EDDIE TORRES
The Mambo King
by Angel Ortiz
The Internet’s First Exclusive Interview
(1999)
Quotes from the Eddie Torres interview
"I am not the message, I am the messenger".
"It became an obsession, a driven obsession".
"I was always on "2" but didn’t know it".
"Our dance needs to be recognized, to be developed to a professional
level"
On February 16, 1999, I met with Eddie Torres at Jimmy’s Bronx Cafe where the following interview was conducted. Mr. Torres is considered a pioneer and it is through his teaching and natural dance abilities that many dancers can proudly say, "I’ve learned from Eddie Torres". I should know. I’m one of them. For the past nine years, I have been involved in the New York mambo scene. For six of those years, I was a principle dancer with the Eddie Torres Dance Company. Since departing his company, I’ve traveled around the world imparting and sharing with others the "Eddie Torres Technique" mixed with my own style. It has been a winning combination. The Eddie Torres technique is recognized around the world.
So it is with great pride that I share with you this exclusive interview. Exclusive in that it is the first time Mr. Torres is interviewed for the Internet. In addition, you will read facts about his life not revealed in other interviews...
For Eddie Torres, it started when he was 16 years of age and attracted to a particular young lady. She knew how to dance and he did not. Compelled to prove to himself and probably to her that he could learn and dance well, Eddie Torres embarked on dance mission that has now spanned over 30 years.
Recognized as "The Mambo King", Mr. Torres recently received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 1st Annual Salsaweb Convention held in Washington, D.C. April 28 – May 2nd 1999. From performing at Ford Theatre for the president of the United States (George Bush) to touring with the legendary Tito Puente, his credits read like a who’s who list. Mr. Torres has shown his commitment and love to the dance. His natural talent for choreography and his perseverance over the years has catapulted him to be acknowledged as the undisputed " Mambo King". When no one else believed in promoting the Mambo, when most believed it was just a fad, Mr. Torres planted his dancing feet and stood his ground. He has positively touched many lives through the art of dance. For all his achievements, and many more to come, the Lifetime Achievement Award is well deserved.
INTERVIEW
Angel: How long have you been involved in dancing and what was
the catalyst?
ET: I started dancing at the age of 16. I now have over 30 years
involved in dancing. It all started because I was attracted to this young
lady but I didn’t know how to dance and she did. I was somewhat heartbroken
because she would not pay that much attention to me but did to this other
fellow who happened to know how to dance. So one day I made up my mind
to learn how to dance so that this wouldn’t happen to me ever again.
I was actually 15 years old but was dancing by the age of 16. In fact,
it was my sister who helped me to learn how to dance because she was already
a dancer. She didn’t have much patience for me but she helped me
get started with the basics. Her nickname was "Shorty" but her
real name was Elia Torres. She was the"dancer" of the family.
I remember always asking her to take me to the clubs. It’s funny because she would answer me by saying, "You’re crazy!" "I don’t want to be seen in a nightclub with you looking like that".(Eddie laughs) Then after about 7 years of dancing and becoming better at it, she used to beg me to go dancing with her! Then she would ask me, "Eddie, would you go to clubs with me?" Then I would answer, "No, not with you looking like that". I turned it around on her and I used to tell her, "Hey, those are old moves, I’ve got new moves!!!" So we used to joke with each other like that.
Angel: While in your youth, which types of music did you listen
to what were your favorites at the time?
ET: Right at the top, I’d have to say Tito Puente because
you know that’s been the biggest inspiration for me and the work
that I’ve done in choreography has been to Tito’s music. I have
practically dedicated my whole life to working with his music. I almost
feel like my whole life was to come down (from heaven) and work as a choreographer.
I used to tell Tito that his music is a choreographer's dream. The top
names when I was growing up was Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Ricardo Ray,
Ray Barretto, Larry Harlow, Pacheco, Machito, and Tito Rodriguez (which
by the way I managed to see one time and danced in the same venue). There
were others as well. Eddie Palmieri was really happening at the time.
Angel: Was music something that called your attention or were
there other hobbies?
ET: I started out with the interest in music and I always, always
liked to play the piano, Angel. My mother bought me an organ. I would
sit there for hours just playing and making up melodies. The piano was
something that I thought one day, well, I would grow up to be a pianist.
(THIS IS AN EXCLUSIVE!!). A lot of people don’t realize the connection
I have with Tito Puente. When you look at it, we’re both born in
the same hospital (Harlem Hospital), both raised in Spanish Harlem (El
Barrio). My mother said the other day that we were probably born in the
same hospital room. I told her that I never really thought about that
before.
