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Eddie Torres was dancing to Tito Puente even before he was born. His mother told him : poor and living in a furnished room, she couldn’t go to the Palladium, so she danced at home with the radio on while expecting him. “You were raised from the belly with Tito Puente music” (you were raised in the womb with Tito Puente’s music), she tells him — Eddie Torres, Salsa Legends and Masters Academy ^[3]. Almost thirty years later, he was taking the stage with that same Puente. And one day in 1990, his mother was dancing with him in front of Sally Jessy Raphael’s cameras ^[4].

In between is a boy from Spanish Harlem who never finished high school — “I never finished high school” ^[3] — who vowed to learn to dance after a teenage humiliation, who transformed a street dance into an artistic discipline, and who met his lifelong partner in the Bronx. In 1987, on the stage of Harlem’s Apollo Theater, more than fifty street dancers — around sixty according to him — came together to pay tribute to Machito. That is the starting point of the company, and the story of this man, his myths, and his stage loves begins here.

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King, inventor, creator? The 8 MYTHS about Eddie Torres, TRUE or FALSE

Before telling his life story, a necessary stop. Dozens of festival biographies of Eddie Torres circulate, copied from one page to another and embellished along the way. Did he invent On2? Where does the title “Mambo King” come from? Who really counted the beats first? And why is he given a first name, Ernest, that belongs to Tito Puente? Eight claims keep coming up. Some are outright false. One hides a crucial distinction between invention and codification. Another involves conflicting accounts of the origins of counting. And a final one has, for now, no voice other than Adolfo Indacochea’s. The verdict at a glance, followed by the details in the indicated section.

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SPANISH HARLEM, 1950 : born in Tito Puente’s hospital

Eddie Torres was born on July 3, 1950 at Harlem Hospital Center in New York ^[1][2] — the same hospital where, twenty-seven years earlier, Ernest Anthony Puente Jr. had been born, the man the world would know as Tito Puente ^[3][6]. Torres says Puente grew up around 110th Street and he around 120th : “él se crió en la 110 el barrio, y aquí en la 120” ^[2]. Hutchinson sums it up : “They were born in the same hospital, both were raised in Spanish Harlem” ^[6]. McMains, in Spinning Mambo into Salsa, describes him as “a Nuyorican born in Spanish Harlem in 1950” ^[5]. The two men would collaborate for twenty-one years.

His parents come from Puerto Rico — “my parents are from Puerto Rico” — and he describes himself as “born and raised in Manhattan, Spanish Harlem” ^[3]. His mother works at the hospital and his father is a plumber ^[1]. As a child, he spends two years in Puerto Rico ^[1]. He also swims competitively on a team from the age of seven — then, very soon, music and dance take over. He grows up with “los doo-wops, que es música de los 50”; every Saturday, young people with congas gather in “un parquecito que le nombramos rumba parque,” across from his home ^[2].

At home, his calling is not taken for granted. When his mother advises him to find a manual trade, like his father, he replies : “Mamá, yo no voy a trabajar con las manos.” — “¿Qué tú vas a hacer ?” — “Trabajar con los pies” (— Mom, I’m not going to work with my hands. — And what are you going to do? — Work with my feet) — Eddie Torres, DanielCastilloDanza, 2011 ^[2]. She also tells him : “mi hijo despierta, despierta que tú estás soñando” (my son, wake up, you’re dreaming), and he replies : “Soñando es como se logran las cosas, hay que tener visión” (it’s by dreaming that you achieve things, you have to have a vision) ^[2]. Later, when she saw him succeed, she became, he says, “la fanática más grande de mí” (my biggest fan) ^[2].

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SPANISH HARLEM, 1962 : a childhood heartbreak and a promise

The turning point comes in his teens, around 1962-1963 : “cuando yo empecé a bailar a los 12 años, sería ya para 62,” he says in one interview; “yo empecé a los 13 años que fue 1963” ^[2] in another. The story itself does not change. A girl from the neighborhood invites him to her home, perhaps to go to the movies. Her ex-boyfriend is there. To ease the tension, she asks him if he can dance Mambo. He can’t, but says yes. He makes a fool of himself, and she leaves with her ex. Torres goes home with just one thought — “I said I have to learn how to dance” ^[3] — : “I’m gonna learn how to dance the mambo so that this would never happen to me again” (I’m going to learn to dance Mambo so this never happens to me again) — Eddie Torres, Olga Prykhodko, 2020 ^[3]. Today he sees it as a sign : “I never knew I had even talent for dancing” ^[3].

What begins as revenge becomes love. “Little did I know I was gonna fall in love with the music and the dance” (I didn’t know I was going to fall in love with the music and dance) — “it’s been a lifelong passion” (it’s a lifelong passion) — Eddie Torres, Chicago International Salsa Congress, 2017 ^[3]. He puts it this way : “I wanted to share it with the world because I always thought this music and this dance was […] the most beautiful music and dance in the world” (I wanted to share it with the world because I always thought this music and dance were […] the most beautiful music and dance in the world) ^[3].

Years later, in Barcelona, he would add the story’s epilogue : he sees the girl again about eight years later, in a club, but never danced with her, “porque creo que se sentía un poco abochornada” (because I think she felt a little embarrassed) ^[2].

Torres recalls first seeing Pachanga during a stay in Puerto Rico, at a house party where a Pacheco record was playing : “tenía yo como unos catorce años, en Puerto Rico,” he says in Barcelona. In another interview, he mentions 1965 and being fifteen ^[2]. The impression is immediate : “el ritmito que llevaba la pachanga con ese brinquito” (the little rhythm of Pachanga with that little hop) ^[2]. Researcher Sheenagh Pietrobruno, quoted by McMains, describes Pachanga as “an energetic dance of rapid foot shuffles that enjoyed a brief surge of popularity around 1960,” “incorporated into many of Eddie Torres’s modern salsa shines” ^[5].

Around the age of 15 or 16, he begins teaching: “When I started teaching, I was 16”; “I started teaching at 15 or 16 years old” ^[3]. His classes in studio spaces, however, date back to 1972: “yo empecé a enseñar en los salones en el 1972” ^[2]. He first teaches his neighborhood friends, in a recreation center across from his home, with a small record player ^[3]. A conguero friend named Rafi plays the conga live during these early classes. Torres says he charged “dos o tres pesos” to ten or fifteen people ^[2]; elsewhere, he says he initially taught for free: “I started teaching for free” ^[3]. He remembers what he used to tell his mother: “Mom I’m gonna help develop the market for this […] because this dance is so beautiful” (Mom, I’m going to help develop the market for this dance, because it is so beautiful) ^[7]. He teaches them something simple: when you hear the strong strike of the conga — the seco — put your left foot forward. Only years later, while studying music theory, will he understand what was really happening: “vine a comprender que eso era marcarla en el dos. Porque ese seco, en medida de uno a cuatro siempre cae en el dos” (I came to understand that this was called marking two. Because that seco, in a measure from one to four, always falls on two) ^[2]. Torres instinctively danced On2 without knowing the concept. The dance already existed in the conga, in the street, in the body — he had not invented it. He would codify it.

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HUNTS POINT, CORSO, ROSELAND (1965–1972): the school of the street and the decision

Those around him do not understand. Torres will recount with humor: at school, “everybody would go to school with books, I would go with my tape recorder” ^[3]. Expelled from his first high school, he ends up at a technical school in Manhattan where he studies air conditioning: “I study air conditioning cause I wanted to be a cool dancer” ^[3].

At 16, he frequents the Hunts Point Palace in the Bronx — “Now we’re talking about 1966 I was 16 years old in 1966” — and retains a shine called “the Hunts Point step because everybody in the Hunts Point was doing it” ^[3]. He also observes the dancers at the Corso, which Torres calls the second Palladium ^[2], the nightclub that took over from the legendary Palladium ^[6].

During these formative years, Torres learns by watching. Hutchinson notes that he can find only ballroom classes (Fred Astaire, Arthur Murray) that do not resemble the dancing of the great New York dancers he wants to imitate ^[6]; he himself says: “los maestros míos fueron la calle y los muchachos de ese tiempo” ^[2]. His role models: Luis “Máquina” Flores, famous for his footwork ^[3]; Jo-Jo Smith — a neighborhood jazz teacher who did “mambo jazz” in the clubs with his partner, and whom Torres imitated at home, unable to afford classes ^[3] —; and Freddy Ríos, a Palladium legend ^[6], a member of the Cha-Cha Aces and the Mambo Legends, who went to the clubs to watch people dance and told him: “Eddie, do me a favor. These people, they’re off timing, they’re messed up” […] “teach them how to dance in clave” […] “Nobody knew counting” (Eddie, do me a favor. These people are off the rhythm. Teach them to dance in clave. Nobody knew how to count) ^[3].

Torres will later state: “by the time I was 17 years old, I was probably one of the best dancers already in the whole scene” (at seventeen, I was probably already one of the best dancers in the entire scene). Around 1970-1971 — “This might have been 1970, 1971,” he says ^[3] — an older dancer, his mentor, takes him to the Roseland Ballroom to see Augie and Margo Rodríguez, the legendary Palladium dance couple, accompanied by Tito Puente’s orchestra ^[2]. In another account, he saw them “in 1972 maybe” ^[3]. Augie and Margo had left the Palladium to study ballet, jazz, and flamenco; they formed a professional act that, according to what Torres says he understood, opened for Sammy Davis Jr. for many years and performed before three presidents ^[3]. That evening, Torres makes the decision that will shape his entire life: he will become a professional dancer. “I went home and I said to myself: This is what I want to do. I want to perform with the Tito Puente Orchestra. I want to be a professional dancer” (I went home and said to myself: this is what I want to do. I want to perform with Tito Puente’s orchestra. I want to be a professional dancer) — Eddie Torres, Salsa Legends and Masters Academy ^[3]. The inspiration is twofold: Puente for the music, Augie and Margo for the dance.

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THE CORSO, late 1960s: JUNE LABERTA teaches him to count and name

Torres places the encounter that will turn street dance into a teachable system in the late 1960s: he dates the first step names to the “años 68 69” ^[2]. At the Corso, the Manhattan nightclub where Tito Puente played almost every Sunday when he was in town ^[3], he notices a woman on the floor: “this lady dances with more flavor and more inside soul than all these young kids” (this lady dances with more flavor and more soul than all these young people). June LaBerta is, he says, “this little Italian lady” ^[3], considerably older than he is ^[2][3][8], a dancer from the Palladium era in the 1950s who also studied jazz at JoJo’s Dance Factory ^[5]. She offers to help Torres put his teaching into theoretical terms. He resists for nearly two years — “yo perdí con ella casi dos años ella que sí y yo que no” ^[2] — then gives in. Torres reports her words as follows: “you don’t need to learn how to dance. You’re an inventor. You invent ideas and you create, you compose. What you need is to theoretically know how to translate, and transmit your work to people” (you don’t need to learn to dance. You’re an inventor. You invent ideas, you create, you compose. What you need is to know theoretically how to translate and pass on your work to people) ^[3].

Around 1972, according to McMains, Torres sets himself the goal of becoming a professional Latin dancer: “Torres fixated on the goal of becoming a professional Latin dancer in 1972 at the urging of his musical idol, Tito Puente”. This is also the year when, he says, he begins teaching in a studio ^[2], and the year Mambo Royalty assigns to his first syllabus ^[1]. He himself says he started naming his steps as early as 1968-1969. The syllabus therefore took shape over several years, without a precise date of birth ^[5][6].

