So, You Think You Can Salsa?

The salsa scene at Wokcano in Santa Monica.

An inside look at the Westside’s salsa scene and its unique LA style

By Solange Castro

When I tell people that I love “salsa” they often think I’m referring to the red tomato-based stuff that goes with chips.  If I explain that I dance salsa they might exclaim, “Oh, like Jennifer Aniston in ‘Along Came Polly’!” at which point it’s assumed that I grind against Latino men while wearing a Vegas stripper costume. But that was only the first year.

The word “salsa” actually translates to “sauce,” as in a mixture, an appropriate description for a type of music that evolved from a variety of genres including Latin jazz, Mambo, Cuban Son, Guaracha, and Merengue, to name just a few.  The style of salsa commonly danced in Los Angeles, aptly named “LA Style Salsa,” has also evolved from a variety of dances including Mambo, Tango, and Latin Ballroom.

While individual dance styles can range from the overtly sexy, as in the famous Jennifer Aniston scene, to the technical, the West LA salsa scene has become a thriving place for anyone who enjoys Latin music.   In addition to salsa music, most venues also play Bachata, Merengue, Cha Cha, Reggaeton, and Cumbia. (For the record, Jennifer Aniston only dances one salsa with her salsa instructor. The other two songs are Cha Cha and Regaetton).

If Americans don’t all dance, they evidently love dancers.  In an era when a tiny device commands more attention than the person sitting across the table, the popularity of shows like “Dancing With The Stars” and “So You Think You Can Dance” speak to a yearning for self-expression. Dancing cuts through social conditioning, communicates raw emotion and connects.

I took my first salsa class on a hot August night in 2007 at the now deceased Casa Escobar in Marina Del Rey and soon fell in love. I dedicated each Sunday night to salsa before realizing that one night a week of dancing was not nearly enough.  Two nights turned to three, then four, and, for a year – a period of time that coincided with the recession – I danced five nights a week.

It was a big experiment at first. What would happen if I went out dancing night after night? I just lost weight, and toned my arms and legs without forcing myself to get on a hamster wheel torture device surrounded by people listening to their iPods. I grew more comfortable in my body, stopped thinking that my life was lacking in stuff — a house, a giant HDTV — and felt increasingly grateful for my body.  When I had a job, I came home from work for a “salsa nap” before waking up at 9:00 pm for an hour of “hit and run” dancing. I was addicted.

I’m far from alone. Many West LA residents have found their lives and schedules rearranged by the introduction of salsa into their lives. Lori Seamon, a sales rep and former jazz dancer in Santa Monica began dancing after a friend from the gym invited her out, and immediately got hooked.

“(Salsa) allowed me to tap into another dimension of my physical being,” she says. “It opened up my heart and my soul.”

Seamon always knew that she loved dancing, but in salsa she found a way to connect with another person.

“It’s almost like a bull and a bullfighter,” she explains.  “You start dancing with someone and you’re both apprehensive in the beginning, and then he takes a risky move and you have a few turns, you both crack a smile and there’s this connection.  And you don’t even speak.”

Despite years of classic dance training, Seamon found the dance difficult to learn at first because she said she “trying to intellectualize it.” After taking private and club dance lessons, however, things fell into place.

“I remember the first time I felt salsa connect to my body,” Seamon says.  “It was after a year (of dancing). I got to this place where I felt it integrate and it was a high.”

For a time, Seamon’s salsa schedule became the organizing principle of her week.  She frequented Monsoon Café on the 3^rd Street Promenade each Wednesday and Saturday, as well as Casa Escobar Sunday nights and sometimes Dakota on Thursday nights.

“It ran my life for a while,” Seamon says. “I was dancing four nights a week.”

Cristian Oviedo seen dancing with a student leads classes at Zanzibar and Dakota Lounge.

Such a lifestyle is hardly sustainable in the long run, but not usual for the newly initiated. While Seamon no longer dances four nights a week, she covets the time dedicated to her salsa.

“It’s one of the things that makes me really, really happy,” she says. “It’s a meditative thing…It gets you out of your head.”

Many “followers,” usually women, can learn to dance from “social dancing,” going to clubs or other social venues.  However, “leads,” usually men, find it helpful to take a series of classes. Solomon Russell, science teacher living in LA, took classes for a year before venturing into the clubs.

“I was so scared,” says Russell. “I remember taking a class and I was terrible…girls looked at me like I was broke…. finally the class ended and I walked to the front desk, threw my credit card down and paid for ten private lessons. I’ve gotten that money back and so much more.”