I believe Tito was destined to be a musician. I believe I was destined to be dancer. But when I was young, I really wanted to pursue the music and become a musician – just like Tito wanted to become a professional dancer!!!! When he was growing up he had an act with his sister. He was fascinated with dancing and I was fascinated with music!!! It so happened that somewhere in his youth, he suffered a fractured ankle. I heard it was pretty bad. That was the turning point for him. Then he committed himself totally to the music. I did the same thing. You see this finger here (Eddie shows me his right hand pinky), I broke this finger playing dodge ball. So I remember trying to play the piano with the damaged pinky and every time I’d had to play with the pinky, it would collapse. My teacher used to tell me that if I wanted to pursue piano playing, I would have to correct the broken finger. So I started to think that maybe piano playing was not something meant for me.
These kinds of things happen in life and kind of put you on a track to where you really might belong. I did not want to go through the operation so I got into dancing at a very young age. So when Tito told me about his bicycle accident and how his ankle got stuck in the spokes and broke his ankle, well, the rest is history. Someone once told me that somehow because of the circumstances, Tito and I were destined to work together. I remember going to the Corso (a club formerly located on E. 86 St. in Manhattan) in the 1970’s and listening to Tito play and then complimenting him on his music. Tito then told me that I really should be doing more with my dancing. He said, "instead of hanging out here at the Corso every Sunday and dancing for fun, you’re talented and should be doing something on a professional level". That’s how the working relationship with Tito started.
Angel: As a youth, did you have an opportunity to take any dance
classes? Maybe at the local boys club or any facilities such as that?
Was that available to you back then?
ET: I was actually more into sports like competitive swimming.
I swam for about 11 years for the Boys Club of America. I liked baseball,
skating. But dancing didn’t happen for me until the accident with
my finger. So I didn’t take any dance classes. However, when I did
become interested, something upset me. One day I was looking through the
yellow pages to see if there was a school where I could go to learn this
dance. Back in the 1960’s there were no schools listed. The only
place that I think offered any Latin dancing was Arthur Murray and Fred
Astaire. I remembering one time going to see what these classes were about
and I was so upset. I said, "What is that?" "Who wants
to dance like that?" It was different. I remember telling my mother
that there was nothing in the yellow pages for this kind of dancing. Everything
was there i.e. ballet, tap, modern, African, everything but Latin dance?
Where’s the Mambo? She told me that it’s not popular, it’s
not mainstream and that it’s not going to happen. I said that it
wasn’t fair. I wanted to study but had nowhere to go. So I did what
everyone did at that time. I went out dancing and I learned as I went
along. I watched, and watched, and kept on watching. I picked up visually
and if you knew someone who danced well, you would ask for tips.
There was a guy named George Vascones. He was probably the first teacher that I know of that was doing on-site, on-location teaching. A lot of credit goes to George for being one of the first to do this. We were at the Hunts Point Palace (Bronx, NY) and every Sunday, while the dance was going on, George had a group of people in the corner and would give instruction right there on the spot. I would say, "George, start me off:" He was very helpful to everyone. I think that was the only instruction at that time. Back then since I was too young to go to the clubs, I would go to house parties and I remember seeing many the youth dancing whatever was in fashion at the time. Their parents who at the time used to go to The Palladium influenced the teenagers. Dancing Mambo was a hip thing to do because of the Palladium Era.
Angel: What were some of your thoughts about dance in the early
years and did you have a visualization of what and where you wanted to
be?
ET: This is the strange thing. Once I got into this and I realized
I found something that I felt I could be good at, well, for some reason
I knew it. After I got the hang of it, I started picking up really quickly.
I also saw that I had an instinct to put stuff together (choreography).
I remember the guys used to call me and invite me to the center (Robert
Wagner Junior High School) and asked me to put stuff together so that
I could show them. The High School had a center for adults to visit in
the evenings from 7pm to about 11pm. They had the swimming pool, ping
pong room, and the gym. I would go in there and ask them to borrow the
record player and grab a little corner. The guys would meet me there and
we’d start jamming (dancing). One guy would show one step, another
would show a step and I’d come along and share whatever I was working
on. We were teaching each other. I remember the guys asking me what did
I pick up (learn) because I was always inventing something new. I would
try and invent something new to bring to the center.
There were good dancers at the time. There was competition then, but not so much malice. We liked each other. We knew how to have a good time together. Today it is questionable what motive people have for dancing. However, I think Angel, I had a vision. I started to think about the incident with the young lady that I mentioned earlier, that I did not just want to be good, I wanted to be the best. That was the spark that drove me. Everyone else was doing normal hours of rehearsal-- maybe two hours. But I was doing five or more. They would call it quits at the center but I would go home and practice some more. It became an obsession, a driven obsession, like something was taking me there. And then, along the same lines, I had this dream Angel that seemed so real; it was such a real dream. I remember being in a huge stadium. Tito Puente’s band was there, a lot of lights, a lot of people and a lot of excitement and I was there performing. The voice that I heard was telling me that I was going to be known internationally. My goal was to be a professional dancer. I had this vision of what could be with this dance.