LaBerta teaches him musical notation — “This is a quarter note,” “This is a measure. 4/4,” and “common time” — counting from 1 to 8, and the structure of the 3-2 clave ^[3]. Hutchinson summarizes that she encouraged him “to put counts to his dancing, to name his steps, and to come up with a syllabus” ^[6]. She films him with a Super 8 camera, first without sound and then with sound — “Late 60s, early 70s” ^[3]. Together, they name the steps of his future syllabus: “Use your imagination, and start to bring names to your step” (use your imagination and start giving names to your steps), she tells him ^[3]. The first step is called the Suzy Q — “in the ballroom world, we call that Suzy Q” […] “so now, for mambo steps, I’m gonna give you the first name” (in the ballroom world, we call that the Suzy Q […] now, for Mambo steps, I’m going to give you the first name) ^[3]. The next ones will emerge by association: “a step that I saw the Cubans do. I said, I’m gonna call that the Cuban step” (a step I saw the Cubans do: I’ll call it the Cuban step), then a zigzag, and a step he names “slave” because “I feel like a slave on a chain” (I feel like a slave in chains) ^[3]. Torres says that LaBerta also suggested the term “open shines” to refer to solo steps ^[5]. He himself tells the story behind the word “shine”: “why didn’t you just call ’em steps?” — “cause that don’t sound so cool, shine sounds cool” ^[3]. Inherited from ballroom vocabulary, the term “shine” today refers to the solo steps of New York Mambo ^[6].

Who devised the counting system itself? The accounts differ. Torres credits LaBerta with the theory, timing, and counting: “Ella fue quien me sentó y me enseñó todo, la teoría, el tiempo, marcar, poner los nombres” ^[2] ; in the Rosario interview (a series posted online in 2012), on the origins of the counting: “la señora que es que tienen que darle, el mundo crédito, no es a mí, es a una señora italiana por nombre de June Laberta” ^[2]; in English, he says she is “the reason why everybody’s counting 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7” and that most people who use his syllabus “don’t even know it came from June Laberta” ^[3]. Hutchinson likewise writes that she was the one “who helped him to come up with his famous “on 2” counting system by putting his basic step to a musical count” ^[6]. McMains, for her part, notes that “Many people assume that Eddie Torres learned this rhythm from his longtime dance partner June Laberta,” but reports a 2009 interview in Queens with LaBerta’s other dance partner, Eddie Dorfer, who says that she taught and danced the rhythm of the other Palladium dancers, at least with him ^[5]. Dorfer recalls a weekend of dancing in the 1970s: Torres asks him how to teach Mambo, describes Dorfer’s way of counting — 234 678, holding 5 and 1 — then his own: he too steps on 2 and 6, but adds a step on 1 and 5. Dorfer simply replies: “you teach it the way you dance it. That’s your comfort zone” (teach it the way you dance it. That’s your comfort zone) ^[5]. McMains draws a conclusion: “This story suggests that Torres analyzed his own dancing and that of his peers in order to develop the counting system he teaches rather than relying on a rhythmic structure he inherited from his elders” ^[5] — a researcher’s interpretation that Torres does not adopt as his own. The Torres count — the basic step counted 1-2-3, 5-6-7, with the change of direction on counts 2 and 6, called “New York 2” by some — is not the only school of On2: Hutchinson contrasts Torres’s method, which begins on 1 but changes direction (the “break”) on 2, with that of Angel and Addie Rodríguez (Razz M’Tazz), who begin and change direction on 2. In her view, “both believe their methods to have evolved from “street” mambo,” and the debate is about “which is the “true” mambo” ^[6].

McMains presents her as his longtime dance partner ^[5]; an archival video on his channel shows them together dancing to “Ah-vah,” by Tito Puente ^[9]. She leaves him with another memory: “I only wish she was alive today Olga to see what has happened around the world with this infrastructure that she taught me” (I only wish she were alive today to see what has happened around the world with this structure she taught me) — Eddie Torres, Olga Prykhodko, November 2020 ^[3].

About a month after LaBerta’s death, Torres gets a call at the studio: she has left him a box full of short Super 8 films and a letter ^[3]. He recounts its meaning: “you’re gonna need the history of who you are, and how you started, and how you became a teacher” […] “my job, I feel, was just to help you. In the process” (you’ll need the history of who you are, how you started, and how you became a teacher […] my job, I think, was only to help you in the process) ^[3]. Torres would admit: “I felt like I lost, almost like a mother, cause she was very close to me” (I felt as though I had almost lost a mother, because she was very close to me) ^[3]. He also attributes this prediction to her: “esta técnica que te estoy enseñando va a crear una revolución en el mundo del baile” ^[2]. One piece of LaBerta’s advice would endure for decades: “Eddie, keep your mind open. When you see the future changing with trends, maintain tradition, but also go with the future, because if not, you stay behind” (keep an open mind. When you see the future changing with trends, maintain tradition, but move with the future too, or you’ll be left behind) ^[3]. She had also warned him: “tú vas a tener mucho conflicto al principio” with dancers used to On1 ^[2].

The 1970s in New York are the years of hustle. Torres recalls the television show Dance Fever with Danny Terrio, where all the teams performed hustle routines, and his Mambo dancer friends who all switch to hustle ^[3]. Hutchinson reports that other dancers warned him he would never succeed as a professional dancer if he didn’t dance hustle ^[6]. Torres is, in his own words, “the only teacher trying to get people to dance mambo” (the only teacher trying to get people to dance Mambo) ^[3]. His own friends turn down his free classes: “No, I’m going to a hustle class, Eddie. The mambo’s dead” (No, I’m going to a hustle class, Eddie. Mambo is dead) ^[3]. Torres replies: “the hustle is nothing but turn patterns that we invented in the mambo” (hustle is nothing more than arm patterns we invented in Mambo) ^[3].

Torres does not usually present hustle as a strong influence—even though he says he put “el hustle, el hip hop, el reggaetón, el jazz, todo” into his choreography ^[2]—but McMains documents it rigorously: “Eddie Torres began to absorb and adapt their moves as he molded his own salsa/mambo style.” On Monday nights at Alexis Dance Studios, on 86th Street, Torres exchanged steps with hustle dancers. Paul Pellicoro attests to this. Palladium-era dancers interviewed by McMains—including Michael Terrace—consistently called Torres’s turns “hustle turns” ^[5]. McMains concludes bluntly: “Although Torres himself does not usually mention hustle as a strong influence on the development of his style, the imprint of hustle on his dancing is so apparent that Palladium-era dancers I interviewed routinely referred to Eddie Torres “hustle turns.”” The Torres style is not a pure continuation of Palladium Mambo: it is a creative synthesis—hustle for the arm patterns according to McMains, Jo-Jo Smith’s jazz, pachanga ^[5] and, according to Torres himself, “James Brown’s Boogaloo” ^[3].

Puente, for his part, pushes Torres to figure things out on his own. McMains, drawing on Mary Kent’s biography ^[10], recounts the scene: Puente first tells him he should do more than social dancing; Torres replies “There’s no mentors”; Puente turns around: “Forget about mentors. Develop your own ideas and put a little act together. Figure it out yourself” (forget about mentors. Develop your own ideas and put together a little act. Figure it out yourself) ^[5].

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THE BRONX, 1978: MARIA, a lifelong partner

Everything changes in the fall of 1978. Eddie Torres lands a job teaching Salsa at Roberto Clemente State Park in the Bronx. The place has a large gym and a balcony. Downstairs are gymnasts, including an instructor, Maria. He turns to a friend: “Jackie, you see that beautiful young lady there?” […] “that’s my future wife” (Jackie, do you see that beautiful young woman over there? […] that’s my future wife). His friend replies: “you keep dreaming” (keep dreaming) — Eddie Torres, Pioneers of the Movement, This Scene of Ours, October 2025 ^[3].

A month or two later, she is standing in the doorway of his room, “with her attitude” (with her defiant air). He suggests she try his class; she replies that she already dances. He puts on music: “Show me how you started dancing.” She throws her arms in all directions. She seems to be saying, he recalls: “that’s how mom and dad dances at home” (that’s how Mom and Dad dance at home). He then thinks this might be the key to getting to know her — Eddie Torres, Pioneers of the Movement, This Scene of Ours, October 2025 ^[3]. In another interview, he tells what happened next: he shows her what he teaches and starts stringing together his shines in front of her; she leaves the room, embarrassed, and only comes back later, on her return from college: “I want to learn how to dance like you dance” (I want to learn to dance like you) — Eddie Torres, Salsa Legends and Masters Academy ^[3].

In fact, she had been dancing since the age of four: tap, jitterbug, jive, hustle. “The only thing she didn’t know how to do was mambo” (the only thing she didn’t know how to do was Mambo) ^[3]. Within a few weeks, she says, she learns the choreography; what takes her six months is social dancing, since she had only ever danced onstage. Eddie then confides his dream to her: to dance with Tito Puente. She doesn’t know who Puente is: “Who’s Tito Puente?” (who’s Tito Puente?) ^[3]. On December 12, 1978, she says yes. “Let’s give this a try” (let’s try it), she recalls — Maria Torres, Pioneers of the Movement, October 2025 ^[3]. In January 1979, she says, they are already performing with Puente.

Maria Torres is his original dance partner. Musicologists Simpson-Litke and Stover (Music Theory Spectrum, 2019) attribute the “on-2–2” style (also called “Nightclub Technique/Style,” “New York 2,” or “Modern Mambo”) to Eddie Torres, who is said to have developed it with the help of his dance partner Maria Torres ^{[11, p. 83]}. She calls herself student No.40: Torres had presented his vision to his forty students; the others left—“They thought oh you’re crazy, there’s no money. And they walked out. I stood behind.” She also describes herself as the company’s costume designer (“his costume designer”) and keeps fifteen notebooks of steps, “all filled with shines and names” ^[3]. She sums up her contribution: “I share his passion I share his world I share I believed in his goal and I said let’s give it a try” […] “always have his back always promote him always push for him always make his costume to inspire him” (I share his passion, his world, I believed in his goal and said: let’s try it […] always supporting him, always promoting him, always pushing him, always making his costumes to inspire him) — Maria Torres, Olga Prykhodko, November 2020 ^[7].

She also asserts her place: “I’m not just a mambo queen because I married Eddie Torres, I’m the mambo queen because what I did for the women and the community” (I’m not a Mambo queen just because I married Eddie Torres; I am one because of what I did for women and the community) — Maria Torres, Olga Prykhodko, November 2020 ^[3]. He puts it his own way: “If it wasn’t for Maria I probably wouldn’t have been able to do the things […] I’ve accomplished as far as traveling and sharing my knowledge of dance around the world” (without Maria, I probably couldn’t have done what I’ve accomplished by traveling and sharing my knowledge of dance around the world) ^[3]. And he adds: “We go out to teach together. We come home together. We spend all day together” (we go out to teach together, we come home together, we spend the whole day together) […] “a real bond in the same passion and the love that we have for the dance” ^[3].

He still has to get her to enjoy dance nights. Maria didn’t want to dance in clubs, only onstage. Eddie takes her to the Corso and dances all night with the other women, deliberately: “I did this on purpose to see if I can make her jealous enough to say one day: Hey, I want to learn how to do the social dancing” (I did it on purpose, to see if I could make her jealous enough to say one day: I want to learn to dance socially) — Eddie Torres, Olga Prykhodko, November 2020 ^[3]. It works: once she knows how to dance socially, “she would dance to me nine out of ten numbers” (she danced with me to nine songs out of ten), and the other female dancers said they missed the days when she didn’t know how: back then, Eddie danced with all of them ^[3].

He also says that winning her over took a long time. Aboard the Aventura Dance Cruise in 2019, he describes her this way: “she wasn’t an easy catch” (she wasn’t easy to win over)—“two years,” he says, trying to convince her to go out with him. Meanwhile, another woman, also named Maria, was asking him to come live with her in Brooklyn. He tells Maria. One day, she has him come into the bathroom at the house, locks the door, and tells him: “You ain’t gone no Brooklyn with that other Maria […] I’ve been in love with you from the first day but I wanted to make sure that this wasn’t gonna be a one night thing” (you’re not going to Brooklyn with that other Maria […] I’ve been in love with you since the first day, but I wanted to be sure this wouldn’t be a one-night thing). He still laughs about it: “You made me suffer these two years” (you made me suffer for those two years) — Eddie Torres, Aventura Dance Cruise, June 2019 ^[3].

