DIRECTOR / CHOREOGRAPHER
A Puerto Rican artist who is a versatile performer whose career has molded him into an internationally established director, choreographer, and a teacher.
Broadway World
A Puerto Rican artist who is a versatile performer whose career has molded him into an internationally established director, choreographer, and a teacher.
Broadway World
Drawing, painting and infusing stories through movement is the first impulse Luis follows when creating art. With a strong commitment to the emotional truth, whether directing, choreographing or both, Luis creates compositions that are not only visually beautiful but purposeful to the journey of the characters, and the audience. His versatility and training in various forms of dance and theatre, allow him to create
for film, television, musical theatre, events and concerts.
Luis is an award-winning international director, choreographer and educator from Puerto Rico, based in New York City. He is the director/choreographer of the current National Tour of On Your Feet! The Musical – The Story of Emilio & Gloria Estefan and is currently working on the upcoming production of AIDA at STAGES St. Louis in Missouri. He was the Assistant Latin Choreographer of In the Heights on Broadway, which won four Tony Awards.
In 2022, Luis directed and choreographed the world premiere of ON YOUR FEET! La historia de Emilio y Gloria Estefan ¡EN ESPAÑOL! at GALA Hispanic Theatre in Washington, D.C. The production led the 2023 Helen Hayes Awards field with fifteen (15) nominations and nine (9) wins including Outstanding Production, Outstanding Direction, and Outstanding Choreography in a Musical.
Luis also directed and choreographed In The Heights at STAGES St. Louis in Missouri in 2022. The production was recognized by the St. Louis Theater Circle Awards with a field-leading eleven (11) nominations and took home six (6) wins including Outstanding Production, Outstanding Ensemble, and Outstanding Choreographer of a Musical.
In total, Salgado staged eight (8) productions in 2022 including three (3) productions of In The Heights, and three (3) productions of On Your Feet including the world premiere of the Spanish language production and in his home of Puerto Rico. He conceived, directed and choreographed Let’s Dance, a production for Transcendence Theatre Company in California and directed and choreographed the award-winning 2022 upfronts for Telemundo.
Luis has worked as the associate director/choreographer of Cirque du Soleil’s Paramour in Hamburg, Germany. Among the productions he has directed/choreographed in the United States and abroad include musical Ella Es Colombia in Bogota, Colombia, the Holland production of On Your Feet!, RAGTIME, TO BE OR NOT TO BE… a Shakespearean Experience, AIDA The Musical, FAME, Amigo Duende the Musical, In The Heights, Matilda, Song of Solomon, Speed the Plow, The Tempest, and Candela Fuerza y Pasión in Lima, Peru. And in 2021, Viva Broadway’s When We See Ourselves concert as part of the Curtain Up event in Times Square produced by Playbill and the Broadway League.
Luis directed and choreographed the U.S premiere of the Spanish version of In The Heights at GALA Hispanic Theatre in Washington, D.C. The production received nine (9) 2018 Helen Hayes Awards including Outstanding Production in a Musical, Outstanding Direction in a Musical, and Outstanding Choreography in a Musical. He has appeared on Broadway in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, ROCKY, In The Heights, and On Your Feet!, as well as Off-Broadway shows and Broadway tryouts for ‘The Mambo Kings (Frankie Suarez), Fame on 42nd Street (Joe Vegas, understudy,) AIDA, and more. Film credits include: “American Gangster”; “Dirty Dancing 2, Havana Nights”, the television remake of “Dirty Dancing”, “Enchanted”, and “Step Up 2, The Streets” (Alejandro), for which he also was assistant choreographer. He has choreographed animated features of “Dora the Explorer Girls” for Nickelodeon, music videos for WONKA Inc and McDonald’s “Latinos R One”.
With every project, his heart expands and lives in the souls of the unheard voices, the people who raised him, and inspired his love for social work that has led him to the successful development of his organization, R.Evolución Latina.
Luis’ desire to develop and produce art that matters, art that serves a purpose and real storytelling sparked the creation Salgado Productions. Through Salgado Productions Luis has taken his experience and team from producing in New York to South America. Learn more about Salgado Productions Projects, Produtions and Educational Programming at Salgadoproductions.com.
