User:Japowell/Josephine Powell

JOSEPHINE POWELL Author/ filmmaker —a historian, lecturer, and consultant on Latin American music and dance —was an advisor on the motion pictures Salsa, Havana, and The' Mambo Kings, and their soundtracks; the Mambo Kings track received an Oscar nomination. She also consulted on two Golden Eagle television shows; two television documentaries, one Presidential Inaugural Ball, and two Grammy-winning record albums by her mentor Latin Jazz icon Tito Puente. In 1999 she was a personal consultant for John Mauceri, conductor for the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra during the Millennium Series, Tropicana Nights featuring Tito Puente and his Latin Jazz Ensemble.

A teenage ballroom and competitive dancer Miss Powell was Tito Puente’s featured mambo dance partner, a cast member of the Broadway show Sketchbook in Las Vegas, and a featured performer with the Miguelito Valdés “Mr. Babalu” revue. Her rendition of ”Love Makes the World Spin Around”, hit the charts in Los Angeles when her career took her throughout Asia including Thailand—where the Hollywood USO show performed for the Royal Family—and for the American troops in Vietnam,  Touring the country for over a decade with stage and lounge shows, along with performances in the recording, television, and movie industries, she garnered expertise as lyricist and choreographer with the Latin Orchestras of Joe Loco, Manny Lopez, and Jack Costanzo, appearing at the Tropicana Hotel, El Rancho Vegas, Flamingo Hotel, and the Nevada Club in Las Vegas; The Golden Hotel and Mapes Hotel in Reno; The Wagon Wheel in Lake Tahoe, and The President Hotel in Atlantic City. She was a featured artist in the weekly KTLA television show Cuban Carnival.

Shelving her dance shoes and maracas Miss Powell pursued a career in Beverly Hills as a Real Estate Broker, where she became actively involved in California politics, which led to Hollywood fundraising. Her affiliations include, The Professional Dance Society and The Big Band Academy. She has been a judicator at numerous dance competitions, including the Dean Collins Los Angeles Swing Competition; Feather Awards; the Hollywood Bowl Salsa competitions; and the U.S. Open National Swing Dance Competition. And is a featured musicologist on radio stations KXLU and KPFK. She has conducted ten research and study trips to Havana, where she is a curatorial consultant for El Museo Nacíonal de la Musíca Cubana. In 2003, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Los Angeles Salsa Congress in recognition for her contribution in Latin music and dance.  Tito Puente: When The Drums Are Dreaming is her first book. Author House Publishers 2007