Forty years later, he says: “if you stay with somebody and you really love them after many years it gets more real more stronger” (if you stay with someone you truly love, after many years, it becomes more real, stronger) ^[3]. In a video message to his wife in 2012, he tells her: “33 years, and that’s the love of you, girl, more and more every day” (33 years, and that’s my love for you, darling, stronger every day) ^[12]. In another video, he says: “We’ve been together 35 years […] I have a honeymoon every time I go back” (we’ve been together for 35 years […] I have a honeymoon every time I come home) ^[12].

Touring comes at a cost. Maria stayed in New York for a long time to look after the family and the school while he traveled. He tells her: “Mummy I wish you would have been with me because some of these countries are so beautiful and there’s nothing like sharing an experience in these places with someone that you love” (Mommy, I wish you had been with me, because some of these countries are so beautiful, and nothing compares to sharing an experience in these places with someone you love) — Eddie Torres, Olga Prykhodko, November 2020 ^[7]. He also knows what people say about touring: “when you go traveling there’s a lot of temptation, let’s put it that way, in the dance world” (when you travel, there’s a lot of temptation, let’s put it that way, in the dance world). His response comes down to a habit: “the first thing I do when I talk to the people is I talk to them about my wife, to let them know I’m not here to try to pick up any girlfriends. I’m here to do my work and my beautiful wife at home says good morning, hello” (the first thing I do when I talk to people is tell them about my wife, so they know I’m not here to find a girlfriend; I’m here for my work, and my beautiful wife, back home, sends her greetings) ^[3].

What makes him happy, he says, lies away from the stage: “I’m really the most happiest when I’m back home with my family with my wife with my children […] I love to be home in my comfortable pajamas and being home with my wife” (I’m happiest when I come home, with my family, my wife, my children […] I love being at home, in my comfortable pajamas, with my wife) ^[7]. In Spanish: “Yo no encuentro ninguna cama mejor que la cama mía con mi esposa y los hijos míos que son mi tesoro, eso es lo que me hace feliz. No es la fama ni el dinero” (I can’t find any bed better than my bed with my wife and my children, who are my treasure; that’s what makes me happy, not fame or money) ^[2].

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NEW YORK COLISEUM, 1979: the TITO PUENTE DANCERS (1979–2000)

It all starts with a conversation at the Corso, where Puente saw Torres dance every week — “él me veía todos los domingos en un club que se llama el Corso” ^[2]. Puente advises him: “Find yourself a partner, put some numbers together, choreograph some stuff” (find yourself a partner, put together a few numbers, choreograph some things) ^[3]. For Torres, it is the beginning of a mission. He has had partners before, but, he says, “they weren’t at the level or didn’t have the same drive and the same interest that I had to do it at a professional level” (they didn’t have the skill level, or the same drive or the same interest as I did in doing it professionally) — Eddie Torres, Salsa Legends and Masters Academy ^[3]. Eight years later ^[6], he returns with Maria and two choreographies, Palladium Days and El Cayuco ^[3]. Puente agrees to introduce them without having seen the routine: “Eddie, I’m tired of looking at you dance at the Corso. I know you can dance” (Eddie, I’ve had enough of watching you dance at the Corso. I know you can dance) ^[3], then, according to Torres: “How bad could it be?” […] “If I like it, who knows what happens. And if not, you had your shot” (it can’t be that bad, can it? […] If I like it, who knows. If not, you’ll have had your chance) — Eddie Torres, Pioneers of the Movement, 2025 ^[3].

The first performance takes place at the New York Coliseum (now Jazz at Lincoln Center), during a Latin Expo: “it was a Latin expo.” Thousands of people, products handed out as samples, and a trembling knee: “my knees started shaking and I said Oh my God.” Puente takes the microphone: “this is a young man who dances every week at the Corso when I’m playing” (here is a young man who dances every week at the Corso when I play). They come on to El Cayuco, then Palladium Days, “all dressed in red with fringes” (all in red, with fringe) — Eddie Torres, Pioneers of the Movement ^[3]. The next day, Puente plays at the Pan American Hotel, on Queens Boulevard. Eddie and Maria go there to spend the evening with him. “If I’d have known that I would have invited you to do your two numbers here tonight,” Puente says. Eddie runs to his car: the costume is in the trunk. “From then on,” he says in essence, they follow him everywhere, and Puente’s first question is always: “You got your outfit in the trunk?” (do you have your costume in the trunk?) ^[3]. Torres sums it up: “debutamos con él” […] “Y lo demás fue historia” (we made our debut with him […] and the rest was history) ^[2]. He sometimes cites Ran Kan Kan and Palladium Days, sometimes El Cayuco, as the first pieces ^[3]. What begins on those evenings will last twenty-one years ^[2].

Puente agrees to let them call themselves the “Tito Puente Dancers”: a jacket with a photo of him at the timbales. His musical director, Jimmy Frisaura, tells them: “Tito doesn’t share the stage with anybody too readily. He likes you” (Tito doesn’t share the stage with just anyone. He likes you) ^[1]. Hutchinson quotes Torres recounting the little speech Puente would give before their numbers: “right now Eddie and Maria are the last of the Mohicans” ^[6]. In an interview in English, Torres sums it up: “look, Eddie and Maria, the last mambo team in the world. You gotta send your children to their school, they gotta… you gotta keep this alive” (look, Eddie and Maria, the last Mambo team in the world. You have to send your children to their school, you have to keep this alive) ^[3]. On the microphone at dance nights, Puente reminds everyone of what is at stake: Torres recounts that, in those years, the only professional Mambo dancers still active were Freddy Ríos and Mike Ramos, followed by Eddie and Maria Torres — “Si ellos se retiran mañana, quizá esto se cae” (if they retire tomorrow, maybe it will all collapse) ^[2].

In the 1980s, they also teach far from New York: at students’ request, Eddie and Maria teach the Eddie Torres style on 1 (“on one”) at the Pasadena Ballroom, one weekend a month for four or five years, Maria recalls ^[7]. At Madison Square Garden, around the middle of the decade, promoter Ralph Mercado initially turns down a Latin number: he already has a disco group for the intermission. Puente insists on “the Tito Puente Dancers.” Before going onstage, Eddie tells Maria: “I want you to dance blood” (I want you to dance your heart out). Standing ovation. Mercado will later call him for other shows ^[1].

The Torres-Puente duo goes beyond a professional collaboration. Torres recalls that Puente, who was “muy fanático del baile,” wanted to pursue a career as a professional dancer in his youth — “una carrera de bailarín profesional” ^[2]: “Pero lo de Tito ya la historia y el destino de él estaba escrito de él ser el rey de la música latina” (but Tito’s history and destiny were written: he would be the king of Latin music) ^[2]. After ten years of working together, Puente tells him: “eres el embajador de la danza y yo soy el embajador de la música” (you are the ambassador of dance and I am the ambassador of music). Torres adds: “lo respeto y lo querido como un padre, y hemos formado un casamiento, una unión” (I respect him and I have loved him like a father, and we have formed a marriage, a union) — Eddie Torres, Toncá Facchina, 2017 ^[2]. Maria says the same thing in her own words: “Tito Puente to Eddie was like a father mentor and he protected us” (to Eddie, Tito Puente was like a father and a mentor, and he protected us) — Maria Torres, Olga Prykhodko, November 2020 ^[7].

The backstage anecdotes Torres tells in his interviews paint an affectionate portrait of Puente. The maestro did not like luxury buffets: “cuando le venían con esas cosas de caviar” […] he would ask for “un chamba cubano” (which seems to refer to a Cuban sandwich), because, Torres says, “Tito, igual que yo nos criamos bien pobres” ^[2]. Before each show, he would ask Torres to choose his outfit: “Eddie, ¿qué me pongo hoy?” ^[2]. In rehearsal, discipline was absolute: if a musician could not read sheet music, Puente would point to the door — “mira, ahí está la puerta” (look, there’s the door) ^[2].

As early as 1982, in a video interview with an interviewer named Marion, Torres already gives his approach a name: “Avant-Garde Latin Dance. Meaning simply that it’s a free form innovation. It’s not restricted to any particular form. It doesn’t mean that it’s African or it’s modern or it’s jazz or ballet. It’s just a free form idea” (avant-garde Latin dance, meaning simply an innovation in free form. It is not restricted to any particular form. That does not mean it is African or modern or jazz or ballet. It is just a free-form idea) ^[3]. His biographer Mary Kent (1995) writes: “Broadway musicals, [Alvin] Ailey’s work, African dancing, and flamenco all were sources of inspiration for Eddie” ^[10]. McMains notes that Torres also names Bob Fosse among his sources of inspiration ^[5]. The Torres style openly embraces fusion — while remaining rooted in the Mambo tradition.

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APOLLO THEATER, 1987: MACHITO FOREVER and the birth of the company

Around 1983, the Copacabana launches Tuesday Salsa nights, and its organizer seeks to attract New York’s best dancers; shortly afterward, Torres is hired to teach there ^[6]. In 1985, Torres teaches at Paul Pellicoro‘s studio ^[5]. Pellicoro will later tell McMains that Torres’s classes were not really classes: “a lot of his classes were not about teaching people how to dance. It was about his dream of having a dance company. So you were auditioning for his dance company when you came to his class” (many of his classes were not intended to teach people to dance. It was his dream of having a dance company. So when you came to his classes, you were auditioning for his company) ^[5].

The year 1987 is pivotal. One evening, Puente calls him: he wants a tribute to Machito at the Apollo Theater, with “a real big beautiful number, a real big choreography.” Torres objects that he only knows how to choreograph for Maria and himself. “Don’t worry” […] “You’ll figure it out” […] “You put a big, big group together and when you’re ready call me up” (don’t worry, you’ll figure it out […] put together a very large group and, when you’re ready, call me), Puente replies — Eddie Torres, Pioneers of the Movement ^[3].

In 1987, more than fifty street dancers — around sixty according to Torres — took the stage together at Harlem’s Apollo Theater to pay tribute to Machito, with Tito Puente‘s orchestra ^[2][5][6]. They were not professionals. Torres had recruited them in New York nightclubs: “I went through nightclubs just hand picking dancers” ^[3]. Hutchinson mentions four months of preparation before the show ^[6], and Torres recounts that he had to explain everything to them: “ninguno de los bailarines que yo invité sabía nada de teoría, nada de música, nada de nombre” ^[2]. On the night at the Apollo, they danced to Tito Puente’s Babarabatiri ^[5]. Director Catherine Calderon captured these beginnings in the documentary ¡A Bailar!: The Journey of a Latin Dance Company (1988), broadcast on PBS for five years ^[3], which opened with grainy black-and-white footage of a young man dancing alone to Charlie Palmieri’s Dame Tu Corazón ^[5]. Researcher Juliet McMains (University of Washington) would later compare this man to George Balanchine, the father of American ballet: both had understood that they first had to build a school in order to form a company ^[5].

The Apollo marks a turning point in two ways. Hutchinson writes: “The mambo revival did not begin until the late 1980s, following the televised Apollo Theater performance by Eddie Torres and Tito Puente” ^[6], and McMains: “After that show, a small core group of dancers stayed with Torres to form his company” ^[5]. Torres recounts that he did not have the money for his sixty dancers’ costumes (“tengo 60 bailarinas, no tengo el dinero para los vestuarios”) and that Puente apparently then pulled out his checkbook to pay for everything. He then asks twelve of them to stay with him: “le pedí a 12 de los bailarines que se quedara conmigo para formar el grupo” — six couples according to Hutchinson ^[6]. This is how the “Eddie Torres Dancers” are born: “yo el grupo lo comencé en el 87, hasta el 2007” ^[2]. In another interview, Torres explains that for the past two years the Tito Puente Scholarship Fund has been awarding him a grant (“a grant”) that has helped him establish his company — then ten dancers — and an academy for children. At that point, the fund has been in existence for twelve years and has awarded around fifty-eight scholarships ^[3]. At a grant presentation, Torres declares: “Tito Puente is directly responsible for my vision of becoming a professional Latin dancer” (Tito Puente is directly responsible for my vision of becoming a professional Latin dancer), and thanks Bob Rodriguez and Joe Conzo, who helped set up the fund ^[3]. Among the dancers at the Apollo that night: David Melendez, who would later found the NY International Salsa Congress: “David Melendez was the originator of the New York International Salsa Congress” ^[3]. As for congresses, Torres dates their beginnings to 1997: “en el momento que empezaron los congresos en 1997” ^[2].

