Dance class has people meeting and hearts pounding
By Michel Ovalle
michelovalle@hotmail.com
Photo by Danny Peralta
Every Thursday evening, the contagious salsa beat sets feet tapping against the wooden floor of the dance studio at The Point.
The dancers line up facing the mirror as the instructor, Efrain Rodriguez, leads the class. The weekly sessions attract an eclectic crowd of men and women in their teens, twenties, thirties and forties. Some of the participants come to class directly from work, still wearing business attire. Others wear jeans and sneakers or sweatpants with proper salsa dance shoes.
“There’s an eclectic crowd of old and young, tall and short” said Vinny Marrano. “Salsa dancing allows you to get out and work your lungs at a stable pace.”
Marano, a 29-year-old hair dresser from Yonkers, travels to Hunts Point every week for the salsa class. He has attended the class regularly since it began in February because he enjoys the strong sense of community and the diversity of the students, he says. He also cites health benefits. Salsa dancing gets the heart pounding and the lungs pumping.
Puerto Rican musicians in New York took a Cuban musical form and mixed in rock, pop and jazz to create a sound that is now popular throughout the Caribbean, Central and South America and wherever Latinos have settled. So salsa has a special place in the South Bronx where three-quarters of the populace is Latino.
Some health experts agree with Marano that salsa’s appeal can help combat the epidemic of obesity that afflicts the South Bronx, an area plagued with obesity, diabetes and heart disease.
According to recent research by the Mayo Clinic, social dancing like salsa has a number of benefits aside from burning calories. Salsa is beneficial in lowering blood pressure and cholesterol levels. It also helps in reducing stress, and increasing energy, muscle tone and coordination.
“Dancing is a very good exercise,” says Rodriguez, the class’s instructor, “and I believe that dancing creates self-awareness.”
Rodriguez, has 12 years of experience teaching salsa in the New York metropolitan area. A Bronx native, he says he enjoys connecting with the community of Hunts Point through his love of the dance form.
From 7 to 8 p.m., Rodriguez introduces his students to basic salsa. Students work on individual “shines,” or step patterns, before beginning to dance with a partner.
Rodriguez demonstrates the basics by taking steps back and forth in a rocking motion while yelling “1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7” over the music. He tells the class to begin on “7” with the left foot in front of and the right close behind. In the basic step, the man’s left foot goes back and the woman’s right foot goes forward on the 1st beat.
Next, the women line up facing the mirror while the men line up facing them in order to begin partner work. They chat with one another in both Spanish and English as they figure out how to execute the steps. Every few minutes, the men rotate to their left to dance with a new partner. By the end of the hour long class everyone gets a chance to dance together.
Danny Peralta, director of arts and education at The Point, who initiated the salsa class, says he envisioned a space that would offer a mix of physical activity and a feel-good atmosphere. Both, he believes, are scarce in Hunts Point.
“It’s a very well organized neighborhood in certain things like the environment and social issues” said Peralta. “But obesity, nutrition, and health in general are not something most people are interested in.”
Each 60-minute session costs $12 but Rodriguez is interested in making the class more affordable for those who are involved in nutrition programs also provided at The Point.
“If they’re involved in other programs, there’s a chance they might be able to pay half the price,” said Rodriguez
Ernesto Nunez, a literacy specialist at The Point’s after-school program, says he was drawn to the class for the chance to meet new people. Now he’s discovered the physical benefits, as well.
“I was sweating up a storm half way through,” says Nunez. “I don’t know if it was because I was nervous or because of all the physical activity. It was probably a mixture of both.”