I was born in Mexicali, Mexico. At the age of 5, my family and I moved to Mexico City where I lived for 8 years. We moved back to the North of Mexico (Tijuana) when I was about 11. In 1994, at the age of 14, my family and I crossed legally to San Diego where I have lived ever since. My dance career started at age 15 when, one day by mere luck, my family and I walked at a beach in San Diego on a weekend and saw a huge crowed gathered by live music and Latin bands. My two brothers (Carlos and Emilio) and I were so impacted about the dancing, the great atmosphere, and most importantly – the MUSIC, that we spent our savings investing in musical and percussion instruments.

With no previous experience playing musical instruments, it was our passion, the love for the music and our dedication that initiated us in what was to become an era of Music and Dance for the three brothers. In less than six months (after that magical day at the beach), the three of us were playing in different Salsa/Latin bands (Bori-Mex and Zona Nueva) as percussionists. We played at night clubs in San Diego and Los Angeles.

Being on stage and seeing all the dancers execute great moves on the dance floor (not to mention the senoritas), motivated us to learn to dance.

My on-stage experience forced me to rid myself of all shyness and thus, I learned to love my audience. Soon, I was teaching Salsa dance lessons privately and in groups. Also, together with my brothers, we created some small line-dancing patterns routines which we would casually show at any social dance occasion. We never were too good social dancing, but loved doing our little dance routines at night clubs, even when there was no stage around. Because of this, people started noticing us and called us “The Alvarez Brothers” – name which we adopted for ourselves and eventually became “The Alvarez Brothers Production/Dance Company”.

The Alvarez Bros. performed at many recognized Salsa dance events, private parties and social occasions throughout southern California.

In the year 2000, we joined a Dance studio (Dance With Me Academy) in San Diego and learned a few dance techniques and social moves.

By 2005, Carlos (the elder brother) and Emilio (the youngest) decided to take a career-change and drifted into the magical world of Music creation and composition. (In the present, Carlos is expanding his studies in music in the beautiful bohemian city of Xalapa, Mexico; while Emilio is doing the same in the great city of Buenos Aires, Argentina).

In the summer of 2005, I decided to continue on with my dance studies and also decided to create a Salsa Dance company which I named “Master Puppet”. Name which was originally thought of by my creative brother Carlos Alvarez (his voice is in every single one of our dance routines - passionately yelling “Master Puppet!” I’ve always liked adding his yelling to our dance routines – whether I put it in the beginning, middle or end of the song, it always makes me feel proud and passionate about my company and what I do).

During my auditions for my new company (Master Puppet), Cristina Santana (my current dance partner) showed up one night of auditions and literally wowed me with her talent, posture, cleanness, sharpness and most importantly - her passion!  I had never seen so much in a dancer as I saw in Cristina that night – without a doubt Cristina made the cut. At the time, Cristina knew very little about salsa dancing, so I taught her all I knew. In less than two months, after many hours of intense practice, we were finally able to connect more as a couple and were ready and felt more confident about performing in front of audiences.

While it had been about 8 years of Salsa dancing for me, I noticed that my dance technique was poor, since most of my “schooling” occurred on the streets (nightclubs). I must admit that most of my improvement on the dance floor today has occurred since I took Cristina as my dance partner. Her Ballet and Jazz background not only has helped her dancing socially, but day after day, she teaches me tricks to better my dancing, thus but it’s help us both considerably!

Until now, Cristina and I have now competed in three different Salsa dance competitions, and have made it to the final rounds in each competition. Our Salsa dance competitions include: The Century Club in 2006, The World Salsa Competition at The Mayan night Club in Los Angeles in 2007 and The 1st Annual Viejas Salsa competition in San Diego.  Each one of these competitions has helped us grow together as a couple and individually.

Personally, I cannot think of anything that could help a dancer more, than to perform at any social event or dance competition. The reason being is – ‘deadlines’! When we have a deadline, we tend to push ourselves to the limit because of the desire to do a great job in front of a crowd. So, I believe we should look for these opportunities if we wish to improve our dancing.

Aside of my dancing, I also have another passion in life - Multimedia and Film. I have always had a passion for the digital world and the motion picture industry. I loved editing our routines’ music and have also helped many other recognized dance companies in San Diego, Los Angeles and Mexico (Salsa, Hip Hop, Modern, SFX, etc.).  I must admit that I am one of those computer users that after many years of working on a Windows (PC) platform, it was extremely easy for me to switch to a MAC (Apple computers) – they are just too easy to use, very clean and it’s hard to get viruses in them.

Presently, I continue to edit the music for our dance routines. I am currently expanding the Dance Company into a Production company; which will allow for the creation of instructional Salsa videos and DVDs for our students to use.

On my free time (which is rare), I like to read, enjoy nature and travel. Writing is another one of my passions and I hope to finish a series of scripts which can be used for feature films and related projects.