The 1987 Apollo performance is not an isolated event. Torres says he danced at the Apollo five times — “I performed five times at the Apollo Theater” —, including a tribute to Mandela and a tribute to Charlie Palmieri ^[3]. For the latter, he had the idea of dancing on a grand piano mounted on wheels: he remained motionless like a statue until the solo, then danced on the piano. A video titled “Dias En El Palladium With Tito Puente At The Apollo Theater 1990” also shows a performance with Puente’s orchestra at the Apollo ^[3].

In the wake of the Apollo, a community phenomenon emerges. Torres says the young people he had not chosen “se quedaron tan entusiasmados y siguieron cogiendo clase” ^[2]. The dancers who do not continue with the Torres company keep meeting at the home of Paula Cornier, one of the participants ^[5]. The group grows quickly — from Cornier’s home to a church where eighty people gather each week. An existing social club called “Mambo Society” approaches them to join forces, and the group adopts the name. When the church gym becomes too small, the meetings move to a space on East 4th Street. The meetings are free at first, then involve a two-dollar donation. The Mambo Society spreads Torres’s technique and counting method to hundreds of New Yorkers ^[5]. But success brings a split: some members try to redirect the mission toward profit. Paula Cornier objects with a sentence that sums up an eternal dilemma: “It’s our culture. How do you sell our culture?” (It’s our culture. How do you sell our culture?). She withdraws her support and the group suspends its meetings ^[5].

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NEW YORK, 1989–1992: television, the “MAMBO KING” and President Bush

In 1989, Eddie and Maria spend a year in Puerto Rico: they work there with singer Ismael Miranda on the television show Salsa. Puente, who had been there, had suggested bringing Eddie in to teach and spread dancing on 2 “like we were doing in New York” (as we were doing in New York) — Eddie Torres, Pioneers of the Movement ^[3]. During that year, he says, he travels “todos los meses” to stage the show’s performances ^[13].

Television picks up on the Mambo revival. In a report by Steve Fox, Torres teaches “the mysteries of the Mambo at a place called Club Broadway”; a devoted student confides: “I’m addicted to the Mambo. I admit it freely” (I’m hooked on Mambo. I freely admit it) ^[3]. A report by Stan Bernard for NBC News, “Mambo Madness TV Documentary,” shows Torres teaching at Lincoln Center on a recent summer evening. The reporter introduces him as “called the King of the Mambo and probably New York’s leading teacher of the dance” (called the king of Mambo and probably the foremost teacher of this dance in New York) ^[3]. Torres, for his part, says he holds that title on the dance side: “a mí tengo ese título que dice Mambo King, el rey del mambo”; he recounts that Puente himself used to say: “antes me llamaban el rey del mambo” before he was called “el rey de la salsa.” For Torres, several films helped bring Mambo back: “Dirty Dancing,” “Salsa” and “The Mambo Kings” ^[2]. He says he met twice with the producers of the last of these films; without an established name, they hired choreographer Michael Peters, and to him “el único fallo que tuvo esa película fue el baile” ^[2].

Stan Bernard’s report also introduces Millie Donay, a Palladium dancer who “admits to stealing the Hayworth moves” (admits to having stolen Hayworth’s moves) and who, forty years later, “is again dancing the mambo” ^[3]. A voice in the report declares: “I really don’t know what brought it back, except maybe for Dirty Dancing, the movie. It’s not on the one, it’s not the mambo, it’s a feeling, a heartbeat” (I don’t really know what brought it back, except perhaps the movie Dirty Dancing. It’s not on one, it’s not Mambo, it’s a feeling, a heartbeat) ^[3]. Hutchinson notes that Torres’s syllabus includes a step called “Millie Donay,” “one of that dancer’s characteristic moves” ^{[6, p. 127]}.

A Channel 9 News report, dated 1990, is filmed in the Bronx, at a place nicknamed “El Condado de la Salsa” (Salsa Music County): it shows Torres teaching in New York “six nights a week” to hundreds of students, and the reporter mentions “about 150 steps” ^[3]. In it, Torres states: “I would admit that I think I’ve done more work in the development and in helping to preserve and to bring back this dance more than anyone else I know.” The report presents the Torres family of dancers as “New York’s first family of Mambo” ^[3]. That same year, his mother dances with him on Sally Jessy Raphael’s show ^[4].

The title “Mambo King” has two origins, and Torres tells both stories. The first is television: it is the name of his stage act in the 1990 Channel 9 News report ^[3]. The second is the audience. “It started with us when we started working together in the year 1979 with Tito, Maria and I. And then when people would see us perform people started saying: Oh look, we got the Mambo King of Music and the Mambo King of Dance” (it began when we started working together, in 1979, with Tito, Maria and me. And when people saw us, they started saying: look, we have the king of Mambo music and the king of Mambo dance) — Eddie Torres, Pioneers of the Movement, 2025 ^[3].

He has never been comfortable with that title: “people think because they call you the Mambo King that it’s a competitive thing that means you are a better dancer than the next […] by no means” (people think that because you’re called Mambo King, it’s a matter of competition, that you’re a better dancer than the next person […] by no means). And he recounts Puente’s reply when asked about it: “I don’t have no problem with that as long as they don’t call me the Mambo Queen” (I have no problem with that, as long as they don’t call me Mambo Queen) ^[3]. To him, titles matter little: “Titles don’t mean nothing really. […] I walk into McDonald’s I’m the Mambo King. Yeah, well that costs three ninety-five, sir” (titles mean nothing. […] I walk into a McDonald’s, I’m the Mambo King. Yes, well, that’s three ninety-five, sir) ^[3].

Torres and Puente are invited to dance for President George H.W. Bush at Ford’s Theatre, during the June 14, 1992 gala, with Jimmy Smits and Ricardo Montalbán as masters of ceremonies; Torres calls this show Fiesta at Ford’s ^[3][8]. Also on the bill: Celia Cruz, Arturo Sandoval, Barry Manilow, Rita Moreno, Vikki Carr and Vanessa Williams ^[2][3][8]. They reportedly danced Ran-Kan-Kan ^[1]. Torres would recount the exchange between Puente and the president with undiminished glee decades later — but it takes place in the afternoon, at the White House, in the line for a photo with the president, before the evening show ^[3]. Puente introduces himself: “Mr. President, my name is Tito Puente, and I am the goodwill ambassador for Latin music around the world”; Bush replies: “Mr. Puente, you need no introduction with me, because I’m a big fan of yours.” Puente, unflappable: “Tonight, after the show, if you play your cards right, I’m gonna give you an autographed picture of myself” (tonight, after the show, if you play your cards right, I’ll give you an autographed photo of myself) ^[3]. On another occasion, while they were waiting for President Clinton, Puente says: “Hazme un favor. Chequea bien que él tenga una invitación, porque si él no tiene una invitación, no entra aquí” (do me a favor: make sure he has an invitation, because if he doesn’t have an invitation, he’s not coming in here). Torres: “él era así con todo el mundo, a él no le importaba” (he was like that with everyone, he didn’t care) ^[2].

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ITALY AND PUERTO RICO, 1994–1999: Mambo hits the road

In 1995, Torres starts going to Italy — 1994, he says elsewhere. “They call me Eddie Cappuccino in Italy” (in Italy, they call me Eddie Cappuccino), he jokes. He goes with dancer Melissa Rosado, “que es como hija de nosotros” (who is like our daughter) ^[2]. He tells her: “Melissa, I want to introduce the Italians to pachanga” (Melissa, I want to introduce Pachanga to the Italians). In a club, they dance a Pachanga and boogaloo routine; the audience looks at them “like we came from another planet” (as if we came from another planet). He is not discouraged: “They don’t understand it because they haven’t learned to do it” (they don’t understand because they haven’t learned to dance it), he tells Melissa, and once they know how, “they’re going to love it.” He then sets out, he says, “on a mission”: to teach Pachanga and boogaloo throughout Italy — Eddie Torres, Olga Prykhodko, November 2020 ^[7].

Torres and his dancers take part in the first West Coast Salsa Congress in Los Angeles, organized by Albert Torres. Tito Puente, in town for a concert at UCLA, makes a surprise appearance and discovers that all the dance teams are using his music for their choreography. Puente himself recounts it in an interview filmed on that occasion: “I thought it was a tribute to me” […] “Now, when I wrote those tunes 20 years ago, while being in the Palladium ballroom in New York and all that, I never thought that they’d be having choreography into that music” (I thought it was a tribute to me […] when I wrote those tunes twenty years ago, at the Palladium, I never would have thought people would choreograph to that music) ^[3].

In 1998, the Eddie Torres Dancers perform at Madison Square Garden during the twenty-third annual Salsa Music Festival, organized by Ralph Mercado (RMM), alongside La India, Tito Rojas, Elvis Crespo, El Gran Combo and Eddie Palmieri ^[15]. In 1999, Eli Irizarry invites him to his congress in San Juan, Puerto Rico: it is Torres’s first time taking part ^[3]. He brings twenty-eight dancers ^[2] for a number set to Machito’s Azulito, with dancers carrying umbrellas doing the moonwalk, others spinning on their heads, hustle dancers… “I was the first one who brought tricks into the mambo. I brought theater” (I was the first to introduce figures into Mambo. I brought theater), Torres asserts ^[3]. Dancer Felipe Polanco criticizes it at first — “Oh, the circus is in town” (oh, the circus is in town) — before apologizing years later: Torres recounts that he told him he now admired the fact that he had kept the tradition alive ^[3].

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2000: the death of TITO PUENTE, then words and archives

In 2000, Tito Puente dies (“hasta el año 2000 que falleció”). Torres loses his partner and mentor; he saw him, he says, “como un padre” ^[2]. He would later say: “By the grace of God Maria and I were able to share our life with him on stage for 21 years and to have such great great memories of working with Tito Puente and I miss him dearly” (by the grace of God, Maria and I were able to share our life with him on stage for 21 years, and to keep such great memories; I miss him terribly) — Eddie Torres, Olga Prykhodko, November 2020 ^[3]. In a tribute, he says that one of the most memorable moments of his career was “dancing in front of no other than the king of Latin music” […] “Nothing bigger and nothing better for me” (dancing in front of none other than the king of Latin music […] nothing bigger or better for me) ^[3]. Puente used to tell him: “cuando yo termine mi carrera y yo me vaya, tú tienes que seguir porque tú tienes mucho todavía que lograr” (when I’ve finished my career and I’m gone, you must keep going, because you still have a lot to accomplish).

That year, he receives an award in Puente’s place. At the Puerto Rico congress, he is offered the “Aníbal Vázquez” award, which was supposed to go to Puente: the Puente family has replied that, in their eyes, he was the one who should receive it. “That touched me in such a way that I don’t even have words to tell you how I felt” (it touched me so deeply that I have no words to say how I felt), he says. Another award, the Augie and Margo award, is presented to him by Augie himself — “the team that truly inspired me when I first saw them performing with Tito Puente” (the team that truly inspired me when I first saw them with Tito Puente) — Eddie Torres, Olga Prykhodko, November 2020 ^[7]. He also holds to a rule: “If they’re gonna do something for you, any tribute or anything, do it while the person is still alive” (if you want to pay tribute to someone, you have to do it while that person is still alive) — Eddie Torres, Pioneers of the Movement, 2025 ^[3].

In 2001, Torres gives three interview sessions — on August 30, September 3, and October 7 — to Diane Duggan for the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the New York Public Library ^[16]. On August 27, 2003, researcher Sydney Hutchinson interviews him in turn for her article “Mambo On 2,” published in 2004 in the CENTRO Journal of the Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños (City University of New York) ^[6].

