Description
1v1 Footwork Battle
The competition will be one vs. one asking dancers to improvise Salsa footwork and shines.
Competitors will have 40 seconds to improvise. They will face one opponent at a time and each competitor will perform two improvised sessions per head-to-head round.
Judges will decide who advances or wins on the spot after each round.
Who can compete?
Open to ALL Dancers
This competition is considered OPEN: both Amateur and Professionals will compete in the same category.
Date, Time and Location:
1v1 Footwork Battle - Salsa Open
Thursday, January 7, 2027
Workshop
3:00PM in the Grand Expo Hall - Salon & Bar
*All regular attendees are welcome to attend the workshop.
Competition - Preliminaries
4:00PM in the Grand Expo Hall - Salon & Bar
Competition - Finals
7:30PM (SHARP) on the Main Stage in the Grand Expo Showroom
Official Rules
1v1 Footwork Battle
Salsa - Open Division
Competition Rules
This competition is considered OPEN: both Amateur and Professional compete in the same category.
All competitors will be subdivided into three pools by draw, which will take place in front of all participants.
In each pool, the dancers will be competing in direct elimination to advance to the finals. The number of finalists will be no more than 8.
Normal Re-draw: If a team does not have a challenger in the first stage due to the number of participants, then the judges will find one from the eliminated teams in the same pool.
Obligatory Re-draw: If normal re-draw is not required, then the judges will choose a couple of competitors eliminated in the previous stage to compete against each other to find a place in the finals.
Competitors will have 40 seconds to improvise. They will face one opponent at a time and each competitor will perform two improvised sessions per head-to-head round.
Style: The influence of other Caribbean styles such as, rumba, afro, pachanga, reggeaton, etc will be allowed.
Jumps/Tricks: lifting both feet off the ground will be allowed with the only purpose of interpreting the music correctly. A sequence of tricks done randomly, even if applied technically sound will not be taken into consideration by the judges, as "Salsa" is the main focus of this competition.
Music: The song being selected will come from various styles of salsa. In addition line dancing can be applied to a timba song or vice-versa. This will be accepted in order to provide the most freedom to the participants improvisation. The title of the song to be used will be chosen on the spot.
"SALSA" WILL BE CONSIDERED THE MAIN FOCUS OF EVERY PARTICIPANT IN ORDER TO WIN THE COMPETITION.
Entry Fee
Please note - Additional Fee
You MUST have a VIP Full Festival Pass, Full Festival Pass, Team Pass or Volunteer Pass in addition to entry fee for the Gózalo Dance Championship - 1v1 Footwork Battle Deivision Entry Fee.
$30 before December 3, 2026 at 11:59PM
$40 until December 30th at 11:59PM
$50 at the day of the contest (Venmo or Cash)
Be sure to use a 10% Discount code!!!
To Pre Register CLICK HERE. 10% discount already applied.
No Refunds. All sales are Finals.
SPACE IS LIMITED. We will limit the space to 24 dancers per division.
24 dancers is a firm number. We will NOT add more at the last minute.
Prizes
1v1 Footwork Battle - Salsa Open
1st Place - TBA soon (Sponsored by the Festello App), plus a Medal, AND a Full Festival Pass to the 2028 Reno Latin Dance Fest plus automatically entered into the 2028 1v1 Footwork Battle - Salsa Open!
2nd Place - Medal
3rd Place - Medal
Head Judge
Eder Ivan - Director of On2Ourage Dance Co.
