|
Cat |
Samer |
Shekyla |
Jamin |
It's a mission to create a successful salsa night in Detroit that is perfect for people who want to learn and dance salsa in a nightclub setting. Historically, keeping a dedicated salsa night going
has
been tough (to say
the least). But we feel that given just the right elements, a weekly night dedicated to salsa at a nightclub can
be successful, and this is our first attempt at bringing those elements together.Our project begins by bringing together two of the most important elements for salsa night success, the place and the people.
Finding a suitable venue is always a big hurdle when trying to create a successful club night (especially in Detroit) for salsa and we think we caught a break when finding The Harem.
The Harem has a lot of great attributes that work in favor for a SALSA night. First and foremost, it has an excellent dance floor. It's a large, spacious wooden dance floor that is great to dance on. It has seating all around so even if you are not dancing you are still close to the action. We took a poll a while back when asked what the most important feature of dance club was; the most frequent response by the salseros was the dance floor (and the music). Everything else was a distant second.
The Harem is centrally located for people in Detriot and the Detroit Metro, it has an excellent sound system, many big screen TV's where we can play salsa DVDs to help set the tone (and watch the game), a lots of seating, a cozy ambiance, and even a "VIP" lounge area where people can chill if they need a break from all the dancing for a minute. Moreover, the owners of the Harem love what we are doing and have been extremely accommodating and patient. From a facilities standpoint, there are very many reasons why a salsa night here can be successful and very few reasons for failure.
So we have a good venue, the remaining factors for success lie in the hands of the people running the night.
The SKY Mambo Team.
We have a great group of people working to make this night a success (if I do say so myself). The SKY Mambo Team consists of Sheklya, Samer, Cat, and Jamin. These 4 individuals also happen to be members of YA Salsa. For the past 3 years YA Salsa has been volunteering their time and talents to help expand the salsa community through creating an environment dedicated to salsa enthusiast. Now, a few of us are bringing that same passion and commitment to a nightclub in hopes to further expand the environment dedicated to salsa and dancing.
We are all still very much commited to YA Salsa and it's ongoing success, nothing will change that. We also feel that only having that kind of environment once a month can only bring us so far. For the ever advancing mambo enthusiest, increased frequency is another critial component in the ideal environment for growth. When opprotunity met with our desire for more the SKY Mambo Project was born. While YA is a non-profit organization sponsored by several different organizations and a lot of volunteer effort, SKY Mambo is a private project run by the four of us with the hopes of being profitable. After all, the hard work that goes into these weekly salsa parties cannot be sustained forever without someone walking away with something! So far we are all working for free still. We don't mind since we are having such a great time each week. But with either success or failure, that will not be working for free forever.
Putting it all together.
We have a fantastic venue and a talented team committed to the success of a dedicated salsa night. It is enough? Only time will tell. Things are going OK so far but we are still a long way from claiming complete success. It will be interesting so see how it all turns out. Stay tuned!
Questions? Comments? Email: info@skymambo.com. Phone: 248-767-4543
Last updated: April 3rd, 2007