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Come join Rhythmology at Passion Lounge for a HOT NEW weekly Wednesday night social!

**7pm Complimentary Salsa Lesson**

**Free Buffet**

**Admission**
Ladies FREE
$10/GuestList (say Rhythmology @ door)
$12 non GuestList

Billy Fajardo and Katie Marlow are in demand all over the world as performers, educators and adjudicators. This couple holds the distinction of versatility. Their ability to work equally well in both the partner/ballroom dances as well as theatrical dance arts has had them in demand throughout numerous dance circuits across the globe. Billy and Katie are the only couple in the history of the United States to hold two concurrent World Titles in the same year.

Billy and Katie hold the following Titles and Awards:
• 1999 United States Hustle Dance Champions
• 2000 US Open Swing Cabaret Champions
• 2000 IDO World Salsa Silver Medalists
• 2000 IDO World Merengue Silver Medalists
• 2002 IDO World Cabaret Exhibition Champions
• 2002 IDO World Disco Hustle Champions
• 2002 NADC Cabaret Champions
• 2004 Augie and Margo Rodriguez Award for Iconic Performance
• 2005 West Coast Salsa Congress Honorees for Contributions to Salsa Dance World
• 2008 “Albert Award” Honorees for Contributions to the
• Salsa Dance World at the Spain Salsa Festival

Recent Performances: In addition to the numerous dance congresses and festivals across the globe, some of Billy and Katie’s recent performances include a featured performance on the Main Stage for the Superbowl XLI VIP Tailgate Party. They were featured guest artists for the Broadway Cares Latin Rhythms show with musical theatre legend Chita Rivera in New York City, and were featured artists for a recent honorary performance with the Miami City Ballet. They also were delighted to be featured in concert with the World renowned Latin star, Gilberto Santa Rosa. Billy and Katie have been featured on ESPN for the World Salsa Championships. Other featured performances include Radio City Music Hall, Lincoln Center’s a Midsummer Night’s Swing, James L Knight Center with Gloria Gaynor and the Trammps, Love Music Concert Hong Kong with Eason Chan and Guests, Broadway’s “Swing” revue on the QEII with Anne Hampton Callaway, and many others¡K.. Billy and Katie were also part of a historic performance at the Great Wall of China in Beijing for the China Salsa Congress.

Adjudicating/Education: In addition to their performances, Billy and Katie are proud to be the head judge and scrutineer for the ground breaking World Salsa Championships being shown worldwide on ESPN. They also adjudicated and supervised the nationally run Newport Rhythm and Sound Dance Competition. Both Billy and Katie have achieved Licentiate degrees from the Imperial Society of Dance for Theatre Arts. As educators, they are known to be the “instructor’s instructors” – coaching many of the major headliners and title holders in the world for the Salsa, Latin Hustle and Ballroom competitive dance circuits. Their instructional Latin Hustle dance DVD’s are the top selling DVD’s in the world for this style of dance.

Choreography/Production: The pair recently was brought in for a second time to choreograph for the internationally acclaimed Las Vegas production of “Havana Nights”. In years past, Billy was the choreographer for the legendary Combinacion Perfecta tour, starring such artists as Tito Puente and Celia Cruz. The dancing on this tour helped to shape the future for modern salsa dance performances. His company the Disco Dance Dimensions appeared on national television for 4 seasons on NBC.
Katie has been the Creative Director since 1995 for Dancesation! Productions; an event production and entertainment company that produces customized entertainment packages for Fortune 500 companies. Recent performances for Dancesation include such well known companies as General Mills, Elizabeth Arden, Trump International, Crystal Cruises, ATT, Home Depot, Siemens Westinghouse, the list goes on and on…

Billy and Katie are also owners and producers of five successful international dance events and competitions including the renowned International Hustle and Salsa Competition in Miami which just completed its ninth sell-out year.

RUMBA.. is a dance term with two quite different meanings.

First, it means Cuban event of African style, organically related to the rumba genre of Afro-Cuban music. There are several styles of this rumba, the most common being the guaguancó.^[1]

 Second, it refers to one of the ballroom dances which occurs in social dance and in international competitions. In this sense, rumba is the slowest of the five competitive International Latin dances: the paso doble, the samba, the cha-cha-cha and the jive being the others. This ballroom rumba was also danced in Cuba to a rhythm they call the bolero-son; the international style was derived from studies of dance in Cuba in the pre-revolutionary period.^[2]

 Cuban rumba

The Afro-Cuban rumba is entirely different from the ballroom rumba: see guaguanco.

Rumba outside Cuba

Ballroom rumba derives its movements and music from the son, just as do the salsa and mambo. The Peanut Vendor was the first recording of Cuban music to become an international hit:^[3] it was described on the label as a rumba, perhaps because the word son would not be understood in English. The label stuck, and a rumba craze developed through the 1930s. This kind of rumba was introduced into dance salons in America and Europe in the 1930s, and was characterized by variable tempo, sometimes nearly twice as fast as the modern ballroom rumba.

 Ballroom Rumba

The modern style of dancing the rumba derives from studies made by dance teacher Monsieur Pierre (Pierre Zurcher-Margolle), who partnered Doris Lavelle.^[4][5] Pierre, then from London, visited Cuba in 1947, 1951 and 1953 to find out how and what Cubans were dancing at the time.^[6]

The international ballroom rumba is a slower dance of about 120 beats per minute which corresponds, both in music and in dance to what the Cubans of an older generation called the bolero-son. It is easy to see why, for ease of reference and for marketing, rumba is a better name, however inaccurate; it is the same kind of reason that led later on to the use of salsa as an overall term for popular music of Cuban origin.

All social dances in Cuba involve a hip-sway over the standing leg and, though this is scarcely noticeable in fast salsa, it is more pronounced in the slow ballroom rumba.^[7] In general, steps are kept compact and the dance is danced generally without any rise and fall. This style is authentic, as is the use of free arms in various figures. The basic figures^[8] derive from dance moves observed in Havana in the pre-revolutionary period, and have developed their own life since then. Competition figures are often complex, and this is where competition dance separates from social dance. Details can be obtained from the syllabi of dance teaching organizations and from standard texts.^[9][10][11]

Box figure

Rumba box figure

There is also a variant, sometimes danced in the U.S.A., with box-like basic figures. This version has been generally supplanted by the international style in competitions, but may still be danced socially.

Marcela Figueroa.
Marcela Figueroa, se gradúo en la Escuela Gustavo Franklin en Caracas Venezuela, inmediatamente ingresando al Ballet Nacional de Caracas, con Vicente Nebrada como director Artístico y corógrafo, en donde comienza su labor extensa como Bailarina Principal, al poco tiempo de haber comenzado en la misma. Marcela Figueroa dentro de su carrera artística ha tenido la dicha de trabajar por los próximos quince años en diferentes compañías de los Estados Unidos de America en donde su repertorio se amplia aun mas bailando e interpretando hermosas y significativas piezas coreográficas junto a corógrafos como Santón Welch, Cinthia Gregory, Nana Badrena, entre otros. Marcela Figueroa se une al Staff del Western Ballet Theatre, como Bailarina/Profesora/Maestra Principal/Pilates. Para el área oeste y sus municipios adyacentes es un privilegio contar con tan admirable profesora. Actualmente reside en Puerto Rico junto a su amado esposo y sus dos hermosas gemelas.
Las clases comenzaran a partir del Sábado 30 de enero, en los estudios del Western Ballet, a las 11:00 AM Ballet y 12:30 PM Pilates, para información llame al 787 506 5933