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FROM 1995 TO 2019: his stage PARTNERS, from congress to congress

Maria remains his partner in life, and she still takes the stage with him: at the 2017 Mambo Madness Anniversary, at the 2018 New York International Salsa Congress ^[17]. But from one congress to the next, Eddie Torres also dances with other partners, each with her own style. He names five himself: “I’ve also had the pleasure of working with these tremendously amazing talented ladies such as Melissa Rosado, Griselle Ponce, Shani Talmor, Maria Chiara Barone, Vanessa Lacedonia, I mean I can go on and on” (I’ve also had the pleasure of working with these extraordinarily talented women, such as Melissa Rosado, Griselle Ponce, Shani Talmor, Maria Chiara Barone, Vanessa Lacedonia, and I could go on for a long time) — Eddie Torres, Olga Prykhodko, November 2020 ^[3]. Here, in the order in which they appear alongside him, are those whose appearances can be traced through his performances.

In the 1990s, his demonstrations feature dancers from his company. In the instructional videos, Torres presents Delille and Duplessy, Angel and Duplessy, Delille and Janice in the first volume; Alhelio and Janice, Delille and Glenda in the second ^[3]. Delille Thomas, born in Haiti, leaves the company in 1995 to found his own school ^[5]; yet a 1996 “Mambo Magic Social” still shows him alongside Torres, and another video shows him with the Eddie Torres Mambo Kings orchestra. Duplessy Walker dances with him to Fiesta a la King ^[18]. Dancer Madi Portes spent eight years in the Torres company and appeared on television shows (Sally Jessy Raphael Show, Cosby Show) as well as in the film Carlito’s Way ^[1].

Melissa Rosado is the longest-standing partner. She accompanies him from his first trips to Italy in 1995. Maria says of her: “she’s like our another daughter and she has learned a lot with Eddie. Has studied with Eddie, has rehearsed with Eddie” (she is like another daughter to us, and she has learned a lot with Eddie) — Maria Torres, Olga Prykhodko, November 2020 ^[3]. For her part, she calls them “my mentors, forever dance teachers and dance parents” (my mentors, my forever dance teachers, my dance parents) — Melissa Rosado, official website ^[19]. She is also “The Mambo Princess” ^[1]. She can be seen onstage with Eddie in Zurich in 2004 (“Corta el Bonche”), in Hamburg in 2008, at the first Todo Latino Salsa Festival in Greece in 2008, at the Polish National Home on December 13, 2008, again in Hamburg in 2009 and 2010, and in Gothenburg, at the Scandinavian Salsa Congress, in 2010. Other videos bring them together in Rome (“No Me Regañes”), in Naples (“Mambo Gozón”), and in a club in Italy, with no year given, then in April 2017 for “Fiesta” ^[20]. She announces that she is dancing with him again on the stage of the New York congress in September 2022 ^[19].

Nancy Ortiz, “La Chacon,” is part of his group in the 2000s: a partner trained by Torres ^[1]. He mentions her himself — “Nancy Ortiz, Griselle Ponce, ella vino después” (Nancy Ortiz, Griselle Ponce, she came later) — and Eddie Torres’s channel shows her with him dancing to “Ariñañara” (no year given) ^[2][21].

Griselle Ponce, “The Mambo Diva,” dances alongside him for a long time: she is his stage partner from at least October 2009 to February 2016 ^[8]. In 2009, they can be seen at the New York Salsa Congress, in San José, California (“A Gozar Timbero”), and at Dance Boulevard; in 2010, at the Marseille and Marrakech congresses, and at the anniversary of La Vieja Guardia; in 2011, in Dallas, Gothenburg, Los Angeles, Puerto Rico, at Fusión Salsafest in Mexico, at Congreso Guarachero, at the Big Apple Salsa Festival, and at NJISC; in 2012, at the ON2 Salsa Congress; in 2014, again at Fusión Salsa Fest, and in February 2016 at the West Gate Lounge in Nyack, near New York. Other videos show them in Peru, at the second Peru Salsa Congress, and at the West Gate Lounge with Tito Puente’s orchestra, with no year given ^[8][22]. Eddie Torres names her among his partners, and a workshop-conversation at the Vivir Mambo Festival brings her together with him and his son again in 2017 ^[1][2].

Ericka Fignole dances with him at BASF in 2011, at the New York Salsa Congress in 2012, and at Lounge 46 in New Jersey on July 24, 2012 ^[23].

Shani Talmor tells how it all began herself: “cuando dejé el grupo empecé a bailar con Eddie porque empecé a ir a sus clases a estudiar su estilo y así empezó todo” (when I left the group, I started dancing with Eddie, because I started taking his classes to study his style, and that’s how it all began). How many years has it been? “Tres años y pico ahora” (a little over three years now) — Shani Talmor, December 2013 ^[13]. Eddie, for his part, shows her in September 2012: “And I went to Israel with her and I had an amazing time there” (and I went to Israel with her, and I had a wonderful time there) ^[3], and he adds: “I would say I’m at the twilight of my career. And I said to my wife, I said, all I want to do now is have fun. That’s what it’s always been” (I would say I’m in the twilight of my career. I told my wife: all I want now is to have fun. That’s what it has always been) ^[3]. They dance together at the New York Salsa Congress, at Fusion Salsa Fest in Mexico, and at the Singapore Salsa Championship in 2012, at Mambo Tuesdays in New Jersey in April and May 2012, in Warsaw, Croatia, Saint Petersburg, Istanbul, Milan, New York, and at Semana da Cultura Latina in 2013, then in Benidorm on July 12, 2014, and in Saint Petersburg in 2014; the Croatian Summer Salsa Festival and Scarlet Mambo feature him in 2013, and the former introduces him as “the Master himself EDDIE TORRES with his beautiful and talented partner SHANI TALMOR” ^[1][24]. Other videos show them in Ankara, with no year given.

Carla Voconi, an Italian, becomes one of his partners in early 2012, for three years; in 2014, she founds her own company, the Glam Mambo Project ^[1][8]. They can be seen in Salerno on February 21, 2013, dancing to Fiesta a la King, in Benidorm on July 12 and 13, 2014, at the Croatian Salsa Festival in 2014, and at the ON2 Salsa Congress, with no year given ^[25]. Karel Flores closes the performances of the headline evening at the 2013 Fusión Salsafest with him ^[26].

Vanessa Lacedonia joins him in the summer of 2014, after dancing with Maykel Fonts. In Warsaw in 2014, Torres speaks of a “beautiful Italian lady who happens to be such an amazing rumbera” and asks her: “Always bring your Afro-Cuban influence into whatever I teach you” (always bring your Afro-Cuban influence into everything I teach you) ^[1][3]. They can be seen at the El Sol Warsaw Salsa Festival in 2014, at CSSF and the Comadreja Salsa Congress in 2014, and in Montesilvano, in Abruzzo, on March 15, 2015 ^[27].

Maria Chiara Barone, introduced as “his dancer” in an Italian report posted online in January 2016, is documented at congresses ^[1][2]. Eddie shows her onscreen in 2017: “This is my beautiful partner here, Maria Chiara” (here is my beautiful partner, Maria Chiara) — Eddie Torres, Chicago International Salsa Congress, 2017 ^[3]. The videos place her at his side at Mascalzone Latino on September 5, 2014, at the El Sol Warsaw Salsa Festival in 2015 and 2016, in Frankfurt in 2016, in Hamburg, Benidorm, and at the Chicago International Salsa Congress in 2017, and in a Formula Latino show, with no year given ^[28].

Venezuelan dancer Bersy Cortez shares the stage and workshops with him from 2014 onward; in an interview posted online in November 2015, she says she has the opportunity to “trabajar con el maestro de maestros, Eddie Torres”; in a video of the international Salsa congress in Amsterdam, posted online the same month, Torres introduces her among “las chicas que han bailado conmigo este fin de semana” ^[2][8]. They can be seen at Salentunidos in 2014, in Benidorm in 2015, in Hamburg and Copenhagen in 2016, and at the 3rd World Stars Salsa Festival in Varna in 2017 ^[29].

Other names appear alongside Torres. Katarzyna Lorkowska-Augustyn at the 2015 El Sol Warsaw Salsa Festival; Krystal Santos at the 2015 New York Salsa Congress, at the West Gate Lounge in February 2016, and at Salsamania Saturdays; Krystal Jimenez dancing to “Ábrele Camino al Son” at the New York congress ^[30]. Selene Tovar at the Mambo Madness 4th Year Anniversary and at Fusión Salsafest in 2016; Génesis Solórzano at LVG in New York in 2017, dancing to “Ábrele Camino al Son” ^[31]. In 2019, Sarah Balzat, from Berlin, in Hamburg dancing to Fiesta a la King; Sara Milan, between New York and Almería, in Benidorm; Maricarmen, at the Guatemala Salsa Congress ^[32]. Videos also show him with Anya Katsevman (Canada Salsa & Bachata Congress, Sunday, October 13 show), Kimberly Rivera (MamboCity’s 5 Star Congress), Tiffany Benson, Maisha Morris (Salsamania), and Sharon German, with no year given ^[33].

Several of these partners are Italian. Throughout all these years, he holds the same conviction: “I don’t believe that my life has been something that was just by luck. I believe this was already a destiny for me” (I don’t believe my life has been a matter of luck; I believe it was already a destiny for me). And he expresses his gratitude: “I think I’ve been able to do more and accomplish more and feel so blessed with just the fact that I’ve shared it with my family who I love and with all these great talents which I’ve had the privilege of sharing the stage with” (I think I’ve been able to do more, accomplish more, and feel so blessed to have shared this with my family, whom I love, and with all these great talents with whom I’ve had the privilege of sharing the stage) — Eddie Torres, Olga Prykhodko, November 2020 ^[3].

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EDDIE TORRES JR. AND NADIA: the family onstage (2009–2021)

“Yo pienso que no hay cosa más linda que uno poder compartir la pasión de un arte con familia” (I think there is nothing more beautiful than being able to share a passion for an art with your family), says Eddie Torres — Dimension Latina Channel, June 2020 ^[2]. He did so first with Maria. Then with his son, Eddie Torres Jr. (Eduardo Torres), who has been dancing with him since 2009: “en 2009 yo empecé a bailar con papá” — Eddie Torres Jr., Vivir Mambo Festival, 2017 ^[2]. Eddie confirms: “él venía a mis clases […] yo empecé también a educarlo profesionalmente” (he came to my classes […] I also started training him professionally) ^[2].

He recounts the day his son, who had studied piano, asked him whether he had the talent to become a professional dancer: “Papi, ¿tú crees que yo tengo el talento suficiente?” (Dad, do you think I have enough talent?). His father’s reply: “no es porque tú eres mi hijo y te adoro, pero yo creo que Dios te ha dado a ti un talento muy lindo y muy especial, y yo sí que te voy a apoyar” (it’s not because you’re my son and I adore you, but I believe God has given you a very beautiful and very special talent, and I’m going to support you) — Eddie Torres, Dimension Latina Channel, June 2020 ^[2].

Eddie Jr.’s mother is a flamenco dancer, and this is one of the sources of his Mambo-flamenco fusion. His son says so: “mom dances flamenco which is from Spain” (my mother dances flamenco, which comes from Spain) — Eddie Torres Jr., GRAMMY.com, 2021 ^[3]. His father, for his part: “la mamá es tremenda, tremenda bailarina de flamenco” (his mother is a wonderful flamenco dancer) — Eddie Torres, Vivir Mambo Festival, 2017 ^[2].

His daughter Nadia Torres is also a dancer. Eddie says so: “I’ve had the privilege and pleasure of sharing the stage not only with […] Maria, but with Nadia” (I had the privilege and pleasure of sharing the stage not only with Maria, but with Nadia) — Eddie Torres, Olga Prykhodko, November 2020 ^[3]. She can be seen with her father at the New York International Salsa in 2017 ^[34], and it is on her channel that the Puente centennial tribute appears in October 2023 ^[3].

Torres says that his son “se graduó de la escuela de celia cruz y estudió el piano” ^[2]. He studied piano and clarinet at the Celia Cruz Bronx High School of Music, then ballet, jazz, modern, and Afro-Caribbean dance at Ballet Hispanico and the Peridance Capezio Center ^[1].

