Feel like making music with your hands?
Salsa is more than a musical style—it’s a cultural explosion, a sound that spans continents. Beneath the horns and voices, it's the percussion that drives the rhythm. And who better than Orlando Poleo—global reference, gifted educator, embodiment of groove—to guide you into this world?

This workshop invites you to discover—or deepen your knowledge of—the rhythmic foundations of this hybrid music, born from the fusion of Afro-Caribbean, Latin American, and North American traditions. Focusing on percussion, you’ll explore rhythm’s central role in salsa: a constant dialogue between binary and ternary structures, the source of its infectious danceability and expressive power.

Orlando Poleo will share essential elements of the repertoire, as well as the fusions and rhythmic signatures he has developed over his international career. With his lively and accessible teaching style, he will guide you through the understanding of claves, polyrhythmic cycles, and the art of improvisation within an ensemble.

Salsa is fire—rhythm that sticks to your skin, that moves you even without trying. As Eddie Palmieri says: "El ritmo que traigo es azúcar, azúcar pa’ ti"—sweetness, groove…

Workshop Program

• Salsa fundamentals: the clave and its variations

• Güiro and maracas

• Technique, tone, and walking the tumbadoras

• Paila (timbales)

• Bongó and campana

• Rhythms of Puerto Rico

• Rhythms of Cuba

• Descarga (jam session)

Biography

Orlando Poleo
An internationally acclaimed Venezuelan percussionist, Orlando Poleo is a major figure in Afro-Caribbean and salsa music. Born in Caracas and based in Paris, he has developed a powerful and refined style rooted in Afro-Venezuelan traditions, New York salsa, jazz, and Yoruba rhythms.

Celebrated for his virtuosity on the congas and charismatic stage presence, Poleo has performed with some of the greatest artists in the genre, including Eddie Palmieri, Cheo Feliciano, Oscar D’León, Jimmy Bosch, and Larry Harlow. These prestigious collaborations reflect his role as a bridge between traditional and contemporary Latin music scenes.

As the leader of his band Chaworo, he explores a musical universe where African heritage blends with jazz innovation and the fiery drive of salsa. A key figure in Afro-Latin percussion, Orlando Poleo is also a respected teacher, passionately sharing the rhythmic and cultural traditions of the African diaspora.