Nancy Alonso was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York of Puerto Rican parents. Nancy grew up in the New York City during the height of the Salsa era and witnessed history in the making.   She saw all the famous singers and musicians, danced to their music and even danced with Eddie Palmieri when she was 12 years old at the Brooklyn Casino.

She moved to the Washington D.C. area in the 1980’s.  Nancy co-owned and operated a mobile DJ service known as “The Dynamic Duo DJ’s”.  Her skills and expertise as a music programmer allowed her to crack into the professional DJ boys club.  Nancy was given the stage name DJ ISIS (I Spin In Style) and made dance club history in DC.  As DJ ISIS, Nancy played in some of the DC area’s  popular and exclusive clubs including Numbers, Chicago, The Georgetown Library, Anastasia’s and The Pisces Club among others.

Nancy and Henry are The Champions of WAVA’s Disco Dance Contest.  This $1000 prize dance contest was the highlight of the largest halloween party (1988) ever held in DC.  It was held at the Post Office Pavilion and attended by over 1000 people.  Nancy and Henry hustled their way into the history books as this was the last disco\hustle dance event of its kind in the DC area.  WAVA was later sold and the format changed.  (bye bye disco station!)

In the late 80’s she concentrated more on Salsa.   Nancy brought her knowledge of classic salsa and blended it with contemporary music.  Nancy pioneered spinning Salsa Dura at several Salsa clubs in Washington DC area including South Beach and Chelsea’s and gained popularity among musicians and latin music lovers for her music programming talent. In 1992 she made her mark at “Havana Café” in Clarendon Virginia,  where she was given artistic license to play hard core Salsa and Cuban music.  Havana Café became the first hot spot for Salsa in Virginia and was the inspiration for the Salsa scene in the Washington DC area.

Nancy’s music programing skills and expert knowledge of Salsa and Afro-Cuban music led her to becoming the host of the Monday night “Latin Flavor” show on WPFW 89.3 FM (www.wpfw.org) in May of 1999. Nancy’s format concentrates on classic salsa as well as Latin jazz and contemporary groups whose repertoire of music more closely represents Afro-Cuban rhythms and New York-style Salsa. She also features local musicians and conducts interviews whenever musicians come to the Washington area from New York, Puerto Rico, Los Angeles, Miami and elsewhere.

Nancy has received many thanks and is the recipient of many awards for her dedication and devotion to the music.  Nancy was voted SalsaMetro’s “Best Salsa DJ Of The Year”.

Nancy is the 2010 recipient of The Jose Ruiz Lifetime Achievement Award for her service to the latin community and dedication to latin music.

Nancy was given the title “Thr First Lady of Salsa in Washington DC” by her peers.

Nancy is active as a speaker at Hispanic Heritage Month events, special guest DJ and as an MC for events throughout the DC metropolitan area including the Smithsonian Institute’s Jazz Cafe and 4th of July on the mall.  Nancy recently added Salsa Club Promoter to her many titles when she launched Nancy Alonso’s Salsa Empire in the winter of 2013.  To date Nancy has successfully promoted Salsa Empire as the best place to dance to Salsa dura in the DMV, Washington DC Maryland and Virginia.

Nancy celebrated 15 years on the air at a party at Salsa Empire on May 10, 2015.  This party was attended by local, international celebrities and over 300 of her fans at the Empire Nightclub in Spriingfield, VA.

In 2018, Nancy Alonso said goodbye to WPFW after 18 years on air to take on the position of Program Director at Salsa Empire Radio, an internet radio station broadcasting from the DC area to the world.   Nancy is still on the air on Salsa Empire Radio.  The host of Nancy Alonso The Salsa Dura Show and other shows such as The Havana Cafe Radio Hour.

Eileen Torres is best known for her work in the salsa music and dance industry. Since 1998 she has established herself as a premier salsa promoter, events producer, historian, show creator, and dance instructor.

