Addie Diaz
looks just like any other corporate worker as she begins her day of work at Viacom,
but little do her other co-workers know that she is also one of New York
City’s top Mambo performers. But its a status that has not been easy for
her to achieve, let along maintain for this corporate woman who is also a
mother of two. I had been planning to start a profile page on the New
York Salsaweb site for several months now. I wanted to feature different
New York Mambo personalities whom have worked hard to promote the art of
Mambo dancing yet have received little recognition for their efforts. Addie
Diaz was one of the first people that came to mind. A phone call later
and we were both having lunch to discuss her profile for Salsaweb.
Addie is a very intelligent, soft spoken,
attractive, honest, direct and hard working woman. These very same traits
carry over to every aspect of her life including work, motherhood and
yes....dancing. During lunch I discovered that she started dancing
Mambo around October of 1993 and in the last four years she has performed in
places like Madison Square Garden to countries like Peru.
In that short
amount of time she’s been able to hone her skills to make her one of New
York’s finest performers.
Addie has always been culturally connected
to her Boricua (Puerto Rican ) roots and has loved Salsa music ever since
she was a child. She would join in family gatherings when she lived in
Puerto Rico and in New York and dance with her older relatives. But it
wasn’t until years later when she was an adult that this budding dancer
took formal dance lessons. Addie’s mentor and first Mambo instructor was
actually a woman named Evelyn Leon. The now deceased Evelyn Leon,
gave Addie her "confidence, skill and clear understanding of the
clave/timing." Addie also gives Mario
Diaz (no relation to Addie) and Nelly Cotto credit for their
influence in her dancing. She says they all made her into a better dancer.
I asked her what did it take for her to be
a good dancer? What did she have to do? She told me that "as a good
dancer I have to know my timing, so basically I would say my main focus was
to find the clave and study it until I didn’t have to think about it so
much, where it just became natural. Style is important, but you develop that
in time." She loves to dance to Salsa/Mambo, because she said,
"dancing allows me the chance to express the passion I feel for my
music."
I asked her how she would describe her
style of dancing? "Hopefully enjoyable to see", says Addie.
"But when I’m performing, I think I’m able to show the enjoyment it
gives me - of course I keep the style technically visible (feeling the funk,
arm positions and poses) but I suspect that having fun with the choreography
is what gives me style."
