🇵🇷 PAPITO JALA JALA O ROBERTO ROENA CUAL FUE EL MEJOR BAILARIN DE SALSA DE TODOS LOS TIEMPOS 🇵🇷

The Best Salsa Dancer #salsadancing #Salsa #salsadance On this day, June 29, 1952, in Carolina, Puerto Rico, Miguel Matos Chévere, better known as #PapitoJalaJala, was born. An excellent dancer, choreographer, and internationally renowned teacher, he grew up in an area called "La Esquina Caliente" (The Hot Corner) in the Vistamar neighborhood of Carolina, where he lived until his death. Carolina is a metropolitan municipality in Puerto Rico, the birthplace of many great dancers, salsa artists, and also several internationally famous athletes like Roberto Clemente. #robertoroena Papito Jala Jala stood out as an excellent dancer and an unparalleled teacher and choreographer. He is considered the true Master of Masters, because thanks to his great talent, many teachers emerged from his school. He started dancing very young, almost thirteen years old. It was the legendary 1960s, the era when salsa was beginning to take off and the jala jala rhythm was gaining momentum. In those years, a new song hit the airwaves: “El Jala Jala.” It was a rhythm created by Roberto Roena and made famous by El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico and the duo of Bobby Cruz and Richie Ray. Teenager Miguel Matos participated in a Jala Jala competition organized by Channel 11 for the program “Matinée Teenager.” He won, and from that day forward, everyone simply knew him as “Papito Jala Jala.” Later, he won other competitions organized by the programs “Alta Tensión,” “Cambia Cambia” (also on Channel 11), and “La Factoría de la Salsa” (on Channel 7). Riding the wave of all these successes, he was invited to participate as an official dancer on the "Salsa Sábado en la Noche" broadcast on Channel 2. Among his inspirations were dancers like Anibal Vasquez (the only professional dancer at that time), the brothers Roberto and Cuqui Roena, as well as Sansón Batalla and Tito Bey. Papito had no formal training; he differed from classic dancers by being a street dancer, bringing flavor and rhythm and recognizing a unique style in the streets. He possessed all the genius and flair. He liked to say that the street was his academy. He was very controversial and had a difficult personality, and he remained true to himself until the day he died. He was never recognized in his native Puerto Rico with tributes or awards; his fame grew outside the island. During his lifetime, he received no lifetime achievement awards and was harshly criticized by the organizers of the Bacardi Salsa Congress, an event he never participated in, and whose merits were never acknowledged. We had to wait until his death for him to be recognized and awarded for what he deserved. A year after his death, he won the Bacardi Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, honored with a performance by dancers who performed a show in his memory. After retiring from the scene for several years, Papito returned in the late 1980s with a major project: the creation of a dance group that would represent not only his unmistakable style but also become the flagship of Puerto Rican talent. The “Jala Jala Dancers group” were the first in Puerto Rico to perform in Europe, specifically in Italy, and simultaneously in Cuba, where they were the first official performers at an event called “De Aquí Pa.” This historical journey influenced Papito's style, as he began to incorporate many movements from the rumba and the Tropicana cabaret in Cuba. Currently, many teachers in Europe, especially in Italy, are great students of Papito and his teachings, and they remain a constant point of reference for all salsa lovers. He represented the starting point from which it all began, and today he is recognized as the father of Puerto Rican salsa. The original group of ‘Los Jala Jala Dancers’ consisted of Papito himself, Alicia “Chacha” Rosas, María Cristina, Felipe Polanco, Oleo Pilar D’, Héctor Cruz, Zoraida Rivera, Jorge Santana, Vivían Ayala, Carmelo Cabrera (later replaced by Ortos J. Gutierrez Ortíz), Tania Santiago, Ángel Martínez, and Ingrid Reyes. In Europe, and especially in Italy, there are still teachers who follow Papito's teachings, dancing the traditional style (now called old school), such as Maestro Enzo Conte, also a scholar of Puerto Rican culture and a European ambassador of Jala Jala style salsa, and Maestro Mirko Stefio, who continues to dance and teach at Tumbao, sharing his style. Finally, there is Felipe Polanco, who moved to Paris, France. Papito had the ability to be the first teacher to explain salsa by marking the rhythm of the congas. His dancing was full of musicality and rhythm. What made it so appealing was the creation of the basic "empuje," where the step was emphasized strongly on the conga player's strong beat. He was the creator of the true "on 2!" He cultivated dancers with musicality who presented themselves with exceptional elegance both on stage and in the street.