Luis Salgado is an international director, choreographer and educator from Puerto Rico, based in New York City. Currently he finds himself in Orange County directing and choreographing the cast of the touring company of On Your Feet: The Story of Emilio and Gloria Estefan. From Puerto Rico, to New York and around the world, Salgado is proving that with passion and a lot of hard work, you can live out your dream.
With fond memories of his time in elementary school, where one of his teachers introduced him to the arts, he tells us he would travel to New York from Puerto Rico during the summers to study at the Providence Arts Center where he was told by one of his teachers that he was ready for New York.
After college, he decided that the love of dance was calling him to the mecca of Broadway musicals and that is when he found Fame on 42nd Street – the first musical gig he booked in New York.
Having found his community of dancers and artists that encouraged him, Salgado set out to conquer the world one musical at a time. He took his dancing career very seriously. He trained, hustled, and made friends while pursuing his passion as an actor/dancer. Fairly quickly he started working on a succession of plays, TV and film, building up his resume.
His Broadway list of credits include Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, ROCKY, Matilda, Song of Solomon, In The Heights, On Your Feet, among others. Salgado was the Assistant Latin Choreographer of In The Heights on Broadway, which won four Tony Awards, and the Spanish version of In The Heights at GALA Theater in Washington D.C which received nine 2018 Helen Hayes Awards He also worked on film American Gangster; Dirty Dancing 2, Havana Nights, and the television remake of Dirty Dancing, and Enchanted and Step Up 2, The Streets (Alejandro), where he was assistant choreographer.
He has worked with some of the best choreographers in theater, including Andy Blankenbuehler (Hamilton) while striking up a friendship that would lead to opportunities. Soon Salgado realized that he was drawn to expand into the creative realm, just about at the time he was cast and asked to assist as choreographer in Lin Manuel Miranda’s In The Heights. The rest, as Salgado is prone to say, “is history”.
In memory of his fellow actor/dancer, David Garcia, who was already a working dancer in New York when they met, Salgado made a commitment. Garcia told him how he had grown up not speaking Spanish because he was made fun of. After Garcia passed away, Salgado made a vow to “…celebrate our language, celebrate our culture and celebrate our rhythm in an authentic way on the Broadway field”. He has taken that commitment beyond Broadway as he now works internationally. Whenever possible, he selects projects he where his culture is highlighted. Get On Your Feet is a fine example of a project that does.
We had the opportunity to interview Luis on the occasion of the opening of Get On Your Feet: The Story of Emilio and Gloria Estefan on Latin Heat’s Hollywood Talks.
On Your Feet features music produced and recorded by Emilio and Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine with Book by Alexander Dinelaris. It is produced by GFour Productions and Evan Bernardin Productions through a special license from Theatrical Rights Worldwide, and is represented by Columbia Artists Theatricals.
For Tickets: La Mirada Theater is located at 14900 La Mirada Blvd., La Mirada, CA 90638. Box office: 714-994-6310 and (562) 944-9801