Welcome to your local Tuesday social!
Echale is a Tuesday night COMMUNITY Latin dance event born from the event it was previously, Project Mambo. This year, we moved from our old place at the Spot, located in Rockville, MD to The Rising Star Studio in Gaithersburg, MD.
Classes:
7:15 – 8PM – Bachata Class by “The Muse” Eric Teran and/or Amber the Goddess
8 – 9PM – on2 Salsa Class by “La Salsera” Sheila B!
9PM to Midnight – Social by DJ Sidekick
$15 for the class AND social.
$10 for JUST the social.
What is Echale?
Echale is less about drawing tons of people to an event and more about drawing the right people. We are a social of all skill levels. Where the beginner won’t be intimidated to dance with the advanced. Where people meet up to have fun and be a part of the journey together. Where everyone knows your name. Where we stand for unity above all else. All of this may sound cliché (and cheesy), but we believe that in order to maintain a stable foundation of any kind, it must be united.
Hence, this is why we believe there is no strength without unity.
What does saying “Salsa Reimagined” mean in the context of the title?
It’s because that’s what we’re doing. DJ Sidekick listens to music and if a classic song is one that needs to be left alone? Then it’s left alone. But there are so many songs out there that sometimes begs the question:
What if we tweaked it a little?
What if a song that is super fast in nature, get slowed down a little? What if a 7 minute song gets trimmed to 4? Just as it’s important to keep the integrity of the song, it’s almost equally important to keep your dancers on the dance floor DANCING. And few people would want (anyone could, don’t get me wrong) to jump into another song to dance after dancing to Aguanile.
But, what if there was a way to slow down Aguanile, keep the pitch the way it is (meaning slowing the song down wouldn’t distort Marc Anthony’s voice) and the song itself be danceable? We want for everyone to listen to these songs and see if they can catch the difference. Of course, there are songs that aren’t messed with at all. But if we can keep you on the dance floor dancing song after song, it’s worth it.
It’s one of the many things that sets us apart. But it also gets us to ask the question:
Who’s got it better than us? NOBODY!!!!
Written 5/10/25
We want to give you more.
To our community, and everyone outside of it that travels to Project Mambo every Tuesday,
As it says above this section, we boldly step into a new universe on 6/24. For almost two years, we were blessed to have our friend Shawn “DJ MamboSoul” Simmons as the one to lead us into a place where we can go and be with friends on Tuesdays. And as he moves to Houston, we know that this isn’t the last time we’ll see him. He will spin again at the spot. Believe that. But I want to talk to the community…to the people about what’s next.
It’s been said that sometimes it’s enough to do the best you can with what you have. But you can always do more. We’re not going to shy away from the fact that we’re going to be new to this. So as we ride into this next chapter together, know that if we don’t do anything else, we’re going to do right by you, our community. Our people.
We will dare to be different.
We will do things that’s unconventional. And we’ll be talking to you…all of you, to hear what you think. Of course, we’re not going to check all the boxes, but we will check most of them. Keep an eye on this page for updates and we can’t wait to start this new chapter with you.
-KB
KayShei 
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