In the film In The Heights (Warner Bros., 2021, directed by Jon M. Chu), Eddie Torres Jr. and Princess Serrano are Associate Latin Choreographers and Principal Dancers ^[1]. In the GRAMMY.com interview, Torres Jr. says that Christopher Scott, the film’s main choreographer, brought him onto the team to look for “the roots of Afro and Latin culture and dance”: “Christopher Scott was the main choreographer of the In the Heights movie. And he brought me onto the team looking for, you know, the roots of Afro and Latin culture and dance” ^[3]. He takes pride in this: “We got to represent Mambo on two, which is a huge deal” — but also palo, cha-cha-chá, rumba, and son: “It’s not just salsa” ^[3]. He also appears in Being the Ricardos (Amazon, 2021) and Christmas Chronicles 2 (Netflix, 2020) ^[1].

Mambo Royalty NYC, at 520 8th Avenue, is run by Torres Jr. and Princess Serrano in collaboration with Tito Puente Jr. ^[1]. In February 2026, Eddie Torres Jr. has around 75 000 Instagram followers and sits on the advisory board of the International Salsa Museum ^[1]. In 2021, the Recording Academy (GRAMMY.com) posts the video series “Histories: Salsa Music in NYC” online for Hispanic Heritage Month, in which father and son are interviewed ^[3].

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NEW YORK, 2022–2026: still on stage

Torres teaches at 25 W 31st Street in Manhattan, and he is announced for a bootcamp at the New York International Salsa Congress in 2025, then again in 2026 ^[1][8]. A News 12 report posted online in December 2022 showed Eddie and María Torres teaching in the Bronx every Wednesday and Sunday at Vita Dance Company ^[3]. A video titled “The Eddie Torres Centennial Tribute to El Rey Tito Puente at the NYISC 2023” shows the Eddie Torres Dancers on the congress stage: “Ladies and gentlemen, the Eddie Torres dancers!” ^[3]. In an interview, he says what he would still have liked to do before ending his career: take part in choreographing a Latin musical — “un musical latino, que se llame Palladium, o algo, o Salsa, la celebración” — and make “una contribución en una película mayor” ^[2].

In 2026, at the New York International Salsa Congress, the Eddie Torres Dancers and the Mambo Royalty Dancers revisit Mon-Ti, an Eddie Torres choreography that the video titles describe as being performed “27 years later” (27 years later) ^[35]. His daughter Nadia Torres posts the footage on her channel.

In October 2025, he restates his rule: “while I’m still here […] until I’m no longer on this earth I’ll keep coming to your event because I love this event” (as long as I am here […] until I am no longer on this earth, I will keep coming to your event, because I love this event) — Eddie Torres, Pioneers of the Movement ^[3]. Earlier, he had confided: “Gracias a Dios yo siempre me he sentido que lo compartido con todo mi corazón, con la pasión que todavía está encendida, el cuerpo ya no quiere brincar mucho, pero el alma sigue para adelante” (thank God, I have always felt that I have shared it with all my heart, with the passion still burning; the body no longer wants to jump much, but the soul carries on) ^[13].

In Warsaw in 2014, Torres distinguished three generations of dancers: the original one, that of the Palladium, who started dancing in the late 1940s and early 1950s; his own, the second, who started “more in the 60s”; and today’s, “which is amazing” ^[3]. In Spanish, he sums them up this way: “primera generación pasito, segunda vuelta con pasito y ahora combinado vuelta, pasito y acrobacia cabaret” ^[2]. In the GRAMMY.com interview, he recalls what Puente used to say — “in order for music to survive and to stay alive, it needs a dance” ^[3] — and a saying he says he sees repeated all over the world: “it’s not who dances the best, but who enjoys it the most” (it is not the one who dances best, but the one who has the most fun) ^[3].

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The Mambo On2 METHOD: basic step, shines, and partnerwork

In the late 1960s or around 1970, according to him, Torres and LaBerta name the first steps ^[2]. In the 1980s, the Mambo Society uses a syllabus of twenty-five steps ^[6]. Around 1990, a Channel 9 reporter speaks of about one hundred and fifty steps ^[3]. In 2004, Hutchinson notes that Torres’s syllabus includes about three hundred shines and two hundred turn patterns ^[6]. Torres speaks of “un libro de mil pasitos” in one interview and, in another, of a book of “como 800 pasos por nombre” ^[2] ; Mambo Royalty claims more than five hundred steps ^[1]. For Hutchinson, syllabi are historical documents: “Key moments and figures in the dance’s history and development are immortalized there.” Torres’s includes a “Millie Donay” step, “pachanga taps” (a reminder of the dance of the 1960s), and a “Michael Jackson” ^[6]. Torres also mentions more amusing names: “syncopated jelly jam, pop goes the weasel, tell it to the judge, Starbucks cha cha cha, LA Shuffle” ^[2].

The instructional videos Salsa, Nightclub Style — Volume 1 and Volume 2, about fifty-three and fifty-six minutes long and posted online in 2015 — present the Torres method. He introduces himself as follows: “People call me the Mambo King, the Salsa King, the King of Latin Dance,” and announces: “over the next two hours, I’m going to teach you how to dance salsa nightclub style the right way.” Throughout the segments, he thanks the dancers demonstrating the steps — “Delille and Duplessy” — as well as “Mr. Eddie Montalvo” ^[3].

The vocabulary in the videos is that of a teacher. For counts 4 and 8, Torres introduces the concept of “override”: “On the fourth count you do not step on 4, but you override the 4” (on the fourth count, you do not place your foot on 4, but pass over it). The basic step is described as follows: “Going forward short, long, in place, going back short, long, in place” ^[3]. He also teaches music theory on a staff, drawing 4/4, and explains that “the basic time step is executed over two measures of music” (the basic step is performed over two measures of music) ^[3]. For turns, a fundamental rule: “never hold on with the thumbs. You release the thumbs as you begin to turn her” (never holding on with the thumbs: you release them as you begin to turn your partner). For female dancers’ hips, he speaks of “contra body movements” ^[3].

Torres’s teaching philosophy crystallizes over the course of his interviews. The guiding principle, inherited from June LaBerta, comes down to an acronym: KISS — “keep it simple, stupid.” Torres says that before every class, she would tell him: “look in the mirror and say this word to yourself. She said, say “kiss”” ^[3]. In Warsaw, in 2014: “we always say that practice makes perfect and I tell students that I don’t agree with that. I always tell the students that correct practice makes perfect because you must practice correctly” (people always say that practice makes perfect, and I tell students that I disagree: correct practice leads to perfection, because you have to practice correctly) ^[3]. He sums up his method in three pieces of advice: understand musical timing — “if you can’t understand timing, music timing while you’re dancing, it’s going to be very difficult to be an accomplished dancer” (if you do not understand the timing of the music while dancing, it will be very difficult to become an accomplished dancer) —, find a good teacher and practice regularly, and dance socially — “that’s where the real dancing takes place. It’s almost like taking driving lessons at a driving school and then getting on the road and driving” (that is where real dancing takes place: it is like taking driving lessons and then getting on the road) ^[3].

On the question of On1 versus On2, Torres refuses to rank the styles, a position found in several interviews, in Spain as well as in Warsaw: “yo no voy a decir de mi opinión que el 1 es mejor que el 2 y el 2 mejor que el 1” (I am not going to say, in my opinion, that 1 is better than 2 or 2 better than 1) ^[2] ; “There’s no real preference of saying one is better than the other” ^[3]. He compares timings to languages: “mientras mejor tú te preparas en cuestión de tiempo como bailarín es como hablar distinto lenguaje” (the better you prepare in terms of timing as a dancer, it is like speaking another language) ^[2]. He does, however, observe a one-way phenomenon: “my observation has been that people who then learn the 2, and learn it well, they start to prefer the 2” […] “I’ve never heard people say that they would go back to the 1 and prefer the 1” (in my observation, those who learn 2, and learn it well, end up preferring 2 […] I have never heard anyone say that they would go back to 1 and prefer it) ^[3]. His practical advice: “no traten de aprender el uno y el dos a la misma vez.” Tito Puente, for his part, was more categorical: according to Torres, he said that anyone dancing mambo must dance it on 2 ^[2]. To understand what really separates the two timings, read our article on the difference between Salsa On1 and On2.

On the relationship between dancer and partner, Torres sets out an ethic: “Don’t take the lady on the floor for five minutes and just drive her crazy with all these turn patterns, turn patterns.” And: “The ladies like for you a few turn patterns, let them go, let them show off their moves and let them have fun expressing themselves” (women like you to lead them through a few turn patterns, then let them go, let them show their movements) ^[3]. Dance is a form of communication in which “the mind takes second place. You bring your heart and your soul” (the mind takes second place, you bring your heart and soul) ^[3]. In Spanish: “el baile para mi es una conversación pero no de palabra de movimiento de cuerpo,” and “me gusta lucir la pareja” ^[2].

Torres sees New York style as a fusion: “our influence in the dance is from Afro-Cuban dances. It is from jazz. West coast swing. It’s from West Coast. It’s from hip-hop” […] “It’s from James Brown’s Boogaloo. It’s all that wrapped up” […] “Jazz here, hip hop here, modern here, ballet, everything mixed together” (our influence in dance comes from Afro-Cuban dances, jazz, West Coast, hip-hop… James Brown’s Boogaloo, all of that mixed together. Jazz here, hip-hop here, modern here, ballet, everything mixed together) ^[3]. From his youth, he would observe people in clubs: a jazz teacher, an African dancer, a ballroom dancer — “I would pick up a little bit of influence from the jazz teacher, a little bit from the African teacher, a little bit from the ballroom teacher” (I took a little influence from the jazz teacher, a little from the African teacher, a little from the ballroom teacher) ^[3].

“You took the dance out of the jungle and you brought it into the studio, civilized it with timing, structure, and the theory, but you paid a big price for it.” […] “you’ve lost that eye of the tiger, that animal instinct that used to be the Eddie Torres in the night club”

A friend, as recounted by Eddie Torres — NYPL interview of September 3, 2001, quoted by McMains ^[5][16]

There remains the most dizzying question, which McMains documents through something Torres confided to Diane Duggan in September 2001 ^[5][16]. McMains writes: “Torres recognizes that the standardization of the dance for teaching forced him to sacrifice the raw passion that used to characterize his own dancing” ^[5]. The highlighted quotation is only an excerpt. Here is what follows, as Torres recounts his friend’s words: “…that animal instinct that used to be the Eddie Torres in the night club, where you would not even open your eyes and you would be in such a trance of dance and nothing had any structure to it. You just looked like a wildcat out in the jungle just being in your natural habitat.” […] “And now I look at you and you’re more calm, more educated, more contained, more civilized” ^[5]. McMains then asks the question that haunts every teacher: “If even Eddie Torres is nostalgic for pre-institutionalized salsa, why then did he set his steps to counts?” (if even Eddie Torres is nostalgic for salsa before it was institutionalized, why did he then set his steps to counts?) ^[5]. She also writes that codifying the dance and articulating a technique were “a necessary precursor for coordinating dancers in a stage choreography” ^[5], which echoes the comparison with Balanchine. Torres himself returns to the image in an interview in Spanish: “uno paga un precio cuando se sale del mundo natural que yo llamo la jungla” ^[2].

A technical fact adds to this paradox. Sydney Hutchinson notes that “Torres dancers actually step well ahead of counts one and five, pushing their count nearly a half-beat closer” to the Palladium dancers’ 2-3-4 ^[6]; McMains cites her and has observed the same tendency among many dancers who use Torres’s counting. In her view, this brings Palladium On2 and Torres On2 much closer together in practice than they appear on paper ^[5].

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Eddie Torres’s FAMOUS STUDENTS (1992–2020s)

Torres did more than codify a dance. He trained a generation of dancers who, after leaving his company, spread Mambo On2 far beyond New York.