And so now I understand that everyone whose purpose in life is to be a pioneer in any form of dance, at some point every dance had a beginning and had it’s pioneers. Our dance needs to be recognized, to be developed to a professional level. So I see now that my purpose is to help make that happen. I’m not the message, but I’m the messenger.
Angel: Most people remember their first endeavor whether it’s
their first dance class or performance. Could you tell us when and where
your first performance was?
ET: In junior high school there was a dance contest and I remember
rehearsing for this and I shocked everybody because I put something together
and it blew everybody away. Not too many people at that time knew how
to work with music and structure their routine but I felt I did. I won
the contest and after that I went to the Hunts Point Palace and every
Sunday they had a dance contest and afterwards they had a pie eating contest!!
I won the dance contest 11 weeks straight, Angel. Every week I would choreograph
a routine and I always had outfits and there was a theme. Dora and I would
work week to week to prepare the routine with an outfit. The people loved
it and we had a fan club. Every time we would get on the floor people
would scream. At that time, I think the audience was the one that chose
the winners. So junior high school was my first dance contest. I remember
I won a trophy. I was so happy because I beat this guy named Louie George;
I beat this guy named Louie Colon. I caught the Salsa fever and I wanted
to dance more and compete.
Angel: Here’s a question a lot of people wanted me to ask
you: When you first started dancing, did you start on the "1",
"2" or anything else?
ET: The first time I heard about this dancing on "2"
was when someone from one of the studios asked me. June LaBerta was responsible
for "educating" me in this dance. June was responsible for advising
me that if I wanted to teach, or choreograph, I would have to learn how
to read music. She said I would only limit myself if I didn’t know
how to read. She compared it to a gifted piano player where the individual
plays the piano but does not know how to read. As a dancer, June told
me, that I have to know clave. You have to know about phrasing, you have
to know terminology. She drove me crazy, Angel, for two years.
Somewhere along the line, I went to a studio and someone asked me, "Eddie, do you dance on "2"?". I was about 18 years old. I said, "Dance on "2"?" You mean my two feet? I said what do you mean by "2"? Before then, I never knew what that was. June would purposely take me to all these different ballrooms and parties to dance and show me off. Everybody would watch and ask who I was. Eddie Dorfer was her previous partner. June was about 56 years old when I met her. Then people were coming up to me asking all these technical questions. So after awhile, and since I didn’t know the answers, I decided to learn it. So June sat me down and began teaching me how to read music. At first it was a nightmare. So to answer your question, I was always on "2" but didn’t know it.
Angel: What is the controversy today regarding the different methods
of counting i.e., 1-2-3-5-6-7 or the 2-3-4-6-7-8? The public has heard
about dancing on the "1" and so forth. Can you describe to us
your point of view on this?
ET: It’s hard for me to answer that but I think the 2nd generation
of Palladium dancers, well, we somehow adapted and it became our natural
way of dancing Mambo, 1-2-3. It was our generation. There was the Palladium
2-3-4 method and even the Cuban 2. A lot of the dancers in the Palladium
days evolved from the Rumba, which is 2-3-4 timing.
Angel: Then what do you attribute the popularity of the 1-2-3-5-6-7
if all this time the studios have been teaching the 2-3-4?
ET: The studios which were teaching at the time when I was growing
up. No one from the street world went to a studio. Our gravitation to
the 1-2-3 was already happening without us knowing that it was the 1-2-3.
We are still breaking on 2 but it wasn’t the 2-3-4. So I would have
to say that the reason 1-2-3 became so popular is because I was one of
the first from the street form, to bring it to the public. I started putting
names to the steps and started promoting it that way because June explained
that I was dancing on that timing. So we started to call the 1-2-3 the
street version and the 2-3-4 the studio version. So I introduced this
1-2-3 before this whole thing with "Salsa’ came out. "Salsa"
as we know it today came afterwards. I’ve been teaching for many
years now. I remember way back when I had only three or four students.
Then people began to recognize and acknowledge my timing and wanted to
learn from me. They said that what Eddie teaches fits in the clubs.
THE END
Stay tuned for Part 2..........
To Contact Eddie Torres and see his schedule of classes in New York City,
please visit........www.Eddietorres.com, to contact Angel Ortiz, visit www.angelortiz.com