She is one of a handful of women in the United States with these credentials. In fact the Anna Maria Arias Memorial Business Fund awarded her a $5,000 cash prize based on the unique scope of her business.

As a public speaker she has delivered key-note speeches for corporations and government agencies. She has delivered over 400 multimedia presentations at countless universities and colleges as well as the Smithsonian Institution, Kennedy Center, National Geographic Society, Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, Federal Reserve Board, Pentagon, and United States Postal Service.

As a free-lance writer for several magazines she was contracted by Starbucks Coffee Company. She collaborated on the Mambo Mio CD. She wrote the liner notes and assisted in the selection of the music

In 1978, Eileen successfully auditioned for The National Chicano Dance Theater based in Denver, Colorado. The company dramatized the Chicano experience through dance. She toured with the company for two years.

Eileen received the First Annual Jose Ruiz Lifetime Achievement Award for fostering understanding of Latino culture. She received the Andy Award for her work as a salsa historian and events’ producer at the World Salsa Congress in Puerto Rico. She was the recipient of the Somos Award during its inaugural year of 2010 and was the first to receive the newly created Salsa Crusader Award earlier this year.. She received an Associate Producer credit for the salsa film short titled MANO. The film has received numerous awards and will be presented as a full length feature film in 2016.

Ms. Torres worked with the National Council of La Raza, HACR (Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility) Latino Sports Ventures, ZGS Communications, and Latina Style Magazine.

She is an alumnus of National Hispana Leadership Institute, Leadership Lorain County and has served as a consultant to the National Hispanic Corporate Council.
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Eileen is called upon regularly to serve as Mistress of Ceremonies for special events. She is also asked to take the stage to introduce internationally known entertainers as well as to interview and be interviewed.

Ricardo Loaiza has been a DMV area resident since 1990. Originally from Colombia and a teacher first and foremost, Ricardo began his dance career as an instructor and DJ at various DC night venues, including Havana Village in 1992, Lucky Bar formerly known as Planet Fred from 1995 to 2007, Republic Gardens, Lulu’s 1997-2007, Cecilias (currently “The Salsa Room”, Café Citron, Relish, Yuca, The Spot, Fifth Colum and Cities. He also worked as the first Latin dance faculty from 1998 to 2002 at the prestigious Joy of Motion Dance Center. Ricardo’s work has been featured in many major media and publication outlets locally, nationally and internationally including; The Washington Post, The Washingtonian Magazine, Bethesda Magazine, Washington Hispanic, C-SPAN, UNIVISION, Telemundo, RCN, NBC, FOX 5, CNN, CBS, ABC News, La Voz de America and others in Holland and England.

Together with his dance partner Elba, Ricardo has taught, choreographed and performed in more than 500 events in the DC area and in over 20 cities nationally and internationally. In 1996, they co-founded the DMV’s first Latin Dance Company; “The DC Salseros/ Latin Vibez” which performed at the PR and LA Salsa Congresses from 1997 to 2002. Through his Entertainment Company “WEPA Productions, he organized and produced the First SALSAWEB CONVENTIONS in DC and in Toronto , Canada in 1998 and continued till 2002 and stopped producing events to prioritize family life when he got married to his dance partner Elba.

Ricardo has been a pioneer in his field and has facilitated many firsts throughout his artistic career including starting DC and MD’s first Latino-owned dance studio in 2000. In 2010 he created the first DMV’s After School Latin Dance program for High School Students, and together with Elba, since then, they have been organizing, producing, managing and have hosted the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Latin Dance Competition at the Music Center at Strathmore, thanks to the non-profit organization they co-founded,” the After School Latin Dance Fund (ASDF)”. The mission of ASDF is to provide artistic, technical and financial support for the establishment of After School Latin Dance Clubs. These dance programs work to strengthen family values and heritage, and help students develop confidence and leadership, promote excellence in academics, and pave their way into higher education.