The first of Torres’s students to open his own school was Jimmy Anton, a Peruvian immigrant, in 1992 ^[5]. In 1995, Delille Thomas founds the “Mambo D” school. That same year, Wilton Beltre leaves to create the Santo Rico Dance School. Frankie Martinez runs the Abakua school; he himself recounts having spent “three months before eddie put me into the company” before joining it ^[3]. Evelyn León, the company’s Nuyorican lead dancer ^[5], gives intensive coaching to Luis Zegarra, the Peruvian founder of Fuerza Latina, who would later recall that eighty-five percent of New York dancers danced On1 in the mid-1980s—but that by the early 1990s, the majority had switched to On2. Mike Bello, a former student of Torres, teaches Mambo in Los Angeles in the 1990s and champions On2 there. Nelson Flores, director of Descarga Latina, is among the first New York teachers trained in the Torres method ^[5]; in 2001 he co-produces Latin Madness, an off-Broadway musical tracing the history of Latin dance, with a tour stop at the LA Salsa Congress in 2003 ^[1]. SalsaNewYork.com, one of the first websites to document New York’s Salsa scene, is run by Manny Siverio and Steve Shaw; Shaw, who studied with Torres for two years, is presented there as the founder ^[1][8]. In 2008, Marcus Nieves becomes, he says, the first Eddie Torres-certified instructor in New Jersey ^[1]. Priscilla Renta, who danced in the company in the 1990s, has become a Salsa researcher and has published in Salsa World from Temple University Press ^[15].

The story of Stacey Lopez deserves to be told separately. A Puerto Rican born in Cayey who arrived in New York in 1985 for college, Lopez had grown up dancing On3, the predominant style in his hometown. He dances with Torres at the Apollo in 1987, in the company’s first performance. McMains recounts his testimony in striking words: “Eddie tried to teach me on-2. And I’m doing on two legs. I’m doing whatever I feel. […] But when I do my solos, I’ll get off beat. I’ll just kick it, bang, bang, bang, and bang. And he told me, ‘I just want you to just get out there and just be yourself.’ And I was myself, stole the show that night. I got a standing ovation” (Eddie tried to teach me On2. And I dance on two legs. I do what I feel. […] But when I do my solos, I go off count. I kick, bang, bang, bang, and bang. And he told me: I just want you to go onstage and be yourself. And I was myself, I stole the show that night. I got a standing ovation) ^[5]. In the early 1990s, Lopez returns to Puerto Rico during the summer and teaches Torres On2 there, often at the Dance 4U studio: McMains describes his role in bringing On2 to the island ^[5]. Torres confirms it in his own way: “empezó a Stacy López a llevar el one to three a Puerto Rico” ^[2].

Seaon Bristol would break gender norms: both a Leader and a Follower, he would draw a line of male partners at least three times longer than the line of women. Invited to join the company, he would perform at the West Coast Salsa Congress in 1999 before moving to Los Angeles ^[5].

Fernando Sosa recalls going to New York seven or eight summers in a row to study with Eddie Torres ^[36].

Among the collaborators and figures around Torres, a few deserve special mention. Invited by DanceSport to judge the Salsa category of a competition at the Walt Disney Sports Complex, alongside Cuban Pete and about three other judges from different countries ^[3], Torres tells the judges what to look for: “what we should be looking for is what people do naturally in the streets. What they do naturally in the clubs, and it’s not so plastic and so every movement pre-planned” (what we should look for is what people do naturally in the street, in clubs, without being so artificial or planned in advance) ^[3]. He recalls that, out of about thirty-five couples in very shiny costumes, a little couple in do-rags and T-shirts, whom he believes came from Curaçao, won first prize with all the judges in agreement. Billy Fajardo, who organizes events in Miami with Augie and Margo, is described by Torres as “world champion of the hustle” ^[3]. Daniel Castillo, a Spanish dancer, catches Torres’s eye at the Murcia Congress: “yo vine a conocer a Daniel en un congreso, si no me equivoco creo que era el congreso de Murcia” ^[2]. Torres says: “Desde que yo vi a Daniel, tenía ya un estilo o algo, un aire que tenía él De su forma de bailar que me trajo la atención” […] “Se ve que nació con el talento para el baile” ^[2]. He admires his discipline and perfectionism—“es un perfeccionista”—with Castillo replying, when Torres wants to see him onstage: “maestro, no estoy listo todavía, estoy preparándome.” According to the interview, Castillo trained in flamenco with Manuel Reyes ^[2]. Torres says he has never known anyone as disciplined and patient with himself as Daniel, then also mentions “el joven Adolfo” among the highly focused students ^[2]. Johnny Vazquez, a master of On1, earns Torres’s unreserved admiration: “When I saw Johnny Vazquez for the first time I was like, “Oh my God.” I flipped out because I saw such a beautiful talent” (when I saw Johnny Vazquez for the first time, I was overwhelmed, because I saw such a beautiful talent). Despite his preference for On2, Torres refuses to rank the styles: “the more variety, the better” and, in another video, “Variety is the spice of life” ^[3]. He recalls introducing Johnny Vazquez in Puerto Rico the year after their meeting in 1999 and giving him his nickname, though not always the same one. In an interview posted online in 2020, it is “Mambo Prince”: “I baptized him with the title of the Mambo Prince” (I baptized him with the title of Mambo Prince) ^[3]. In his video message for the tribute to the Vazquez brothers in 2018, it is “El Principe de la Salsa”: “the title El Principe de la Salsa in the year 2000 in Puerto Rico” (the title of El Príncipe de la Salsa, in the year 2000, in Puerto Rico) ^[3]. Johnny Vazquez himself remembers “El Príncipe de la Salsa”: “Él me nominó al Príncipe de la Salsa en el 2000 exactamente” (he named me Prince of Salsa in exactly 2000) ^[37].

All the profiles on the blog are gathered on the page about the great names of Salsa, Mambo, and Bachata.

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Eddie Torres: the MAESTRO in a few words

In a series of interviews posted online in June 2012 by RosarioSalsa, Torres speaks from Israel, where he is taking part in a congress, with Adrián (of the duo Adrián y Anita), whom he calls “el campeón” because “cada vez que lo veo está compitiendo” ^[2]. He says that, for him, it is the most impressive and beautiful event of all the congresses he has attended around the world, and sums it up: “la pasión y el gozo que yo vi este fin de semana, no lo he visto en ninguna parte” (the passion and joy I saw this weekend, I have seen nowhere else) ^[2].

What he enjoys, Torres says, is inventing steps: “A mí lo que me gusta es estar en mi casa y mi cuarto inventando pasos,” and he says he never wanted to be a promoter: “por eso yo nunca quise ser promotor” ^[2]. He puts glory in perspective: “Nosotros no hemos hecho algo tan grande, simplemente estamos bailando” […] “los títulos ni la fama ni nada de eso vale nada” (we have done nothing so great, we are simply dancing […] titles, fame, all of that is worth nothing) ^[2].

He also says where his dancing comes from. “I come from a major dysfunctional family like most families” (I come from a very dysfunctional family, like most families): whenever his heart grew heavy, he would go to the club “and dance it off” (and let it out through dancing). “Dancing was therapeutic. Right? And it’s a lot cheaper than therapy” (dancing was therapeutic, right? And it is much cheaper than therapy) — Eddie Torres, Chicago International Salsa Congress, 2017 ^[3]. The Torres family’s official website puts it differently: “I’ve danced out of joy, I’ve danced out of pain” (I have danced out of joy, I have danced out of pain) ^[1]. He lost his brother and sister: “I lost my only brother and my only sister” (I lost my only brother and my only sister), he says in 2019 ^[3].

His faith is simple and public. “My faith is based on the Son of God Jesus Christ. I am a Christian” (my faith is based on the Son of God, Jesus Christ; I am a Christian). When dancers tell him he is their idol, he replies: “I am not a God, I am simply a sinner who has been saved by the grace of God” (I am not a god, I am simply a sinner saved by the grace of God) — Eddie Torres, IIDC, July 2016 ^[13]. His thanks to God punctuate almost every interview.

He shares his view of the world: “Enjoy your life and don’t take nothing for granted. And if you love somebody tell them. Let them know” (enjoy your life and take nothing for granted. And if you love someone, tell them) ^[7]. And to young dancers: “Don’t spend your life arguing and all these debates. Spend more time shaking your butt on the dance floor and enjoying your life” (do not spend your life arguing and debating; spend more time moving on the dance floor and enjoying life) ^[3].

And he sees himself as a pioneer: “Yo soy lo que se considera un pionero y los pioneros a veces no llegan a tener todos los sueños que quieren” (I am what you call a pioneer, and pioneers sometimes do not manage to fulfill all the dreams they have) ^[2]. On glory, he has a phrase: “Los títulos ni la fama ni nada de eso vale nada porque al final sabes que familia, lo que importa para mí es lo que uno vive, los recuerdos que uno se lleva” (titles, fame, all of that is worth nothing; what matters is family, what you experience, the memories you take with you) ^[2].

Torres also worked with young people. He was living in the Bronx, where he starts by coaching the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club swim team; when management learns that he dances, they offer him the chance to launch a small dance program: “from like 20 students it turned out to be like 100, 200.” A company, the “K Club,” is created; Torres indicated in that interview that it still existed. He explains it through an instruction from Puente: “you need to pass this down to your children so that we can keep this alive” ^[3].

When asked how he wants to be remembered, Torres borrows an expression from Ismael Rivera: “Yo, pues, yo soy un negrito chévere” (I’m a nice little Black guy) ^[2]. And he adds: “me gustaría que la gente al final de todo que digan, “Eddie Torres era un tipo chévere”” (that people say, in the end, that Eddie Torres was a nice guy) ^[2].

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King of Mambo, king of Salsa: the WORD and the TITLE

At an event in the Bronx, Ron Puente, one of Tito’s sons, presents Torres with an award—a “Lifetime Achievement Award”—in front of many of Torres’s students ^[3]. Torres jokes: he mentions Crazy Legs, who has been dancing for twenty-nine years, while he has been dancing for forty-two: “you still have about another 12 years to catch up to me. I think right now it’s going on 42 years!” He then pays tribute to Puente, whom he calls “the king of Latin music” ^[3].

He even makes a promise of it: “I know when my time comes I’m gonna go up there and we’re gonna join Tito and we’re gonna have a big salsa party in the sky. We’re gonna call it mambo again” (I know that, when my time comes, we will go up there to join Tito, and we will have a big Salsa party in the sky. We will call it Mambo again)—Eddie Torres, award ceremony at Lehman College ^[3].

In the same video, Torres returns to the word “salsa”: “Tito never liked the word salsa”. When people asked him the difference between Mambo and Salsa, Puente would reply: “the mambo you dance and the salsa you eat” ^[3] —and, in another interview, Torres also recounts this joke by Puente: “now they call me the king of salsa” […] “now which salsa am I the king of? Libbys? Heinz? Del Monte?” ^[3]. Hutchinson recounts another of Puente’s remarks: “Salsa is a condiment of food. You eat salsa. You don’t listen to it”, and notes that many On2 dancers prefer to say “mambo,” “possibly as a result of Eddie Torres’s preference for the former term” ^[6]. Torres eventually came to use the word himself: “the word salsa, I use it now, because people call me up, “Eddie, do you teach salsa?” “No, I teach mambo.” “No, no, thank you, I don’t want to learn mambo, I want to learn salsa.” If I don’t go with the change…”—“You don’t work” ^[3].

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Eddie Torres and Adolfo Indacochea: the FALLING-OUT, as told by Adolfo

Adolfo Indacochea is a Peruvian dancer. In several interviews, Torres speaks positively of him. In Spain: “el joven Adolfo que también es un estudiante que él estudia bien y le gusta hacer su estudio muy muy enfocado una disciplina” and “tiene un talento natural también” (young Adolfo, who is also a student who studies well, very focused, a discipline […] he has a natural talent) ^[2]. In Barcelona: “Adolfo Indacochea, que es de Perú. Llegó a Nueva York y yo rápido vi el talento, y le abrí las puertas, y lo ayudé en todo lo que pude” (Adolfo Indacochea, who is from Peru, arrived in New York and I quickly saw the talent, opened doors for him, and helped him as much as I could). Indacochea, for his part, describes his own path: “Desde el 2005 empecé a viajar, pero pesado” ^[2].

