Finding Community Through Music and Movement: Brooklyn’s Queer Salsa Scene
By: Tahra Khanuja
Salsa dancing at C’mon Everybody in Brooklyn, New York.
Together, we stand in a circle under the soft pink lights of C’mon Everybody, a gay bar in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. The group inhales and then collectively exhales, guided through a breathing exercise by Luca, a short individual in a flannel shirt. Holding a mic in their hands, Luca introduces themself before breaking up the circle to facilitate the first event of the night: salsa dancing.
“This space is a queer and trans-centered space,” they say. “We often don’t have these spaces where we can move our bodies in a place that we feel safe.”
Luca leading the crowd at C’mon Everybody.
Luca, a 26-year-old Cuban American, has always loved to dance. They recall wiggling before they could walk and prancing their way through ballet classes as a child. When Luca discovered salsa around eleven years old, they immediately fell in love with the genre, excited by its ability to connect them to their Cuban roots.
“Dance for me is a way of reclaiming who I think I am and the fluidity of my gender,” says Luca.
Now as a dance instructor, Luca wants to harness the power of movement to create open spaces for the LGBTQ community. Luca sees salsa as an opportunity for people to connect with their physical selves, something they find especially important for queer and trans people who often have what Luca describes as “a complex relationship with their body.”
Alongside Luca, Las Mariquitas, a queer and trans-centered salsa band, is helping pave the way for a new page and celebration of salsa. Led by Mobéy Lola Irizarry, Las Mariquitas uses trumpets, flutes, basses and congas to play original songs and fill the dance floor at C’mon Everybody.
“‘I’m really grateful for the energy of this space,” says Lola. “Especially with music like salsa, the musicians need the dancers and the dancers need the musicians”
Mobéy Lola Irizarry, leader of the queer and trans centered salsa band, Las Mariquitas.
Creating a sense of community through music and dance has been a part of salsa’s legacy since its foundations. Drawing inspiration from Latin and Caribbean roots, salsa emerged during the turn of the 20th century in New York City. Through dancing and music, Latinx individuals were able to create a sense of community and feel empowered in their identities.
“Salsa is a genre rooted in struggle and resistance,” says Lola. “So in my mind, queerness and transness is fully a part of that legacy.”
The band’s name Las Mariquitas is inspired by the reclamation of identity and the celebration of community. In Spanish, Las Mariquitas means ladybugs and is also a common slur used against the queer community.
Through movement and music, Lola and Las Mariquitas are paving the way for a new page in salsa- one that celebrates resistance, identity, and community.
“This is the start of where queer and trans people can make spaces for themselves,” says Luca.
Las Mariquitas and Luca’s next performance is on July 15th at the Waterfront on Brooklyn Bridge Park.
Photography by Zoe Scourtes