My Honey Jar KOENA dancer and teacher from Bayamo, Cuba, now based in the US (LA and Miami). Trained in ballet, contemporary and Afro-Cuban dance, she has won 24 world titles. This tour calls her la maestra de las maestras, the teacher of teachers.
She can dance with anyone. She has more tools than anyone (she can truly dance every style), and yet her own colour is unmistakable. And last of all, a humanity that treasures people.
As a dancer, and as a person, impossible not to admire. Alien.
Built on fierce energy, an original style and solid technique, she has made a dance all her own, and she puts fundamentals, body control and an understanding of music first.
Her workshops, perhaps surprisingly, focus on fundamentals rather than special or complicated moves. Yet the same basic movement reaches a strikingly different level depending on how you use it and connect it.
For me, the chance to experience exactly that difference is the greatest value of her training.
Beyond simply learning to dance, Salsa Viva creates experiences where you understand your own movement and grow.
Salsa’s roots and how to learn it, in her own words
Three interviews, twelve years apart
Enslaved Africans brought their rhythms and ways of moving. Tapping two sticks on the ships bound for Cuba became the clave, the base instrument of salsa, she explains.
To the old argument over which country salsa belongs to, she doesn’t pick one. Most of the elements came from Cuba, she says, but New York added jazz instruments to make today’s salsa.
“I cannot say it is 100% mine. It’s like a baby — even if the baby carries more of my genes than my husband’s, it’s a collaboration between two people.”
Hear it at 5:00 ↗
| Where | What they added |
|---|---|
| Cuba | Most rhythms and dance elements, son, the mixing before New York |
| Dominican Republic | The jazz elements Johnny Pacheco added |
| Puerto Rico | Romantic salsa with poetic, bolero-like lyrics |
| New York | Popularity, jazz winds, trombone, timbal |
| Venezuela | First to call it “salsa” on the radio |
| Colombia | Named among the countries that built salsa |
“Salsa is a fusion of different collaborations from different parts of the world — specifically the Caribbean.”
Hear it at 5:21 ↗
“The Afro needs the connection, and the connection of partner work comes more from ballroom. Ballroom needs the spice and the freedom of movement of the Africans. Together they complement each other.”
Hear it at 10:38 ↗
“That instrument is the base of any salsa — Cuban salsa, New York salsa, Los Angeles, Puerto Rico.”
Hear it at 13:52 ↗
Asked where the clave comes from, she goes back to the ships that carried Africans to Cuba. Packed in for hours with little air, people pulled sticks, clavijas, from the ship and began tapping African rhythms. Two sticks, she explains, and so the name: clave.
“It was a part of the ships — sticks they call clavija. They took them and started playing the African rhythms, because they were bored for so many hours.”
Hear it at 14:23 ↗
“If I am a client and every time I go to see the show it’s the same show, I don’t want to come back.”
Hear it at 19:41 ↗
Cuban salsa can’t be pinned to one style, she says, because some mix in more son, some more Afro, some the elegance of flamenco, some ballroom lines. So a professional raised in Cuba comes to the stage with all of it: footwork, rumba, body movement, tricks.
| Root | What salsa took |
|---|---|
| Ballroom | Formations, holds |
| Rumba | Moving body parts separately, footwork |
| Flamenco | Footwork, contractions, attitude |
| Afro | Bounce, breathing |
| Contradanza | Rueda de casino formations |
“When you see Cuban dancers, if they’re professional, they do a beautiful art — because they’re complete.”
Hear it at 22:21 ↗
“It’s not new. It’s been done already — and I want people to understand this.”
Hear it at 25:34 ↗
“It means it’s a lot to learn, a lot to understand.”
Hear it at 27:30 ↗
| Name | Note |
|---|---|
| salsa Cuban style | Cuban-style salsa |
| salsa casino | The name she recommends |
| casino | Partner dancing; easily confused with gambling |
| salsa cubana | Same as salsa casino |
“When you put a stigma or a title, it’s like you have to stick with it — if you do something else, you’re wrong. No. You’re free.”
Hear it at 31:38 ↗
“For years the guys look like a stick and the ladies are the ones doing all the job. For performance it works. For social? No.”
Hear it at 36:59 ↗
This is how a leader can check his own skill. Not by how flashy his moves are, but by dancing with followers of every level, beginner to pro, and seeing whether every dance feels easy. A strong follower fills in what the leader misses, so dancing only with good dancers won’t tell you whether your lead works.
“How do you test your skill as a good leader? When you can have a decent dance with a beginner, an intermediate, an advanced or a professional — then your technique is impeccable.”
Hear it at 38:00 ↗
Asked for her non-negotiables, she counts them out: marching in place, weight shifts, front, back and diagonals, right and left turns. That is what the November 15 training is about.
| Leader | Follower |
|---|---|
| Shifts back | Goes back |
| Comes forward | Comes forward |
| Goes sideways | Goes sideways |
| Twists the body | Goes diagonal |
| Over-rotates | Crosses deeper |
“Some people say, “Alien, your name goes with your stuff — you’re from another planet.” No, I’m not from another planet. I’m using basics.”
Hear it at 40:20 ↗
“I’m the result of what you give me.”
Hear it at 42:07 ↗
Even bachata, picked up because it looks easy, turns out to need breathing, body waves and an ear for the instruments. The moment you want to do it right, every dance takes a process, she says.
“Nothing is easy when you want to do it right.”
Hear it at 47:22 ↗
| When | Elbows | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Shines | Out, back engaged | Faster feet |
| Partner sombrero | Level with the shoulders, from the torso | Arms only feels rough |
| Shimmy, hand styling | Diagonally in front | Less effort |
| Avoid | Behind the back | Lost center, collapsed frame |
| Avoid | Locked straight | Stiff body, easy to get hurt |
“Most of the time, when a person feels they’re getting away from their center or losing balance, it’s because their elbows are in the wrong position.”
Hear it at 52:26 ↗
| Gesture | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Pointing at bracelets | An orisha who loves gold bracelets |
| Holding the crown | An orisha holding her crown as she dances |
| Rolling a long skirt | The waves of the sea |
| Booted feet | An orisha in boots |
| Holding a stick | Opening the road for the people |
“It’s like telling your story. Your hands actually give you a picture of what’s going on.”
Hear it at 55:05 ↗
“My love, you hurt me, because you don’t have technique. You have it in the blood, but you don’t have it in your body.”
Hear it at 57:30 ↗
“With discipline and constancy, it beats just the passion.”
Hear it at 58:24 ↗
“For me, with empathy, the person is more important than the music.”
Hear it at 1:04:35 ↗
“At the end of the day it’s not about the ego of Alien Ramirez — it’s about the community.”
Hear it at 1:05:15 ↗
| Where | Follows |
|---|---|
| New York | Drum, conga |
| LA | The singer’s voice, the piano melody |
“Because there are more instruments on one, salsa is on one? Alien has more of daddy’s genes — so mommy didn’t work on it? Both of them collaborated for me to be born.”
Hear it at 1:15:00 ↗
“At the end of the day, our GPS is the music.”
Hear it at 1:16:24 ↗
Not just for professionals: improvisers, performers, teachers and competitors are all welcome. Beyond learning new moves, a time to discover how to grow your own dancing.
Her non-negotiable basics ↑Training in the movement and expression of the orishas, set to Afro-Cuban music. Alien Ramirez, Korean instructors and participants build one piece together, and take it to the stage.
12 hearts and counting
