New York Salsa Dance Instructor: Vittico Pacheco "La Magia"

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He as a very energetic and creative Bronx Street Style of dancing; filled with unexpected turns, multiple spins, hand changes, counter spins and sometimes even unique arm movements. If you catch him on the dance floor, you can almost see the gears turning in his head as he begins to mess around with an idea of a turn pattern. You can watch him test and discard ideas until he produces something that he likes. The man uses the floor like a "dance laboratory". So if your looking for something different in your turn patterns, then Vittico Pacheco may be the instructor for you.

Vittico Pacheco is a New York Mambo Instructor who teaches out of the Bronx. This Dominican started to learn how to dance when he moved to Puerto Rico (82'-86'), continued to learn while hanging out at Side Street during its heyday and refined his skill when under the guidance of Wilton Beltre who founded the Santo Rico Dance Company (whom he considers his first real instructor and mentor). His school (The Vittico Dance Studio) is located at 2619 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx (not too far away from Jimmy’s Bronx Café). A fierce mambo dancer known for his creative turn patterns, the Vittico Dance Team has performed in almost every major nightclub in the NYC area. He has been a member of such performance groups like The Santo Rico Dance Company, The Descarga Latina Dance Company, Team New York and The Fuerza Latina Dance Company before moving out on his own. As a dancer he has traveled to such places like California, Puerto Rico, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, to his beloved Dominican Republic and has participated at events like the 1^st Annual Congreso Mundial de la Salsa. Vittico was also co-founder and co-Director of the Salsa Magic Dance Company and his Student Dance Company.

Vittico’s class is broken down into two groups. The more advance students (intermediate level) are taught by Vittico, while the raw beginners are led by one of his assistants. The space provides a cement support column which acts as a natural divider between the two groups of students. The first half of the class centers on open floor shines (solo dancing), while the second half deals with partner work (turn patterns). Most of his students speak mainly Spanish, yet all of the shines are broken down in English (1,2,3-5,6,7). He leads his group in a very casual manner, yet maintains his role as task master. Shines are repeated and repeated until he is happy with the overall group performance. Shines are frequently reviewed one-at-a-time, back-to-back (one after the other) or in sequence (in combination). I noticed that everyone is required to count out loud when performing each step. This is Vittico’s way of drilling his students. Its an excellent way for to force his students to remember how to break down a step (make them second nature), remember where they are in during the clave and show them how to get in and out of shine.

During the turn pattern segment, Vittico again leads by counting out loud (the others count along with him), only stopping to give important pointers during key moments of the turn. He drills the hell out of a turn pattern to make sure that students get it. Students are rotated from partner to partner so that everyone can get a chance to work everyone else. When a 2^nd pattern is taught, it normally is designed to flow right after the first patten. This way, the more advanced students are challenged with a larger combination, while the lesser advanced students can still practice the material taught to them as two separate turn patterns. You can tell that Vittico’s students are into his turns because they can seen practicing them very enthusiastically after class.

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