Today Russell teaches Beginning and Intermediate salsa at Wokcano in Santa Monica on Tuesday nights.   For Russell, like others, salsa has given him a level of confidence he never got from working or going to school.

“I’ve always been this short nerdy kid,” says Russell.  “My friend and I had this joke that I was going to be this encyclopedia salesman…One day I told her, ‘Oh, yeah, by the way, I teach salsa now. I’m actually good.’ And her jaw just dropped.”

Besides the experience of listening and dancing to music, salsa offers people opportunity to connect with an eclectic community of dancers from all over the world.  In addition to a significant Latino population, salsa attracts international dancers, including a large Japanese, Eastern European, and Israeli population.  Unlike most social environments in Los Angeles, salsa dancing circumvents unspoken social barriers around income, class and race.

“I think salsa brings people together in a way that’s positive.  It levels people out,” says Seamon.  “You don’t know what anybody does, where they live, what they do for a living.  But you have this esoteric physical connection.”

Russell believes that many people discover a freedom in removing themselves from their daily lives.

“All those identifiers of I’m old or I’m young or I’m good looking or bad looking. Or I’m this important between 8 and 5.  Or I’m not that between 8 and 5. When you come to this place (salsa), all those fade away and you can be someone that you’ve always been, that you never got a chance to express.”

Fernando Beteta, a chiropractor in Culver City, began dancing salsa after his divorce.  He wanted a way to meet women that didn’t involve buying them drinks at a Hollywood club and soon fell in love with the music.  He now promotes Monday Night Salsa at Zanzibar in Santa Monica, along with local DJ Charlie Antillon.   For a $5 admission price, anyone can take a class with world champion salsa instructor Cristian Oviedo and stay for a night of either live music or a DJ.

“I think salsa empowers a lot of people,” says Beteta.

While my dedication for salsa has waned over the years, my gratitude for the place dancing has in my life only increased.  In a wavering economy, and a culture of Costco, smart phones, and scary news sound bites, salsa has been a salvation, both mentally and physically.

“Salsa is one of the best things I’ve done in my whole life,” says Seamon.

I have to agree.

 List of Salsa Venues in West LA

Monday
Zanzibar
1301 5^th St.
Santa Monica, CA 90401
8:00 PM Beginner Lesson
9:00 PM Intermediate Lesson
10:00 PM – 1:30 AM – Social Dancing
$5 – Includes lesson and cover

Tuesday
Wokcano
1413 5^th St.
Santa Monica, CA 90401
8:00 PM Beginner Lesson
9:00 PM Intermediate Lesson
10:00 PM – 1:30 AM – Social Dancing
$5 – Includes lesson and cover

Wednesday
Monsoon
1212 3^rd St. Promenade
Santa Monica, CA 90401
8:00 – 9:30 PM Lesson
10:00 PM – 1:30 AM – Social Dancing
$10 – Includes lesson and cover

Thursday
Dakota Lounge
1026 Wilshire Blvd. 3^rd St. Promenade
Santa Monica, CA 90403
8:30 – 9:30 PM Beginner Lesson
9:30 – 10:30 PM Intermediate Lesson
10:30 PM – 2:00 AM – Social Dancing
$10 – Includes lesson and cover

Friday
Hotel Marina Del Rey
13534 Bali Way
Marina Del Rey, CA 90292
9:00 PM Beginner Lesson
$6 – Includes lesson and cover

Saturday
Monsoon
1212 3^rd St. Promenade
Santa Monica, CA 90401
8:00 – 9:30 PM Lesson
10:00 PM – 1:30 AM – Social Dancing
$10 – Includes lesson and cover

Sunday
Dancing on the Promenade (Northernmost block)
3^rd St. Promenade
Santa Monica, CA
4:00 – 9:00 PM
FREE

Sunday
Hacienda Hotel
525 N. Sepulveda Blvd.
El Segundo, CA 90245
7:30 – 8:15 PM – Beginner ($15)
8:15 – 9:00 PM – Intermediate ($15)
FREE Social Dancing

Solange Castro is a writer, standup comic and salsa dancer living in Los Angeles. She is currently working on a memoir about salsa dancing. She writes a blog at www.searchforsanity.com. You can listen to her talk more about salsa on Jackie Kashain’s Dork Forest podcast. You can also follow her on Twitter @solangecb.