Dancers / Stars

Contact: Ismael Otero -

CaribbeanSoulDancers@yahoo.com

Juliette- juliette_hashemi@hotmail.com

The Caribbean Soul Dance Company was founded in 1997. Ismael Otero aka "The Million Moves Man" wanted to show everyone his unique style and bring the best out of his dancers.

Together they have travelled all over the world to give everybody a taste of their special Caribbean Soul.

Using the creative dance form of the streets, combined with technique and a passion for the music, Ismael Otero created Caribbean Soul, known around the world as one of most exhilerating salsa dance groups who have maintained their place at the top of the game for more than 8 years. Dancers in his team have all been trained extensively to develop their individual style whilst setting a high performance standard. They are original, exciting, funny, and complex, but most of all "unique".

Ismael himself is always modest though he is a salsa icon. He is one of the most sincere, down to earth, humorous, and genuine "Salsa stars" that you will ever come across. He gets along with everyone in the salsa scene probably as he is confident enough not to need to compete with them and a reason why he gets invited to more congresses probably than anyone else. He is innovative and daring in his approach to salsa and the influence of break-dancing and hip-hop are evident in his dancing. He is not constrained by rules and likes to dance by feeling not thinking which is why his partners find him so much fun!

Juliette Hashemi started dancing salsa in Paris, France in 2003 just for fun since at that time she didn't even know how to do a basic step! She never took any lessons because as a student it was too expensive for her at that time. She would go out as much as possible and ask everyone to dance even though she couldn't follow. But after a while she started getting the steps right and could then really enjoy herself. She says: "The more you learn the more excited you get, and it makes you want to improve and learn more."

A year later she left Paris for New York to study at college. Three weeks later she met Ismael Otero at the Flamingo. They danced just once and less than an hour later he asked her to join Caribbean soul. Juliette describes this as an incredible moment for her. As she says: "I couldn't believe what was happening to me!!"

The next day she went to the group rehearsal and just loved everything about it - the routine was nice and the people were great, welcoming her as if she was already in the team.

Juliette recalls: "Dancing with Caribbean Soul Dancers was my best salsa experience, my whole year in New York was great but dancing had a big part in it. Thanks to Ismael I got to travel and perform in congresses I would have never imagined going to, we went to L.A., New Orleans, Chicago, Boston, Texas. I was taught a lot during this year (technique, spinning, styling.) and I gained in confidence too."

She left the US in August 2005 and started her life again in France. She is now dancing with Uforia Dance Company, a French company that is also traveling a lot.

"I'm proud to say that I had the great opportunity to dance with such a great team and to learn with one of the bests. Hopefully things will keep on being as good, even though I changed country and team, but diversity is what helps us improve. " says Juliette.

Videos:

• Beginners Gone Advanced - Advanced Turn Patterns
• Ismael Otero's Advanced Turn patterns