St. Louis salsa dancers get into serious Latin groove

ST. LOUIS -- With apologies to the Postman's Creed, neither rain, nor snow, nor recent single-digit temperatures will keep hard-core salsa dancers from making a weekly trek to their favorite clubs.

There, in the midst of writhing bodies, clouds of smoke and pounding rhythms, partners schooled in various Latin dances show off their expertise and one-upmanship before an appreciative crowd.

And we're speaking of the real thing here, where couples actually touch each other and get up close and personal. And therein lies its appeal. Small wonder that salsa, merengue, bachata and cha-cha are being touted as great forms of exercise, especially for women who have forsaken gyms, sweat suits and sneakers for tight jeans, bustiers and stiletto heels.

Just about anybody can learn most of these dances, but salsa, with its intricacies and variations in steps, takes weeks, months, even years to perfect. The current rage, it contains eight beats. You dance to six and the other two are pauses, all on the ball of the foot.

"This is a male-initiated dance, because he is the one directing the turn patterns," explained local instructor Carmen Guynn, who has shed 40 pounds over the past few years. "I like to think of the man as the matador and the female as his cape. The dancers are a mirror of each other. The lady steps back on her right as the man steps forward on his left. It's necessary to keep the same distance between the leader and the follower to maintain a fluidity of movement."

These are the basic steps, and they sound simple enough while you are learning, but when the steps are set to live band music, everything goes haywire. That is why the dance floor is not conducive to getting the hang of it all.

In their studios, instructors can slow down or speed up recorded music, allowing students to pick up the steps at the rate best for them.

"It is such an intense dance, full of such passion and emotion that it makes you want to move whether you are a dance person or not," said Guynn. "The strongest dancers can carry on for five minutes or more, but it takes time to work up to that speed. Basic steps and turn patterns are mastered in about six weeks, but it takes six months to do the fancy stuff and to understand the music. I've been dancing salsa for eight years, and I'm still learning."

The men especially love to turn their partners at a dizzying rate. That is where "spotting" comes in.

When you are being turned, it's important to focus somewhere on your partner's face or neck. The female half of the couple must make sure that when she turns around, she is looking in exactly the same spot when she faces her male partner again. This will eliminate the dizziness that is inherent in the many turns and twists of the dance.

Another local instructor, Kelly Barrett Brown, sees salsa as a magical triangle between you, your partner and the music.

"If these connections are given their due," he said, "something incredible, which is probably best called synergy, arises. It's nothing less than a life force, and demands expression of the self. Too often, the triangle is thrown out of whack by self-consciousness, a timidness or an over-reserve to the dance. This kind of self-regard damages the connection with either the partner, the music, or both.

"My belief is that dance is about joy and that an energetic, creative peace comes from listening, touch and physical expression. It changes lives."

Those who teach this dance say they have found their students eager to learn, showing up faithfully week after week to count from one to eight out loud until the experience becomes part of their being. They also show up at the clubs to observe and applaud dancers whose deceptively simple footwork is something to behold.

And no one receives more applause than Cesar Cardona, a Colombia native who has been dancing for seven years. His many partners are turned, twirled and suddenly flipped within a few inches of the floor. But he never misses a beat.

"I mostly go every week," he said fervently. "It is not just a hobby, it is part of my life and my entertainment."

Cardona, like many salsa aficionados, has attended congresses in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and Houston. At these events, they join more than 6,000 people and 120 dance companies from all over the world who come to hone their skills with the best bands on the scene: Oscar De Leon, Ray Barretto, Jimmy Bosch and Sonora Carruseles.

While most instructors have day jobs, Roxanne McKenney of University City devotes herself body and soul to the dance. After more than two decades in the field, she has seen it all.

"Although I feel that dance is fun and great exercise for the body, it is also exercise for the mind," she said. "It is stimulating and rewarding, and in my 20 years, I have yet to have a student who was unable to dance.

"I have learned to let my students see my mistakes and my recoveries. I laugh at myself and it makes everything I learn relatively easy."

The best thing about the Latin dance clubs is that you meet people of all cultural diversities, ages and economic levels, practitioners say.

But the main ingredient is still the music. It defies you to keep still.