Most importantly students participating in the clubs find a place of belonging and a support group of peers that helps one another in and outside school hours.

In the fall of 2012 Ricardo worked with the Kennedy Center’s Education Department “Artsedge”,and developed an instructional online Latin Dance series, “The Five(ish) Minute Latin Dance Lessons”. The first chapter of the series was seen by over 3 million downloads in the first three months of its release; the second chapter of the series was released in the fall of 2013 with similar ratings. There are 5 more chapter in the works and all series are both animated and in Spanish and English. In October of 2014 Ricardo received “The Montgomery County’s Community Award for the Excellence in the Arts & Humanities” from County Executive, Mr. Ike Leggett in the State of Maryland for his contribution and dedication to the Arts. The annual MCPS Latin dance competition has also been establish and proclaimed by the County Executive, the County Council and the Governor of Maryland as the “After School Dance Fund and Latin Dance Competition Day’ every year.

Ricardo’s work reflects his desire to share the power of dance, and give students an opportunity to become healthy and positive members of our global society. He credits the unconditional support to his favorite dance partner and wife Elba, and their four kids; Esperanza, Ricardo Jr, Leonardo and Lorenzo as both his inspiration and motivation, to share the transformative effects of Latin dance in people’s lives worldwide.

The 2015 Capital Congress is proud to recognize Tommy “Mr Mambo” Smith as a pioneer of the Salsa scene in the DC area.

A native Washingtonian, Tommy Smith has been dancing Mambo & Salsa for years in the DC Metro Area. He is one of the few people still active in the Salsa/Mambo community today who can say he actually danced socially at the World Renowned NYC Palladium Club in its Heyday! After spending time building a resume in the DC clubs as a Mambo Dance Prodigy as a teenager, he later transitioned to the music side as a Musician playing the Congas and ultimately Co-Founded a Salsa Band called the Los Latinos. This Band has the great history of giving a musical start to the Late Guitar Virtuoso and Legendary Godfather of GO-GO Music Chuck Brown when Tommy hired him as a guitarist for the band. After burning out from Salsa Mambo, Tommy turned his Dance attention to the developing Hand-Dancing scene in DC which was birthed from the Salsa Mambo Scene. He was pulled back into the DC Salsa Scene in 1995 by a friend who was telling him about all of the Salsa Clubs that were starting to attract crowds. He started frequenting the clubs again and was instantly recognized as someone who knew what he was doing on the Dancefloor. While at the Legendary Wednesday Night DC Salsa Party at Zanzibars in the late 1990s, someone crowned him Mr. Mambo and the name has stuck ever since. Because of his vast knowledge and obvious technique in Salsa and Mambo, he started getting requests to teach Mambo in various Dance Studios and Clubs. He has been the Resident Salsa Teacher at DC Dance Collective since 1998 and started the Mr. Mambo’s Salsa Social in 2005, the longest running Salsa Social in DC. After a successful Eight Year Run at the DC Dance Collective, Tommy Moved the Mr. Mambo’s Salsa Social to the Hollywood Ballroom in Silver Spring, MD where it is held today every 2nd and 4th Sat of the month. It goes without saying that Mr. Mambo aka Tommy Smith is Well-Respected and Beloved in the DC Salsa Community.

Tommy has run the longest running social in the DC area, namely “The Mr Mambo Social”. The Mr. Mambo social was born in 2005 and, while it has grown to different locations, it always maintains a spirit of welcoming, and encouraging all dancers to enjoy their life on the dance floor.

Mr. Mambo’s Philosophy:

I believe Dancing is the secret to eternal joy, which leads to good health and longevity. With our help, you just might experience “The Joy that comes when one catches the spirit of Mambo/Salsa and the thrill of being one with the Music.

We encourage you to share in the award ceremony on Saturday June 13, 2015, which will also feature the Grammy nominated New Swing Sextet. Dance with Tommy, party with New Swing, and experience the Capital Congress!