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In International Salsa Magazine, we have always tried to cover all types of Latin music artists, including producers, arrangers, composers, singers, musicians, dancers, and club owners. However, it is also important to talk to other platforms that promote Latin music as we do, so we contacted the creator of the website Salsa Vida, Takeshi Young, to learn a little more about this online media site and everything it has to offer the public.

Takeshi’s relationship with Latin music

In view of the trouble digital marketing specialist, dance teacher, and competitor Takeshi Young went to create a site like Salsa Vida, we obviously had to ask what relationship he had with Latin music. He replied that he loves to dance and has been doing so for about 19 years. His attendance at various salsa events led him to create a calendar for the San Francisco Bay Area, where he currently resides.

The acceptance he had led him to include much more content like articles, events, guides, and much more. The main goal was to show salsa lovers all the places they could go to enjoy this genre, but over time, Salsa Vida was turning into a sort of online newspaper that provided information on many other things related to the same topic, especially dance academies. For its operation, it uses tools like WordPress, iTools, and Chat GPT as an information bank to his writings, most of which are of his authorship.

He used the name “Salsa Vida” because of the lifestyle that he associated with salsa, which he considered to be unifying, nourishing, and joyful.

Greatest challenges in creating Salsa Vida

One of the most annoying parts about creating Salsa Vida was the calendar, as Takeshi always had to keep an eye on updates, date changes, and event cancellations. Fortunately, he always received information from many of the organizers, who told him when there were any changes in their schedules.

Salsa Vida’s most important goal today

Takeshi pointed out that, at present, Salsa Vida’s most important goal is to teach and promote salsa around the world, which has led him to write all kinds of articles in which he seeks to educate his community on all kinds of topics related to Latin music, such as “what is pachanga” or “what is cha cha chá.” With this, he wants those interested in learning about dancing or knowing more about this rich world to have a starting point from the theoretical part.

In addition to that, the website still maintains the calendar to help salsa lovers find events related to their passion near their homes. 

Contacts obtained to date

Takeshi claims to have so many contacts with a lot of bands, especially in the Bay Area, which has helped him keep on growing his website. However, the people he interacts with most in this environment are dancers and instructors who give him a lot of information about their work with their academies and students.

Moreover, his work has also helped him gain invites and press passes to all kinds of events and concerts in both San Francisco and the rest of California, allowing him to cover them and bring the latest updates to his loyal readers.

Goals with Salsa Vida for the coming months

As for Takeshi and Salsa Vida’s goals for the coming months, the creative young man keeps searching for and publishing events from around the world for his readers to see, as well as highlighting the importance of expanding and publishing even more countries in his calendar so that many more salsa fans from other latitudes can use Salsa Vida to find what they want.

Today, the Salsa Vida calendar has events in about 80 countries, but Takeshi says it is not enough and wants to expand much more to other locations. He also wants to add more languages to make visitors to his page feel more comfortable, and new sections such as “Dancepedia” that would come to be a kind of Wikipedia, but focused on dance.

And if that were not enough, he wants to design an app through which those interested can use the same functions of the site in a much more comfortable and interactive way from any mobile device.

Takeshi’s other occupations

As well as handling Salsa Vida, Takeshi is also a digital marketing specialist and teaches salsa at San Jose State University twice a week.

Importantly, he has a BA in philosophy and a BS in software engineering, both from the aforementioned university. During those years, he was also a member of his class’s salsa and mambo clubs. 

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