Last updated: August 2, 2023
Article
LGBTQ Performance in Salsa
Photo by Christopher D. Brazee/NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project, 2017.
Salsa's lyrics and dance structure can reinforce heterosexual gender roles and relationships. Men often “lead” while women “follow” in the dance’s steps, and most lyrics about love and sex center on clear male-female binaries. LGBTQ performers have challenged these dynamics in several important ways.
Throughout the 20th century, Black and Latino LGBTQ activists led many social movements in the US. Notably, in New York City, they were important leaders in the Harlem Renaissance (1920-1935) and the 1969 Stonewall Riots. For example, transgender activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera helped lead the Stonewall Riots that inspired a wave of LGBTQ activism. To learn more about these two women, visit this article.
Music and dance are an important form of self-expression in LGBTQ safe spaces. Expression is important because LGBTQ communities are and were often silenced through police harassment, discrimination, and lack of basic resources. For many, these spaces for music and dance were the only places they could openly embrace their sexual and gender identities.
An important historical site for LGBTQ salsa performance is the Escuelita (little school). It was located in 301 West 39th Street in Manhattan, New York City.
Founded in 1970 following the 1969 Stonewall Riots, the Escuelita was one of the first LGBTQ salsa and Latin dance clubs in the US. Despite harassment by police and disputes over liquor licenses, the club provided a safe space for LGBTQ dancers of color until it closed in 2016. Club-goers danced to salsa, Latin house, merengue, and hip-hop.
There are several ways that the LGBTQ community works to make salsa dancing a more inclusive platform. Dancers today push the boundaries of what salsa dancing should look like by performing with partners of any gender.
Award-winning salsa dancing duo Angélica Medina and Jahaira Fajardo are a part of this activism today. They co-founded In Lak'ech Dance Academy in 2017, the first Queer, Trans, and Ally Salsa & Bachata dance school in the United States. To publicly celebrate LGBTQ Afro Latin dancing, the duo then founded the Queer Afro-Latin Dance Festival in 2018.
“Our goal has always been to create an affirming environment where Queer & Trans people can come together and not only be themselves but also celebrate unapologetically who they are, through Afro-Latin music and dance.” - Angelica Medina and Jahaira Fajardo, Queer Afro Latino Dance Festival
Albita Rodriguez has also pushed against gender binaries in salsa. Her 1995 album entitled No se parece a nada (Like nothing else) has a cover that features an androgynously dressed Albita. Her hair is short, she is in a suit rather than a brightly colored dress—and yet, she sports bold red lipstick and manicured nails.
“Albita’s figuration of butchness on the compact disc’s front and back covers provided me- and my femme desire- with a place inside salsa’s rigid codes of gender and sexuality.” - Darshan Elena Campos, “Albita’s Queer Nations and US Salsa Culture,” in Beyond the Frame: Women of Color and Visual Representation, edited by Neferti X. M. Tadiar and Angela Y. Davis (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), 49.
Inclusive spaces in salsa are also made in music and dance festivals, like Gay Ocho held along Miami’s historic Calle Ocho and the Queer Afro-Latin Dance Festival in San Jose, CA. These annual festivals feature LGBTQ performers of not only salsa, but also bachata, merengue, cumbia, and other Latin music.
Sculpture design by Tony Lopez, Sculpted by Bello of Bello Arts, and painted Jonathan Ady. Commissioned by Gay Ocho, revealed 2022. Photo courtesy of Elisa Alfonso, taken May 18th, 2023.
Some salsa song lyrics have also advocated for the LGBTQ community. One example is Willie Colón’s 1989 song “El gran varón” (The great man), written by Omar Alfanno in 1986, which tells the story of a father who loses the child he knew as a “great man” because he cannot accept her for the woman she is. The song alludes to the AIDS crisis happening during that time and highlights the tragedy of familial estrangement due to homophobia.
Another example would be the music of Dionicio. Dionicio, according to his website, is “a proud gay man, Puerto Rican singer, and acclaimed Salsa dancer.” His 2023 song “Ay! Qué Bueno” (Oh! That’s good) details the whirlwind romance between two men over the course of a week. Dionicio also recorded a 2020 cover of “El gran varón,” where he adjusts the dated and controversial lyrics in Colón’s version to be more welcoming for LGBTQ listeners. One major example of this is Dionicio changing the lyrics “no se puede corregir la naturaleza” (you can’t correct nature) from Colón’s version to “Así es la naturaleza” (that’s nature). Dena Burroughs discusses the cover in greater detail in this 2023 article.
Salsa still often reinforces gender binaries and heterosexuality. Yet, since its beginnings, LGBTQ dancers and musicians have fought to make salsa inclusive. Dancers have been teaching students how to switch leads to challenge the gendered ‘leader-follower’ format of salsa dance. LGBTQ dance festivals have created space for more inclusive expression through dance. LGBTQ musicians and their allies are starting to normalize LGBTQ identity in lyrics. This work is still being done, by the LGBTQ community and their allies, so that everyone can enjoy salsa as their authentic selves, “Así es la naturaleza” (That’s nature).
To learn more about inclusive salsa spaces and dancing beyond the binary, check out Episode 3 of the Oíste? Podcast.
This article was researched and written by Elisa Alfonso, contributing scholar to Oíste? Listening to the Salsa Stories of Afro Latin Music.
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