On summer evenings, the High Line transforms from a park to an open-air dance floor. This year, we are bringing it back! New Yorkers are invited to come together to enjoy the sounds of local legends. Whether you’re an experienced salsa dancer or just excited to learn, join us for ¡Arriba! and see why it’s the High Line’s longest-running community program.

On August 11, ¡Arriba! will feature DJ Mickey Pérez and Bulla en el Barrio, who will be performing, engaging, and celebrating life through Bullerengue music, dance, and the stories these songs tell.

Advance registration is encouraged. Walk-ups are welcome.

DJ Mickey Pérez
Chicago-born and Miami-raised, Mickey Pérez is a first-generation American of Cuban and Ecuadorian descent who’s been putting down the funkiest rhythms on New York City dance floors since 2008. A Brooklyn resident since 2002, Mickey represents and presents a non-commercial, diasporic sound irrespective of national borders, spanning many different styles of dance music across Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, Brasil, and Black America. Mickey currently has a regular monthly show on NYC’s The Lot Radio titled Bebop Porú which runs concurrently as a monthly to bi-monthly dance party in Brooklyn, Miami, and Mexico City. He also recently launched a community-based summer music series for all ages called Public Service that runs monthly in neighborhood parks in Bed-Stuy and Bushwick in Brooklyn.

Bulla en el Barrio
Bulla en el Barrio is a group that aims to share the traditions, experiences, and lives of the Colombian cantadoras from the regions of Uraba, Cordoba, Bolivar, and Atlantico. Bulla en el Barrio is an effort to open a space in New York City to explore at a deeper level the songs and the dances that are part of these traditions. From its early days, Bullerengue has been a tool for women to express themselves. Bulla en el Barrio started in October 2014 as a collective learning process and immigrant experience. It is currently composed of 14 people who have been teaching, performing, and giving Bullerengue workshops around the city. Their mission is to continue creating a fraternal and cultural bond with all the communities where we perform, as the genuine interest in Bullerengue and Colombian music in general is ever-growing all over the US. Bullerengue is becoming a symbol of identity for migrant communities and descendants of migrant communities from Latin America and other parts of the world.

In order to continue their effort to nurture, educate, and, most importantly to continue the tradition of Bullerengue in the now, Bulla en el Barrio is working on a project called Transnational Bullerengue.