Martin Avendano Mayan-winner (with partner Esti Ashkanazi) and co-director of Ritmo y Salsa By Laureano Ralon Facchina

What does salsa mean to you and what attracted you to it?

Salsa is my life. What attracted me to it was the tricks and lifts and all that crazy stuff, because I never thought you could possibly incorporate all of that into salsa. As soon as I saw all that stuff, I was like “wow, I need to learn that!”

Who was that instructor who got you into tricks and what was the most important lesson you learned from him/her?

When I first started taking lessons, the Vasquez brothers in LA were the strongest by far, so I decided to go with the best because I knew what I wanted for me and my dancing. I took classes with them – with Francisco, Luis, and Johnny – and then I became a member of Los Rumberos. So pretty much I learned the basics from them, and specifically with Francisco.

You recently came first place in the 2007 Mayan Competition. What does it take to make it in such reknown contest, and how many times did you try before you came first?

Well it’s funny because I tried twice at the Mayan as an amateur, and it didn’t work; in the first competition we didn’t even qualify for the semi-finals. I felt so bad about it that I was like “Ok, next year we’ll try it again.” The following year, we got into the finals but nothing happened afterwards; this was also as an amateur. So, by then I knew I had to work out a different strategy. I stopped competing for about a year, trained extensively, and when we came back we did a competition at the Century Club in LA and we got it. Immediately after, they invited us to go to the ESPN World Salsa Championships. For me that was something else, a completely different league. Being part of that really helped us get to the Mayan because we already had the training, the routine was there, so the first time we tried the Mayan as professionals, we got it!

How many hours a day do you train to get ready for these types of competitions?
When we’re competing I’m doing this full time. We’re practicing every single day about three or four hours. Sometimes when we feel our routine isn’t there we spend like six, seven, eight hours. We’re crazy but we need to be hard on ourselves to get to the next level.

How did you meet Esti Ashkanazi and what are the attributes of a good partner?
When I met Esti I was trying to put something together with Alex da Silva, but I didn’t have a partner at the time so he introduced me to Esti. After that it was like falling in love with her platonically, in terms of how we connected. Our chemistry was there, it was unbelievable; we started dancing and messing around first and almost immediately decided to work together.

Going back to the lifts and tricks. What does it take to do that? Do you have to be strong? Do you necessarily need a light partner?

No not at all, first of all it’s 50/50 – the girl has to do her part and the guy has to do his part. It’s not just the guy doing all the work; even if you’re a muscular guy it doesn’t mean you’re going to get the girl up there. If she’s not doing her work nothing’s going to get her off the floor. So, basically it has to be 50/50. I suggest you practice a lot, because when you practice seriously, the end result is nothing but perfection. If you don’t practice nothing’s going to happen.

What would you like to achieve with salsa in the next five years that you haven’t achieved thus far? What’s the next level for you?
We’re going to keep dancing, teaching and performing, traveling around the world, representing who we are and where we come from: we represent Latinos and Israelis. And we’re thinking about getting into ballroom competitions as well. For now we’re going to stick with salsa and bring our own style into the dance, but we want to try other things as well; it’s like a challenge for us, something totally different.

What did you think of the Seattle Salsa Congress? Did you have fun?
Unbelievable! It was tons of fun. I really enjoyed being in Seattle. It’s not a big congress, but the energy is amazing, and the people really support salsa. I really had fun.

For more information about Martin and Esti, and Ritmo y Salsa, visit their website: ritmoysalsa.net