How this Miami salsa dancer is making line dancing cool again
Castro started showing the group the steps to a line dance she choreographed to the song. About 20 people slowly started to pick up her moves and were following her.
When she posted this moment to TikTok the next day, it instantly went viral. Since then, the video has amassed 2.8 million views. Throughout the past year of posting line dancing videos on TikTok, she has accumulated 6.4 million likes on her profile.
Castro, 19, is a Cuban-American student at Florida International University from Miami who learned to dance salsa when she was a child. She joined salsa dance studio Baila Con Micho when she was 12 and at Mater Academy Charter High School she was the president of the salsa club. Today, she line dances because she loves creating choreography or finding a new, trendy dance to teach.
Line dances are generally associated with country music, but now creating line dances to pop songs is the new trend. Castro likes the freedom that line dancing gave her to expand beyond salsa.
'There's only so much in salsa you can learn,' Castro says. 'So there wasn't that kind of sense of challenge, and I kind of missed that from dancing.'
Her friends convinced her to line dance at Copper Blues in Doral last July. The scene was nothing like she thought it would be.
'It was a lot less country than I expected,' said Castro. 'I went the next week, and I just felt at home. There's always something else to learn.'
She bought a pair of $70 'cowboy' boots on Amazon immediately after her first time line dancing. She loved the challenge of learning a completely different dance style, following new routines on TikTok and choreographing her own.
Castro began uploading videos of herself on TikTok here and there. However, she noticed that her line dancing posts would receive the most engagement. Line dancing videos are a phenomenon on TikTok. The hashtag #linedancing has been used in over 200,000 videos on platform.
But it was her first choreography to 'Club Can't Handle Me' by Flo Rida that made her go viral.
Chris Taad, 46, also known as DJ Illmanik, was DJing at Pub 52 and he insisted that Castro should create a dance to the song but she kept putting him off. Then last November, he gave her the nudge she needed. He introduced Castro to the audience over the microphone, and she danced the choreography to the Flo Rida song.
'She was nervous the whole night,' says Taad. 'I dropped the song, and I said 'Well, you'll never be ready if you don't do it.''
Though only around 20 dancers picked up the steps that night, after she uploaded the video to TikTok and it took off, people were ready.
'The next week, more people learned my choreography,' says Castro. 'Then the week after, even more people learned it. It was so surreal to see people from all over doing the dance I created. I can't believe I reached that audience.'
'Everybody loves watching her dance,' says Taad, who met Castro at Southern Soul, a dance instruction business. 'She's just so energetic, all her steps are on point. She incorporates salsa into her line dancing 100 percent.'
Castro teaches line dancing in South Florida at places like the Round Up in Davie and The Berry Farm in the Redland. She even teaches at birthday parties and choreographs quinceañeras.
'When I look back and I see the dance floor, everyone just learned the dance that I taught them and we're all having a good time and I know I'm providing that for them....It's very fulfilling,' she said.
Natalie Lahera, 25, who works for Copper Blues has seen how Castro's line dancing has snowballed because of the way she can connect with the dancers. 'Nicole's energy is so contagious and everyone naturally gravitates to her when we're out dancing,' she said.
'You have to learn how to read your crowd,' says Castro. 'On the spot, you have to dictate what you're going to do with them.'
This story is the product of a partnership between the Lee Caplin School of Journalism & Media and the Miami Herald.
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