BAILA SOCIETYANNUAL REPORT 2012

Each year around the holidays we look back on the year to relive the wonderful moments dancing, laughing and traveling, on stage and off.

Now in its seventh year, BAILA Society (“BASo”) is grateful for the continued support and generosity from our clients, students, and friends, both in our home New York, as well as around the world.

This letter from the board shares with you, chrono-logically, the many adventures of BASo in 2012.

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#BASO2012Letter from the Board

Each year around the holidays we look back on the year to relive the wonderful moments dancing, laughing and traveling, on stage and off.

Now in its seventh year, BAILA Society (“BASo”) is grateful for the continued support and generosity from our clients, students, and friends, both in our home New York as well as around the world.

This letter from the board shares with you, chronologically, the many adventures of BASo in 2012.

The repertory company will take you on a journey from Asia to Europe and Latin America; Mr. Billy Fajardo took us on as appren-tices in the “lost art” of Adage, and Ahtoy and Daniel finished the year with four theatrical performances under their belts; the ap-prentice team BASo ALTo performed multiple times on television and in live concerts, including for the Latino College Expo 2012 at the NYU Kimmel Center; on the charity side, BASo success-fully staged the third edition of Bailando Por Una Causa with the Latino Commission on AIDS at the Museo del Barrio in Spanish Harlem, we performed at the Plaza Hotel for the American Liver Foundation, and continued our commitment to support worthy

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

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causes; BASo’s performance classes 10, 11, and 12 broke new records due to the commit-ment and dedication of our students, some of them leveraging the experience to audition for the apprentice team afterwards; BASo built out its partnerships, such as the extension classes at Alvin Ailey, and our work with Peridance and other leading dance companies.

Mostly, however, this is a love letter to our dance company, the individuals we spend countless hours each week with - in the studio, away from the studio, in airports, in masterclasses, and on stages.

Without them, BAILA Society would not exist. As such, it is fitting to finish this annual report with our trip to the Dominican Republic to see two of our beloved repertory dancers tie the knot on a beach, Leah and Luis.

You will meet the BAILA Society Dance Company in this annual report, along with our students and friends.

Happy holidays and our very best wishes for 2013.

Ahtoy WonPat Borja

Joseph Rivera

Daniel Enskat

BAILA Society PC10, Italy, et al

We started the year in a beautiful fashion at our dance home, the Peridance Capezio Dance Cen-ter, for a celebration of our 10th Performance Class, BASo PC10. PC10 “Lluvia” was choreo-graphed with me by senior repertory dancer Thaikisha Alvarez.

A few things made this recital very special to us. The performance class for the first time had over 25 of our students dance in the black box theater of Peridance at once (a record that would be shattered twice more in 2012) and for the first time ever we had them perform to live music.

BASo PC10 “Lluvia” Recital Video

David Frankel’s Avenida B rehearsed the song from an edited iPod version and brought down the house.

Moreover, they also performed for the social after-wards, taking turns with our multi-year in-house DJ “J. Tony Cruz”, to bring the metaphorical tem-perature to a boiling point.

Second, we had with us world champion Billy Fa-jardo, who a month later would start training Ah-toy and me in Adage, a “lost art” passed on via apprenticeships from generation to generation.

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It is impossible to overestimate the impact and influence training with Billy has had for Ahtoy and me, as well as for BASo overall. It changed and is changing our life.

Third, the repertory company showed the debut of “Cosa Rica”, Sekou McMiller’s performance team took to the stage, and our dear friend Djoniba Mouflet kicked things off with a powerful African drum and dance performance.

BASo Repertory Company “Cosa Rica” Video

Most importantly, our students and friends came out to support us and to start the year off in the perfect fashion.

Picture Gallery for PC10 Recital & Social

Right after the recital the repertory company headed out to Milan, Italy, one of our favorite countries in Europe to perform in.

Milan, Italy

We have been performing in Italy for many years and the great love of the Tropicana and all the great dancers in Italy are unsurpassed.

Of course, in addition to dancing the nights away, teaching and performing, our focus was on eating, sightseeing and shopping.

Whether the Vatican, the Duomo, or any of the tiny beautiful streets, restaurants and squares away from the main streets, we couldn’t find enough hours in the day to get it all done, which probably means we have to just come back again, as we have year after year.

Check out the videos and the picture gallery, in-cluding an impromptu photoshoot.

Picture Gallery for BASo in Italia

A presto, Italia!

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BASo Repertory Company - Italy Showcase

Of course, we also continued to populate our on-line dance platform, www.BAILASociety.TV with a collection of patterns, shines and drills. Below is BASo Pattern Factory #32:

BASo Pattern Factory, #32

BASo ALTo, Latin College Expo, Billy

In March, our apprentice team BASo ALTo started to crank up the volume on performances in NY and across the Northeastern parts of the US.

They started their tour with Nina y Senora for the Latino College Expo 2012 at the NYU Kimmel Center, following the keynote speech by Dr. Pe-dro Noguera, and then burned up the floor at LQ - check them out on the right.

