Jaír F. Coll

Documentary photographer
   
The colombian capital of salsa tries to save itself
Public Project
The colombian capital of salsa tries to save itself
Copyright Jaír F. Coll 2024
Date of Work May 2020 - Jun 2020
Updated Jul 2022
Location Cali
Topics Art, Celebrations, Documentary, Music, Personal Projects, Portraiture
Dancing in Cali, the capital of salsa in Colombia, was not the same in 2020: instead of the choreographies in which physical contact was required and the 1500 nightclubs that gathered hundreds of strangers every weekend, the salsa party in Cali began to be carried out with social distancing and biosecurity measures.

A virus that stopped the entire world did not find it difficult to transform more than 60 years of tradition in just few months, when Colombia government decreed lockdown between March and September.

More than 600 nightclubs -also known as salsotecas- went to bankruptcy. It’s not only an industry whose economic losses reached US$2,5 million every month during the Covid-19 emergency, according to Association of Night Establishments of Cali, Asonod, but also the opening of a path towards a new normality in the life of the salsa community in Cali, whose name shone at the Super Bowl in February 2020, when Swing Latino danced with Jennifer López.

The photo essay narrates the resilience of an industry that is the essence of a city of dancers and music lovers.
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The colombian capital of salsa tries to save itself by Jaír F. Coll
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