The Dirt with Cindy Salgado
(by Allison Schultz)
Cindy Salgado’s performance resumé reads like a who’s who of today’s contemporary dance world: Dee Caspary, Lauren Adams and Mia Michaels are just a few of the choreographers who have featured California-raised, Juilliard-trained Salgado in their pieces. But this contemporary queen, who’s currently a member of Crystal Pite’s acclaimed company Kidd Pivot, doesn’t just perform. She’s on faculty at New York City Dance Alliance, recently created a new work for an NYCDA Foundation benefit and has assisted big-name choreographers like Aszure Barton and Andy Blankenbuehler. Salgado’s a do-gooder, too: She’s taught dance to kids around the world with Artists Striving To
End Poverty. Read on for The Dirt!
If you could dance with any performer in the world, who would you choose:
The hip-hop artist Macklemore or the poet Suheir Hammad because I’m motivated by their powerful voices for social justice.
Biggest guilty pleasure
: Levain Bakery’s dark chocolate cookies.
Something most people don’t know about you:
I’m a huge fan of freestyle street dance and Argentine tango! I’ve been known to go to a milonga, change into my sweats, and dance until 4am at my favorite house club.
If you weren’t a dancer, what would you be?
An activist for social and economic equality or a massage therapist.
Favorite city in the world:
New York (I love my city) or Maui (where I married the man of my dreams).
Dance-wise, do you have any bad habits?
I’ve elbowed a couple of salsa partners in the nose from not keeping my elbows down.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Hopefully I’ll be using my art to motivate audiences to take care of the Earth and each other more, and building a family with my loving husband.