BASo ALTo at Latin Quarters, February 2012

February/March then featured the first session with Billy to embark on a multi-year journey of ap-prenticing with him in the “lost art” of Adage.

First session with Billy Fajardo

BASo ALTo continued with a live performance for a Johnny Ventura concert in NJ at the Shea Cen-ter for the Performing Arts in late March, to cele-brate Latin American Cross-Cultural Arts.

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Picture Gallery BASo ALTo Johnny Ventura

Our live classes are at the core of our educa-tional efforts for the Latin dance community in NY and around the world. Below is an advanced level partnerwork class from March 2012.

BAILA Society on2 Partnerwork - Advanced

BASo then in April went on a quick set of perform-ance trips with both the repertory and apprentice

teams to dance festivals in New Jersey, Balti-more and Rhode Island, of course again with a focus on - what else - food!

The NJ International Salsa Congress was a high-light for us as BAILA Society closed the Sunday showcase on the same stage that minutes before Cheo Feliciano had performed on.

BAILA Society & Cheo Feliciano, NJ 2012

Just as when we performed with Eddie Palmieri a few years back in Central Park, the bridge be-tween the music and dance, live, is what gives this art form such a special character.

BAILA Society Eddie Palmieri Interview

Take a look at our interview with Eddie Palmieri.

Eddie is a music legend worldwide: he per-formed in Carnegie Hall when he was 11 years

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old, bridged Jazz with Latin and pretty much any other music in the world, won the first Latin Grammy in 1974 (and nine overall), performed with Bob Marley, and his perfecta conjunto (now its second installment) is still leading the way for Latin music.

Miami, Mon Amour & Bulgaria

Ahtoy and I later in April flew down to Florida to train again with Billy and to perform at the Miami Salsa Congress with the debut of our Adage rou-tine, “Mon Amour/Aranjuez”, choreographed for us by Mr. Fajardo.

Ahtoy & Daniel, Mon Amour/Aranjuez

We had a great time in Miami, also because we got to see Johnny Pacheco backstage, the legen-dary dominican bandleader and creator of Fania Records. Notably, after attending Juillard in NY he played in Charlie Palmieri’s band, before set-ting up his own band, bringing Pachanga as a dance to fame, and being the first Latin head-liner at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.

After Miami, BAILA Society Repertory Company flew to Sofia, Bulgaria, to perform at a dance fes-tival and teach masterclasses.

Our time in Bulgaria was amazing. The dancers are incredibly talented and hard working, and at the same time they like to have fun and dance all night. Our kind of combo.

BAILA Society social dancing Bulgaria

And Sofia, as the capital and largest city in Bul-garia, didn’t disappoint. It is at the center of the Balkan Peninsula and the town walls go back to before the 7th century BC. We ate, drank, danced and soaked in the city, including the Al-exander Nevsky Cathedral, St. George Rotunda, the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, the Largo, Borisova gradina, and the National Theatre.

BASo Repertory Company Cosa Rica, Bulgaria

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The dance festival itself was held at the NPC, the National Palace of Culture, one of the greatest venues in Europe.

Picture gallery BASo in Bulgaria

BASo Partnerwork Workshop, Bulgaria

We had a wonderful time in our partnerwork and styling workshops with the great dancers of Bul-garia and cannot wait to be back.

BASo Ladies Styling, Bulgaria

Alvin Ailey Photoshoot, BASo PC11

One of the NY highlights of 2012 was our new partnership with Alvin Ailey, with us teaching the Salsa Extension program at the Ailey School.

Below is the annual photoshoot with Ailey to showcase the program.

BAILA Society at Alvin Ailey

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BAILA Society PC11 - ALTo, Santo Rico et al

In May 2012 we continued with our eleventh in-stallment of the performance class, led and cho-reographed by senior repertory dancer Bernard Baffoe and co-artistic director Ahtoy WonPat Borja.

BASo PC11, “Ave Maria”, broke a new record with 30 students on stage at the same time. Also, we had our great friend and online platform col-laborator Tomas Guerrero and the Santo Rico Dance Company perform at the Peridance Cape-zio Theater. In addition, we were proud to fea-ture our Perichild Salsa and the Peridance Profes-sional program with a hip hop showcase.

BAILA Society PC11, “Ave Maria”

Relive the experience with us below in the pic-ture gallery of the performances, the social and the fun times together.

Picture gallery BASo PC11, Recital & Social

Billy, Eddie Palmieri

June brought us back together with Billy for the second session, this time also with repertory dancers Gaby, Bernard and Andre.

We also got to hang out afterwards with world champions Anya Katsevman and Katie Marlow.

Second session with Billy Fajardo

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Eddie Palmieri played the River to River Festival in late June and BASo danced the night away, this time downtown in Battery Park.

And, as every summer, NY would not be com-plete without BASo taking students to the South Street Seaport to dance with the Brooklyn Bridge as a backdrop.

Or the Brooklyn Museum.

