♪ mambo and Latin-influenced hip-hop ♪ (Angie Egea) When I started salsa, like professionally, I would never see a woman leading.

So when I first saw it, I was obsessed with wanting to lead.

I wanted to have the choice to say, "I want to lead this dance," or "I want to follow this dance."

When I met Audrey, and I completely fell in love with her, I decided to be more open about it.

Unfortunately, you get put in that box-- like this is who you are and this is who you dance with.

Our mission is creating the queer dance community and spread the non-binary idea that is "lead and follow" rather than "female and male," but everything about expression and connection.

Hello, everyone.

My name is Angie Egea.

And I'm Audrey Guerrero, and we're here in Austin, Texas, with "If Cities Could Dance" to show you how we're making the salsa community more inclusive.

♪ mambo continues ♪ ♪ blues and country-influenced rock ♪ (Rey Arteaga) Austin is special because it is a scene of diversity.

The Puerto Rican community is very vibrant.

The South American, Latin American community is vibrant.

(Audrey Guerrero) I think Austin is such a beautiful city.

It's very accepting.

It's full of color, full of artists, and you just want to be part of the color rainbow.

♪ upbeat Caribbean salsa ♪ (Audrey Guerrero) I am originally from the Dominican Republic.

I came to the United States when I was about ten years old with my mom.

Salsa is what opened me up to coming out because if I hadn't met my wife, I probably wouldn't have come out.

♪ Caribbean salsa continues ♪ I love the way Angie moves.

She expresses so much with so much love in the way that she moves.

(Angie Egea) I am from Colombia.

I ended up in the U.S. because I wanted to pursue my career as a dancer.

♪ Caribbean salsa continues ♪ The way that Audrey dances, she completely embodies the connection and duality of feminine and masculine.

I see her entire personality come through that.

I think that's the most beautiful thing for any artist to do.

♪ percussive salsa beat with vibrant piano and brass section ♪ (Audrey Guerrero) Salsa is something that's very intricate.

(Angie Egea) Salsa came from the Caribbean because of the political issues between the U.S. and Cuba.

♪ salsa beat continues ♪ (Audrey Guerrero) You have the influence of all the immigrant Cubans coming in in the '60s and the '50s.

♪ salsa beat continues ♪ (Angie Egea) This is early footage of Celia Cruz, known as the queen of salsa, because she was a pioneer.

Not only did she bring the Afro-Cuban rhythms that were ripped out, but also she was a Black woman from Cuba.

Salsa is Cuban with African roots.

And Celia always brought that back.

(Audrey Guerrero) So you have Puerto Rican young musicians who were playing Latin jazz.

A specific night gets assigned for a Latin night in New York, which was called Palladium Era.

All people of color came together into that one night, and then other dancers brought in... (Angie Egea) ...movement like hustle, jive, and swing into it, which changed the structure of it.

♪ joyous swinging Latin cue with punchy percussion ♪ And then it has influences from dances from Colombia, from Mexico.

(Audrey Guerrero) And so all of those things kind of came together to create what we call salsa.

♪ relaxed mambo track with acoustic guitar ♪ ♪ Latin-influenced percussion ♪ (Rey Arteaga) I've been playing professionally in the Austin music scene for 31 years.

♪ energetic Cuban-influenced salsa with bright brass section ♪ I came from an upbringing when you went to the dances and it was very heterosexual, the way you would partner up.

♪ salsa continues ♪ What I think Audrey and Angie are doing is critical.

It's valuable, and it's so welcomed.

So I'm excited that the dance community is integrating because it's a beautiful thing to get to dance in this town.

♪ salsa continues ♪ (Audrey Guerrero) Traditionally, salsa has been portrayed as binary for hundreds and hundreds of years.

(Angie Egea) And I would never see a woman leading, and I never thought that was even an idea.

So when I first saw it, I was like, "That is the hottest thing ever."

♪ salsa continues ♪ Our mission is creating the queer dance community and work to amplify the community here for us, but everybody who keeps being like, "So where do we go dancing?"

[laughs] ♪ salsa fades out ♪ ♪ relaxed mambo track with acoustic guitar ♪ (Monica Caivano) I feel Austin is a city where you can grow if you have an idea like we did.

I ran a non-profit in East Austin that we established in 2006.

Audrey and Angie actually been doing some workshops for us.

Dancing is for everybody, so we support them.

We want to make it accessible and a safe space for all.

♪ mambo continues ♪ (Robbie Sky) I love the classes that they're teaching.

I think it's really important to have classes where people are making choices on the role they want to have, not only in dance but in their life, and taking gender out of the equation.

♪ mambo continues ♪ (Angie Egea) Once Audrey and I actually started to create art together, that's when we started to be respected a lot more in the scene and just as a dance couple.

I think that creating art gave us that power and that strength to really step into who we are.

And we are inspired, and we want to continue to spread the idea that you just have to be yourself on the dance floor, and that you can express yourself in whatever energy that is, if it's masculine, if it's feminine, if it's both, if it's everything in between.

♪ mambo continues ♪ (Audrey Guerrero) In a world that's so exclusive to, like, who can speak and who can have power behind that-- it's a way to resist to that, that it's a way for people to find themselves, that they can be respected through movement.

♪ bright Latin track with salsa beat and elated piano ♪ (Audrey Guerrero) Thanks so much for watching!

(Angie Egea) We hope that you enjoyed hanging out with us here in Austin, Texas.

Be sure to check out more episodes of "If Cities Could Dance."

Well, keep dancing.

(Both) And honey wishes.

♪ bright Latin track with salsa beat, elated piano and singing in Spanish ♪ Accessibility provided by the U.S. Department of Education.

♪ KQED sonic ID ♪