Greetings from El Rey Leon
One of the first articles I wrote for this site, was about an
event I attended in Birmingham,
organised by El Rey Leon.
This event opened my eyes to what Salsa could be about and was the
first time that I saw people like Robert Charlemagne and Leon Rose
dance.
Just before Christmas, I received an e-mail from El Rey Leon, letting
me know what he's been up to since then. With his permission, I've
included it here.
| From: |
El Rey Leon |
| Date: |
Wednesday, 19th December 2001 |
| Subject: |
Thanks from El Rey Leon |
Hi Ian
Can you imagine how taken back I was When I saw your history of
how it all begun for you? It was so nice to see someone remember
me and of course the unique event controversially named Midland
'Salsa Explosion', an event which I think changed the lives of
many. Well I now reside in St. Lucia, the home land of my
parents. I work here as an engineer but in my spare time I also
survey, design and draw house plans, supervise house construction
and of course I teach Salsa.
Salsa Fiesta Lucia is the group name and I teach, perform and of
course have fun doing it. Salsa is new to St. Lucia but they
love it and recently Latino bands have been included into our
annual Jazz Festival. You will always find me every Wednesday
evening from 9:00pm at a local hot spot called Shamrock pub for
our Latino night, an event which I created 2 years ago and is now
very well established.
Please give a mention to some of my friends in Birmingham whom
contributed to that first ever big event in 1998 and may well
still be doing salsa now, namely: Sonia Barnett, Maureen Cadogan,
Hach, Hopeton, Perry Antoine, Ann-Marie Roberts to name but a few.
Regards to my first teachers Mauricio, Zane and Edlin and also
Nelson Batista, Elder Sanchez, and Big Robert Charlemagne my
mentor.
I hear Leon Rose is doing big things now do you know that event
was the first time he ever performed?
You also mentioned Alison, well she is the one who brought your
web page to my attention and she is doing fine residing a couple
of Islands to the south of me in 'Grenada' and she too is teaching
salsa in her spare time. We recently came together in St. Vincent
when she joined me for a couple of days while I was teaching a
group of 50 students or so on a 2 week course. Alison is kneeling
on the right at the end. I'm somewhere in the middle.
Thank you again Ian for the mention and the memory. Keep in touch
and Good health and prosperity to you all.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
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