Dominicans are the best salsa dancers - Sonia Sotomayor

AlterEgo

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Sonia Sotomayor says Dominicans are the best salsa dancers: ‘Never dance with a Cuban’

Sonia Sotomayor has weighed in on some of the country’s most controversial topics, but her most recent ruling had a dancing flair to it.

When it comes to dancing salsa, “the best dancers in terms of keeping a beat are Dominicans, the worst are Cubans. Dominicans have big, big steps,” the Supreme Court Justice said during a Yale alumni reception honoring her, Justice Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, according to The Washington Post.

Thomas, who laughed at her comment, interrupted Sotomayor and declared her observation a matter of profiling.

“It is, but it proves itself right a lot,” explained Sotomayor, who comes from a Puerto Rican family from New York. “Cubans have these very tight little steps. Never dance with a Cuban. And Puerto Ricans I can dance with, too.”

Sotomayor, 60, revealed that she was a “potted plant” who never learned the steps, even though she was often invited to events where salsa was played. She even took some lessons about 10 years ago.

“I cannot keep a beat to save my life,” she said. “But I have a facility that some of my colleagues would find very strange: I can follow.”

Alito, with whom Sotomayor tends to frequently disagree, said it was “a revelation to know that Sonia likes to follow.”

“I think we’re going to start dancing in the conference room,” he said.

Sonia Sotomayor says Dominicans are the best salsa dancers:

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/...es-dominican-men-have-best-salsa-beat-n234796
 

dulce

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Sonia Sotomayor is entitled to her opinion but mine is different than hers.
I think Puerto Ricans dance salsa better. I can follow a Puerto Rican dancing salsa but not a Domincan.
Dominicans try too much fancy stuff when dancing salsa. Hence it does not even look or feel like salsa.
Puerto Ricans dance the dance without trying to change it. It is fancy enough already.
 

Lucifer

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Jun 26, 2012
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And since I WAS SALSA when Salsa wasn't cool, I agree with dulce: Puerto Ricans are the best.
 

Salsafan

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Cubans get salsa with mothers milk. Others have to learn it, with costs. The only ones in DR who can salsa are the teachers in clubs, and they are very good.
 

Africaida

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Jun 19, 2009
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One word : delusional

Colombian, PR and Cuban are in another league plain simple. At this point, young PRican dance very little cause they grew up listening to reggaeton (salsa is for old timers), so Colombian (particularly from Cali) and Cuban blow them away although they have a very different styles.
 
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bachata

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Sonia Sotomayor is entitled to her opinion but mine is different than hers.
I think Puerto Ricans dance salsa better. I can follow a Puerto Rican dancing salsa but not a Domincan.
Dominicans try too much fancy stuff when dancing salsa. Hence it does not even look or feel like salsa.
Puerto Ricans dance the dance without trying to change it. It is fancy enough already.
Agreed with you Dulce, I hate to see how theses new generation of Dominicans dance salsa.

Back in the 80s we used to dance salsa now it looks like a ballet.

JJ
 

islandhopping

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The PR style dancing on 2, Seems to have street rawness, from observing the guys, the women move a little like Columbia style. I have only seen a couple of PR's dance outside of the island. Colombian, has the cumbia influence, I like their style of music. I can not say I have seen them dance without a cumbia influence while on the floor.
I am fond of the Cuban style, on 1, more than any other. There are some accents and variations they bring to salsa. I am sure all styles have it, I am just sold on the Cuban variation.

For me Cuban and Colombian salsa music and dance does not feel and sound as a carbon copy the other songs..
I looked for salsa spots in DR on my last trip. I only saw the better dancers during about 20 minutes during the whole night at one place. I was disappointed on Venezuela Avenue at all the clubs. The Colonial Zone was only slightly a little better. Of course there is more Bachata in DR than anything, which I enjoy.

Typically many salsa classes have a lot of competition level moves in it, which is not necessary for the average social dancer.
 
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Dominican salsa dancers the best? En su piensamientos quizas.

Los PR y los Cubanos lo matan por la pista mi hija....

The tempo dictates the size of the pasos. Quick is small, slow is bigger. I like PR salsa well enough but find it usually much slower than the Cuban salsa, which is closer to their original rumba.
 

Julia31

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weird..when I was clubbing in the DR as soon as they started playing salsa the dancefloor emptied and only a few people remained and these ones danced well. But I know a lot of dominicans who cannot dance salsa at all. I like the playfull cuban salsa that does not take itself so serious..never saw that in the DR though
 

the gorgon

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Dominican salsa dancers the best? En su piensamientos quizas.

Los PR y los Cubanos lo matan por la pista mi hija....

The tempo dictates the size of the pasos. Quick is small, slow is bigger. I like PR salsa well enough but find it usually much slower than the Cuban salsa, which is closer to their original rumba.

Dominican salsa dancers are, in the main, clueless. when you have spent many a night in places like Broadway 96, the Corso, and clubs like that, watching Puerto Ricans dance, then you realize that apart from a few guys, Dominicans are not in the same league. it is just like saying that people from another country can dance better bachata than a Dominican.
 

Lucifer

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Jun 26, 2012
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Well, Africaida may be right: young PRs may not be as good. But has anybody ever gone to a fiestas patronales in small town Puerto Rico? I've been there, and when those 40-something hit the floor, even the young ones are in awe.
 

AlterEgo

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I've been there, and when those 40-something hit the floor, even the young ones are in awe.

Agreed with you Dulce, I hate to see how theses new generation of Dominicans dance salsa.

Back in the 80s we used to dance salsa now it looks like a ballet.

JJ

I'm thinking you two might have hit the nail on the head. Sonia S is 60 years old - she's probably referring to older Dominicans, Cubans & Puerto Ricans, not the current club set.

There's definitely a difference in the dancing style of a 30 yr old Dominican and a 65 yr old Dominican, even the posture is different.
 

Salsafan

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Many dominicans have an odd style: the man starts with his right foot forward. I havn't seen it elsewhere. It makes it difficult to dance with a woman whose has learned it that way.
 

the gorgon

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i went to a dance school on Broadway called Dancesport to learn the salsa ,at the same time Al Pacino was being taught the tango for his scene in Scent of a Woman. there i saw the best salsa dancer i have ever seen; a white kid from Connecticut. our instructor was a girl from Norway.
 

CristoRey

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I guess Sonia Sotomayor has never been to one of the clubs in San Juan, PR on a Saturday night. This topic
is definitely a matter of opinion.