Then I broke my ankle and tore my tendons, put-ting me out of commission for a few weeks. How-ever, this had the positive side effect that our for-mer BASo dancer Steven Valle made a come-back for the August NY Salsa Congress.

BASo’s PC11 performed Thursday, Ahtoy judged the competition, ALTo performed Friday night, and the repertory company went on on Sunday. And in between, we spent time with our students.

Joseph Rivera then led the public Salsa classes in Union Square, “Summer in the Square”, one of our favorite community outreach programs.

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American Liver Foundation

The fall always rings in our charity event season - we started things off with the repertory company performing at NY’s Plaza hotel for the annual gala dinner of the American Liver Foundation.

Picture gallery BASo American Liver Foundation

Then we moved on to the third annual Bailando Por Una Causa, a celebration of dance for the La-tino Commission on AIDS, at the Museo del Bar-rio in Spanish Harlem.

BASo founding member Joseph Rivera went on television numerous times to discuss, educate about, and promote the event, and the repertory company performed.

The lineup each year features a stellar combina-tion of genres and celebrated artists and chore-ographers, including ballet, African, modern, hip hop, jazz, flamenco and Salsa.

Check out the performances and picture galler-ies below.

Picture gallery Bailando Por Una Causa 2012

Bailando Por Una Causa 2012 - Video Recap

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BAILA Society Repertory Company, Gitana

BAILA Society Dance Company, Ave Maria

Following the NY blackout after Sandy, we cele-brated Thanksgiving with our friends, families and students by putting on the recital and show-case for BASo’s 13th performance class, “Mar-ilu”.

Marilu was choreographed by artistic directors Ahtoy WonPat-Borja and Daniel Enskat, together with senior repertory dancer Gabriela Quiles.

Celebrating NY’s musical diversity, we combined cha-cha-cha, boogaloo and Salsa, and even threw in a bit of vogueing.

Enrique Jorrin invented Cha-Cha-Cha in Cuba in 1953, one of the few dance forms and musical styles that can be traced back to a single per-son. NY, in turn, gave birth to Boogaloo in the 1960s as a melange of musical styles and dances to showcase the unique diversity of the city and its cultural roots, among them R&B, Soul, Mambo, African, and Son Montuno.

Our student and famous accessory designer Jen-nifer Ouellette outdid herself in creating the cos-tumes for the students.

A new record with 38 students on stage, their per-formance was a fitting finale to an exciting year for BAILA Society.

BASo Performance Class 12, Marilu

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BASo ALTo performed Nina Y Senora, a piece choreographed by Mariana Salinas and the Valle brothers, Marlon and Steven.

BASo ALTo, Nina Y Senora

Ahtoy & Daniel added Aranjuez to the mix of shows, and from then on it was a big party with DJ J Tony Cruz upstairs.

Ahtoy & Daniel, “Mon Amour/Aranjuez”

Picture gallery, BASo PC12, Recital & Social

BASo Pattern Factory, #42

The best way to finish a year is to spend it with the people we cherish in a beautiful setting to celebrate love.

Former and existing BASo members flew to the Dominican Republic in December, to celebrate the wedding of our repertory dancers Leah and Luis.

They had a ceremony on the beach and, fittingly, the night was a full blown dance party, with fam-ily members from all over the world dancing until the wee hours of the morning. Mazal Tov.

Once Ahtoy and I got back, we headed to Jack-sonville, Florida, to showcase the Adage piece at

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a Ballroom Christmas event, together with our friends Tito and Tamara, and Billy and Katie. We also had the honor to get a training session with Ralph Ramirez, one of Billy’s best friends.

2012 was a breathtaking year for BAILA Society.

We are able to do what we love and travel the world because of the unwavering support from our friends and students, and our heartfelt thanks go out to them - our family - for the holi-days.

At the heart of it all, however, are the amazing dancers that represent who we are and what we stand for. It is with them that we spend our time, our love and our passion.

Seven years and counting, here is to our BASo familia! Happy holidays and a wonderful new year. Until 2013, when we

... see you on the dance floor.

AWB - JR - DSE

Ahtoy - Founding Partner, co-Artistic Director

Daniel - Founding Partner, co-Artistic Director

Joseph - Founding Partner, Senior Rep Dancer

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Bernard, Senior Repertory Dancer

Gulsaya - Senior Repertory Dancer

Gerry - Senior Repertory Dancer

Gaby - Senior Repertory Dancer

Thaikisha - Senior Repertory Dancer

Andre - Repertory Dancer

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Andrew - Repertory Dancer

Mariana - Repertory Dancer

Leah - Repertory Dancer

Luis - Repertory Dancer

Marlon - Repertory Dancer

Steven - Repertory Dancer

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Ayako - BASo ALTo

Fred - BASo ALTo

Jill - BASo ALTo

Jeffrey - BASo ALTo

Zeynep - BASo ALTo

Julian - BASo ALTo

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Catherine - BASo ALTo

Rachelle - BASo ALTo

Jonathan - BASo ALTo

Lidia - BASo ALTo

Vanessa

David

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Sandy

Roberto

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(c) BAILA Society LLC, 2012

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