Christina Piedra
Christina Piedra is the Artistic Director of NJ's Cultural
Explosion Dance Company as well as Director of the NJ Island Touch
Team, NJ TOUCH. She has been performing, teaching, choreographing,
and directing Salsa and Bachata teams for over 10yrs. Her
background is in Ballet, Jazz, Tap, Lyrical, Hip-Hop and
Competitive Dance Team. She then trained in Salsa/Mambo & Latin
Dance, and after many years of teaching and performing nationally
and internationally she is considered a Master instructor in
Salsa, Mambo, Cha-Cha, etc., and is a world-renowned Latin dance
performer.
Christina has graced countless stages in the US, the Caribbean,
and Europe performing with Juan Calderon and the Cultural
Explosion Dance Company. She is the Artistic Director and also the
Head Choreographer for the company, and her creative
choreographies are always memorable for having a perfect balance
of technical precision with unique music and themes.
She is a magnetic performer, recognized for her charisma and
incredible stage presence, and her amazing ability to freestyle so
musically that she makes her freestyles look like choreographies.
Christina is known for being an expert follower with the ability
to any lead, and she is also known for her feminine and graceful
styling and especially for her fluid, elegant arms. Add to that
her incredible lines and extension and it's no wonder she has had
such success in the Salsa/Bachata scene. She has developed a
signature style by incorporating her Classical Dance background
into her Latin dancing and the results have been admired and
emulated by many.
Juan Calderon
Juan Calderon is a world known dance instructor, choreographer,
performer, and entrepreneur. What sets him apart from other
instructors is his background in both his formal education and
dance. Juan studied business management at Seton Hall University
which set his foundation to build the Cultural Explosion brand. He
treated his dance company and school like a fortune 500 company
using the same techniques that work in the world of business but
translating them into the world of dance.
When it comes to his dance education, Juan went the unconventional
route of learning multiple styles of dance at the same time. While
a college student he took a part time job at United Airlines to
fly to major cities to train with the top Salsa instructors around
the world. This education of multiple styles put Juan at an
immediate advantage since he was able to teach, perform and social
dance different styles as soon as he entered the convention
circuit. Since different cities had different markets of which
style is mostly used, Juan put himself in the position of being
easily marketable regardless of what style was preferred by the
hosting city.
Juan is a master instructor on Salsa On 1, Salsa On 2, Rueda De
Casino, LA Style, NY Style, Miami Style and Puerto Rican Style. In
addition Juan has also added to his repertoire Bachata, Sensual
Bachata, Bachata Fusion, Kizomba, Urban Kiz, Kizomba Fusion, Zouk,
Zoukchata, Zouk Fusion. In the biggest Bachata Congress in the
United States (the Washington DC Bachata Congress), Juan had the
most packed workshop of the weekend in 2015 and his class was so
well attended it was chosen by the Washington Post Newspaper to be
featured. Photos of his lesson were printed in the newspaper and
have helped Bachata spread even further in the United States.
Juan and his dancers gained worldwide recognition very quickly
which set the stage for Juan's first DVD. Juan's first
instructional DVD became an overnight sensation and climbed to the
highest sales on Amazon.com over many well known instructional
videos. This allowed Juan Calderon and Cultural Explosion to enter
the world of international dance conventions and tours of North
America, Latin America & Europe, since his DVD was being sold
around the world at Barnes & Nobles, Target, Walmart and
through the internet. In a few years Juan earned 4 lifetime
achievement awards from some of the world's biggest and most
famous Latin Dance Conventions including the East Coast Salsa
Congress & West Coast Salsa Congressos (in Los Angeles
California by Albert Torres). Which at the time were the 2 biggest
Latin Dance events in the USA.
Most recently Juan has added to his thorough teaching style a
holistic approach which takes elements from other disciplines. How
has this impacted his teaching and his relevance in the world of
Latin Dance? Well, in the last 2 years Juan has been to over 30
countries spreading his style of dance, instruction and
philosophy. He not only teaches workshops to the public but also
has trained instructors in 6 continents.