In Warsaw in 2014, Torres mentions him alongside Juan Matos: “You have guys like Adolfo Indacochea, Juan Matos. You have these people who are ambassadors now” (you have guys like Adolfo Indacochea, Juan Matos. They are ambassadors today) ^[3]. In Salerno, on a Thursday, February 21, when asked about his students, he says: “Adolfo, the world already knows he is one of my sons” ^[2] —the word “figli” should be understood as students dear to his heart: he extends the expression to others. Indacochea says he produced a tribute to his teacher, for which he created a choreography to a Tito Puente song, Fiesta a la King: “Una producción de una hora. Donde él bailó dentro del tributo. Y Eddie Junior bailó dentro del tributo”. He says he kept the step and the structure ^[2]. Their relationship is described as good while he was in Europe: “mientras que estaba por acá en Europa todo estaba perfecto” (while I was here in Europe, everything was perfect) ^[2].

Indacochea then moves to New York (“se mudó a Nueva York”, says Sosa). He recounts: “Al momento que llegué a Nueva York y pues estoy en Nueva York, ya no le caí simpático a mucha gente” (when I arrived in New York, a lot of people no longer liked me) ^[2]. Sosa mentions a post published “hace unos meses”: as he recalls—he specifies that he does not remember the exact words—it stated that no third party, unless they were part of Eddie Torres’s family, had the right to copy or recreate the maestro’s choreographies. “El post no decía Adolfo Indacochea”, Sosa adds, “pero todos los que estamos en el sector sabíamos que el flechazo era dirigido hacia Adolfo Indacochea”. Indacochea says he did not even see the post and did not respond publicly; Sosa congratulates him for that. He admits: “me duele el hecho que no, que no puedo tener la relación” that he used to have with his teacher ^[2].

Indacochea sums up his position: “soy su fan número uno” […] “al fin y al cabo es gracias a él” (I’m his number one fan […] at the end of the day, it’s thanks to him). He positions himself as the one carrying on his work: “mi Maradona, pero yo soy Messi” (my Maradona, but I’m Messi) ^[2]. Fernando Sosa, as an observer, imagines the dynamic from the perspective of an established teacher: “apenas llegas y tocas mi territorio y me sacaste dos alumnos ya te odio” (as soon as you arrive, encroach on my territory, and have taken two students from me, I hate you) ^[2]. Indacochea says he choreographed Puente’s songs in his own way, the only possible exception being Fiesta a la King (“tal vez la única coreografía”), and says he has “tipo ochenta y cual cosas coreografías” ^[2].

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Learning MAMBO ON2 in Liège and online

On New Year’s night in 2013, Xavier Colina is dancing at the Salsability Mambo school in Rotterdam. Adolfo Indacochea, accompanied by his partner Tania Cannarsa, notices him. Xavier had studied Eddie Torres’s steps on his own from Liège, as a passionate self-taught dancer, from congress to congress and from one YouTube video to the next. This meeting would later lead to studying Adolfo’s method—structured on the teaching foundations inherited from Torres—through the World Mastery international certification program. Xavier founds Studio24 in Liège, Belgium.

“Eddie Torres style” Mambo On2—the 1-2-3, 5-6-7 count, shines, contrary body movement, and the philosophy of musicality and connection—is one of the styles taught at Studio24, more than five thousand kilometers from Manhattan. But Studio24 also carries on the legacy of Fernando Sosa in Salsa On1, of Korke y Judith in Bachata Sensual, and of other teachers Xavier has trained with over twenty years of international congresses. The passion has been passed on: Torres trained Adolfo, Adolfo trained Xavier, Xavier passes it on in Liège and online—and every style taught at Studio24 bears the mark of a teacher and a meeting.

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FAQ: Everything about EDDIE TORRES and Mambo On2

🎂 How OLD is Eddie Torres in 2026?

Eddie Torres was born in 1950 at Harlem Hospital Center in New York—“nací en el año 50” ^[2]—the same hospital where Tito Puente was born in 1923 ^[3][6]. If we use July 3 ^[1], he turned 76 on July 3, 2026. He teaches at his Manhattan studio (25 W 31st Street), and he is announced for a bootcamp at the New York International Salsa Congress in 2025, then again in 2026 ^[1][8].

🎵 What is MAMBO ON2 (or “New York Style”)?

The Mambo On2 (also called “New York style”—an expression Torres uses in 1982—or “Eddie Torres Mambo Technique,” the name he gives his teaching technique in a Channel 9 report ^[3]) is a dance method codified by Eddie Torres in New York. The basic step is counted 1-2-3, 5-6-7 with a change of direction on counts 2 and 6 ^[6], in connection with the seco (strong strike) of the conga tumbao ^[2]. Torres’s syllabus includes more than 500 named steps—shines (solo) and arm patterns (couple): about 300 shines and 200 arm patterns in 2004, according to Hutchinson ^[6]. The syllabus was built over several years. In 1972, according to McMains, Torres decides to become a professional dancer ^[5]; Torres dates his first studio classes to that year ^[2], and Mambo Royalty dates his first syllabus to it ^[1]. He says he began naming his steps as early as 1968-1969 ^[2]. Hutchinson only notes that a 25-step syllabus was used by the Mambo Society in the 1980s ^[6].

❓ Did Eddie Torres INVENT Mambo On2?

No—he codified it, he did not invent it, and he says so himself: “y yo no inventé nada”. At the Palladium and in clubs, many people were already dancing on 2, others on 1, 3, or 4 ^[2]. From his earliest days as a teacher, at age 15-16, Torres had his students dance following the seco of his friend Rafi’s conga, without knowing music theory ^[3]. Accounts differ on the 1-2-3, 5-6-7 count: Torres attributes it to June LaBerta—“yo no inventé la teoría de 1 2 3 5 6 7” ^[2]—while McMains sees it as the analysis of his own dancing, different from the 2-3-4, 6-7-8 count of the Palladium dancers described by Eddie Dorfer ^[5]. Torres transformed an instinctive dance into a teachable system.

👑 Why is he nicknamed “The MAMBO KING”?

The nickname “Mambo King” as applied to Eddie Torres means the king of Mambo in dance. It has two origins, which Torres recounts himself: the name of his stage act, in a 1990 Channel 9 News report ^[3], and the audience, which uses it as early as 1979, when Maria and he dance with Puente (“the Mambo King of Music and the Mambo King of Dance”) ^[3]. In a report by Stan Bernard for NBC News, a journalist introduces him as “called the King of the Mambo and probably New York’s leading teacher of the dance” ^[3]. Torres himself says he holds this title. The nickname predates the film The Mambo Kings (1992) ^[6], which Torres cites among the films that helped bring Mambo back ^[2].

🪪 Is Eddie Torres named ERNEST?

The first name “Ernest” is not established for Eddie Torres. It is the first name of Tito Puente (Ernest Anthony Puente Jr.) ^[3]. His full legal first name remains to be established.

🕺 Is On2 the ONLY true way to dance Mambo?

No. Hutchinson describes two main On2 methods: Torres’s, which starts on 1 but changes direction (the “break”) on 2 (basic step 1-2-3, 5-6-7), and that of Angel and Addie Rodríguez (Razz M’Tazz), who start and change direction on 2. Both claim to descend from “street” Mambo ^[6]. Torres himself refuses to rank the styles: “yo no voy a decir de mi opinión que el 1 es mejor que el 2 y el 2 mejor que el 1” ^[2].

💃 Is the Torres style PURE MAMBO with no outside influences?

No—it is a creative synthesis. McMains writes that Torres, surrounded by hustle dancers, “began to absorb and adapt their moves”; the Palladium dancers she interviewed called his turns “hustle turns” ^[5]. Torres himself cites jazz—teacher Jo-Jo Smith, he says, “was a big influence for me”—and James Brown’s Boogaloo ^[3]; according to Mary Kent, cited by McMains, flamenco is also among his sources of inspiration ^[10], and, according to Sheenagh Pietrobruno, pachanga made its way into many of his shines ^[5]. He sums it up: “Jazz here, hip hop here, modern here, ballet, everything mixed together” ^[3].

🤝 Have Torres’s CHOREOGRAPHIES been copied by his students?

According to Adolfo Indacochea (Picante y Diferente interview), the only choreography that reportedly uses a step and the structure of one of his teacher’s choreographies would be “Fiesta a la King” (“tal vez la única coreografía”), in a tribute in which Torres, father and son, danced. He says he has “tipo ochenta y cual cosas coreografías” ^[2]. This is Adolfo’s account: Torres does not respond in it ^[2].

🎺 How long did Eddie Torres COLLABORATE with Tito Puente?

Torres says he worked 21 years with Tito Puente — “21 years, from 1979 until the year of his death” ^[2] — until the maestro’s death in 2000; Hutchinson and McMains date the start of their joint performances to 1980 ^[5][6]. After ten years of working together, Puente tells him, according to Torres: “eres el embajador de la danza y yo soy el embajador de la música” ^[2]. Torres lists among the venues where they danced together “Apollo Theater, Lincoln Center, Madison Square Garden, um, Town Hall”—the only place where he did not dance with Puente was Radio City Music Hall; they also danced for President Bush during the Ford’s Theatre show ^[3]. Torres is credited on the album Dance City (1994) ^[6].

💃 WHO does he dance with on stage?

With Maria Torres, his wife and partner since 1978, who still performs on stage with him. Over the course of the congresses, he has also danced with Melissa Rosado, Griselle Ponce, Shani Talmor, Carla Voconi, Vanessa Lacedonia, Maria Chiara Barone, Bersy Cortez and several others, and with his son Eddie Torres Jr. since 2009. The names, congresses and years are in the section his stage partners ^[3].

💍 Who is MARIA TORRES?

Maria Torres is Eddie Torres’s wife and his original dance partner. They meet at Roberto Clemente State Park, in the Bronx, in 1978; they form a partnership on December 12, 1978, and perform with Tito Puente starting in January 1979, according to her. She is also the company’s costume designer ^[3].

🎬 Who is EDDIE TORRES JR.?

Eddie Torres Jr. is Eddie Torres’s son. Torres says he “se graduó de la escuela de celia cruz y estudió el piano” ^[2]. He later studied at Ballet Hispanico and Peridance, and he was Associate Latin Choreographer and Principal Dancer on the film In The Heights (Warner Bros., 2021), where, he says, “we got to represent Mambo on two” ^[3]. His sister, Nadia Torres, is also a dancer. Also: Being the Ricardos (Amazon, 2021) and Christmas Chronicles 2 (Netflix, 2020). He co-directs Mambo Royalty NYC (520 8th Avenue) with Princess Serrano and Tito Puente Jr. ^[1]. Around 75 000 Instagram followers (@eddietorresjr) in February 2026.

📚 Where can you learn MAMBO ON2 online or in Liège?

Online (worldwide): Studio Live from Studio24 offers +300 HD lessons in Mambo On2 based on the method of Adolfo Indacochea, a direct student of Eddie Torres. Free 7-day trial, accessible throughout the French-speaking world.
In Liège (Belgium) : Xavier Colina teaches Mambo On2 at Studio24 (Rue Léon Troclet 24), trained in the Torres → Indacochea lineage. From Introductory to Advanced level. First trial class for 10€, no reservation required.

🌍 Mambo On2, PUERTO RICAN SALSA or New York Salsa: what’s the difference?

The terms used are Mambo On2 and New York style: Torres used “New York style” in 1982 ^[3], but says, in a live interview uploaded in 2020, that he is not among those who invented “new york style” ^[2]. Hutchinson describes On2 as a “distinctively Nuyorican” genre, developed and danced mainly by New York Puerto Ricans. The style also incorporates Afro-Cuban, jazz and hustle influences ^[5][6]. According to McMains, the On2 rhythm practiced in Puerto Rico was imported there from New York, and according to Tato Conrad, whom she quotes, traditional Puerto Rican Salsa is danced on 1 ^[5]. At Studio24, we teach Mambo On2 in the direct Torres → Indacochea lineage, whatever name you give it.

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Sources & Bibliography

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