ESU Spanish Club will offer salsa dance lessons to community tonight

A cultural experience is coming to the ballroom of the Memorial Union tonight. From 6:30 to 8:30 the Emporia State Spanish Club is hosting a salsa dance. Here, students will be given salsa lesson and hear live music.

“I think the salsa dance is a great opportunity to learn something new and enjoy a cultural experience while hearing music you don’t normally hear on the radio,” said Andrea Luthi, senior Spanish major and president of the ESU Spanish Club. “Students will get the chance to just relax a little bit and take a break from studying; it will be a nice change of pace.”

The dance is free to all ESU students and community members there will also be chips and salsa served at the event. Those attending can dress in salsa dresses and heels or they can just wear casual clothing and tennis shoes. The first 30 minutes of the dance will be spent on salsa lesson. There the Spanish Clubs Advisor, Giancarla Di Laura, assistant professor of modern languages, will teach individuals moves that she has learned from her time living in Peru.

“I would love to attend the event if I didn’t already have a prior commitment,” said Jill Ferrell, sophomore English major.” The main reason why I would like to go is because I really enjoy dance and love to salsa, I’ve even taken a salsa lesson before. I’ve been to Mexico and I think that often times Spanish culture get’s Americanized so I think it’s great when people in the U.S. get to know true Spanish Culture.”

After the salsa lessons students will get the opportunity to listen to live music which will be presented by international students that are involved with the music department. The group will primarily play salsa music with sounds that originate with Caribbean, Latin American and North American music. At this point students can dance salsa.

“I think I would attend the event,” said Laura Mersman, freshman psychology major. “It sounds interesting and to me salsa has always been an interesting dance form.”

Although the traditional form of salsa generally includes dancing with a partner, students will learn solo dance moves that they can do on their own. Salsa mixes several different types of native Latin American dances and over time have evolved into a popular part of North American culture.

“We decided to host the event because there were a lot of individuals in ESU Spanish Club that wanted to learn how to dance salsa,” Luthi said. “Plus, as the ESU Spanish club we want to learn about all aspects of the Latin American community, and dance is one of them. We thought this would be a fun event where everyone could participate and have fun.”