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Cecilia 'Ceci' Villalobos Dancer, choreographer, instructor, and mother Cecilia 'Ceci' Villalobos was born and raised in Lima, Peru. It was in the coastal city of Lima where Ceci pursued her gifted athleticism, excelling in swimming, volleyball, gymnastics, and aerobics all at the national level. At the age of sixteen, Ceci made a life changing decision to leave home and move to Brazil to pursue her dream of becoming a dancer at the Sao Paulo, Brazil Dance Company. For two years, Cecilia trained full-time over 40 hours a week, specializing in Tango, Samba and Cha-Cha before she was awarded one of the lead dance positions in a 50 member dance company. During her last three years with the company, she taught at Salvador Dance School, participated in the South American tour "Tango Passion", "Danzando" and "Samba Tropical". In 1995, Cecilia qualified for Bronze, Silver, Gold and Super Gold certifications as an instructor and choreographer. While competing in Argentine Tango, she placed 2nd and 3rd place in the “Tango Amor” competition. During the same year while in Brazil, Cecilia was asked to train and represent Peru in the World Fitness Championship. Ceci placed 3rd in the ESPN World Aerobics competition in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Her professional experience in dance and fitness brought her to the US to instruct at the Latin Dance Company, World Dance U.S.A. and Arthur Murray's Dance School. While instructing at Latin Dance Company, Ceci took the title of Ms. Peru in the National Latina Beauty Pageant in Washington D.C. After her two year tenure as an instructor for a consortium of dance companies in the D.C. metro area, she embarked on her own career as a director and choreographer. In 1998, Ceci took some of her most talented students and created the group, Salsa Fuego. During the next couple of years, she began to teach privately under the auspices of her dance partner at the time Jim Johnson. Her instruction has involved more than 1,200 students over the last four years. Per request, she also instructed 3 days
a weeks at the various dance studios, nightclubs and restaurants.
Since 1998, the dance group has performed all over the world with
overwhelming success, as well as locally at events such as the Millennium
Stage at the Kennedy Center, Baltimore Salsa Festival, Salsa Web convention
in Washington DC. Salsa Fuego Dance Company has also performed at
international salsa congresses in Los Angeles, New York, Puerto Rico,
and Amsterdam, Netherlands where the group captured 3rd place in the
team competition in 1999. The success of the dance company and the
notoriety of Ceci in the Salsa dance community have been exponential.
Currently, Salsa Fuego is a dance company comprising of 15 dancers
and Ceci, director-choreographer and performer. |
