Shake your groove thang
Valencia Street sizzles with ‘Salsa in the Streets’
Mission came alive with infectious Cuban beats, drawing in dancers of all ages and backgrounds to Valencia Street.
By Courtney Muro
It was a tepid 67 degrees Saturday, but the atmosphere was sweaty, hot, and sexy. It was salsa, and it had taken over the entire block from 19th to Valencia. People in their 20s were dancing with their kids, their elders, and strangers. It was all smiles — community at its finest.
Salsa in the Streets’ tagline is “No cover. Just come.” This reflects not only organizer Sara Deseran’s ethos for the event, but also the fact that it was built on the idea of bringing joy to the Mission. While the Valencia Corridor Merchants Association funds the street soirée, the salsa dancing and music that fuels it is known as Timba, which hails from Cuba. It is infused with a beat that will make even the stiffest hips sway.
Deseran — a partner at San Francisco mainstay restaurant Tacolicious — decided she wanted to do something to activate Valencia Street in 2023 after it had been hurt so badly by the pandemic. As someone who does a lot of salsa dancing herself, she knew the salsa community would be a great partner for this endeavor.
“The Cuban dance community in San Francisco is small in comparison to LA and New York — but just as vibrant. I wanted to integrate that Cuban flavor into our little corridor here on Valencia Street. Everyone who partakes in it loves it and I knew the energy it brings would follow,” said Deseran.
Elise Jiancola, a friend of mine who I ran into and who has danced her whole life told me that the “fun crowd, great DJs, and rare sultry weather made for a perfect evening!” But even those whose hips do lie felt just as welcome that evening.
Brian Mechem from Sacramento told me he’s “a terrible dancer” but if they do this event next summer he would make a point to come back and learn salsa before his friends’ wedding in Argentina. “It was kind of like an escape to music, dancing, and fun. A must for any resident or visitor.”
Jen Bailey who was visiting with Mechem said that she had expected a lot of riff raff just based on the news that she sees about San Francisco but standing here on Valencia Street she felt safe, welcome, and “honestly just so impressed by this display of diversity.”
Deseran recently left her marketing role at Tacolicious to become the food editor at the San Francisco Standard. She remains a partner at the restaurant, and she plans to stick around Valencia for salsa because it’s an event she genuinely loves. Deseran cites a laundry list of people who she couldn’t do it without, from the board of the VCMA, to Pablo Claudio, the managing partner of Tacolicious, to the first that DJ JuanLove and Pablo Dinámico.
Dinámico came to the US from Cuba only 2 years ago, but already feels fully integrated with a larger-than-life personality and success as a salsa teacher. Sara and the others can’t speak highly enough of him.
When I asked Pablo why he thinks this event has been so successful he replied (translated from Spanish): “People like it because it is very lively Cuban salsa-timba and reggaeton music and I infect it with my energy.”
Pablo isn’t lying — his energy was infectious, to say the least. For a large portion of the night, he led the entire street in what looked like a choreographed performance but was actually 100 percent impromptu.
DJ JuanLove (Juan Rivera) who has been leading the salsa dance scene in the Bay Area for over a decade. He started doing outdoor dance parties (with masks, of course) and they were a hit. He loves dancing and parties but its really important to him to teach people about the cultural aspect of salsa: rumba. “The fire and magic that Pablo and I have is incredibly unique and I think it’s also a reason why the party is so popular. I’ve noticed that these events get bigger each time and I hope that we can keep doing this for a long long time.”
If you missed last weekend’s Salsa in the Streets — don’t worry. You have one more chance to shake your ass in 2024. Saturday, September 21st will be the last of this year, but according to Deseran — Salsa in the Streets has a positive future.
“We definitely plan to keep doing it every summer,” Deseran said. “It’s everything we would hope the city wants us to have — a lot of vitality and joy in the beautiful Mission neighborhood.”
Courtney Muro is a San Francisco-based content strategist, producer, designer, and creator.
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