joy considers herself an ‘on 2’ dancer but will never forget the cumbia, Miami, and L.A. styles ‘on 1’ that she learned. She looks forward to developing her skills as a dancer and instructor and is grateful that after 22 years, she finally has salsa in her life.
