Born in Santiago de Chile, Carlos König trained as a classical guitarist,played professionally and taught music for almost twenty years. When he started teaching mambo in 1994, he integrated his musical sensibility, discipline and teaching experience into his dance.
Carlos Konig style is now known among New York City
Latin dance aficionados and beyond as a uniquely musical, creative and
energetic translation of mambo music into motion. His peers and his students
acknowledge him as one of the top teachers of mambo in New York.
Carlos began teaching mambo, salsa and cha-cha independently in 1994 at 72nd
Street Studios in the Upper West Side, and through years of devoted teaching he
has steadily built a strong following that now studies with him at the new
Ripley-Grier Studios in midtown Manhattan. He has traveled to Germany, Italy,
Hong Kong and Puerto Rico as a guest mambo teacher and performer, and was asked
to teach at last year’s and this year’s Midsummer Night Swing Latin Dance night
at Lincoln Center. He shared the stage last year with “Palladium Mambo Legend”
Freddie Rios and Jimmy Anton in a performance tribute to mambo music. This year
(2001) he teaches on the night of Cubanismo’s performance.
In addition to his teaching credentials, Carlos has performed in various
venues, such as the 1994 Colombian Musical Festival at Madison Square Garden
with Jimmy Anton, and along with partners Joyce Blint and Ligia Builes, at the
1998 Congreso Mundial de la Salsa in Puerto Rico, and at numerous clubs and
studios throughout the New York metropolitan area. Carlos has also won several
mambo contests, including the 1998 Disney Mambo Marathon at the Copacabana.
In 2004, Carlos Konig, along with trumpet player Richard Vitale, formed a twelve-piece
salsa band: Orquesta Universal. One Soul recording label, released their first cd,
“New York Salsa” in 2005.
Carlos can be found teaching all levels of mambo weekly at the Ripley/Grier
Studios at 520 Eighth Avenue in New York City.