Not in a million years would I have guessed I’d be dancing salsa or performing with a dance company, but here I am a member of the Piel Canela Dance Company.  My name is Jose Mercado and I am a native of the Dominican Republic.  I immigrated to the United State at the age of 15, and like most of my friends back home, my passion was sports (particularly baseball).  I tried my best for 10 years but unfortunately got hurt; unable to play baseball at my full capacity, I focused on finishing school.  When it came to dancing, I was good at it … at least that’s what I thought.  Bachata and Merengue have always been two of my favorite dance styles, but these were the only options I’d been exposed to.  Salsa was something I only heard while waiting for a haircut at the barbershop.
So I found myself at City College of New York, with no other motivation than to study and finish a career, when one day I heard some people discussing some “Mambo Club” that was giving out free dance lessons.  I decided to take a look and learned they were teaching salsa.  Since I’d never been able to dance salsa before and I had nothing else to do on Thursday afternoons, I gave it a try.  As time passed I became more interested in salsa on-2, but it wasn’t until I attended my first Uptown Social that I realized that I wasn’t able to follow the music and to do all the steps that I supposedly learned at the Mambo Club.  So in June 2008, taking advantage of  a “3 months of free salsa lessons” offer given to City College students by the director of Piel Canela “Sensei Joe Burgos”, I decided to take my salsa dancing to the next level.  In October 2008, I joined the fall salsa recital team and loved the reactions of the people when I did my first performance.  I was then invited to continue as dancer for the student team and without hesitation I said yes!
I thank Joe and the Piel Canela Dance Company for giving me this great opportunity and I look forward to growing as dancer, traveling, and performing with the best! QUE VIVA PIEL CANELA!