Stuff Article

From Stuff@Night
Feb 3-16, 1998
"Close Encounters", p 25

Muy caliente!

Tired of dancing 10 feet away from your partner? ALICIA POTTER finds salsa offers the perfect opportunity to get close and generate some heat. ERIC ANTONIOU snaps the action.

   At Upstairs at Ryles, in Cambridge, conversation stops abruptly and all eyes fix on the slim, springly man at the front of the room . Jaws drop. Raul Nieves is swiveling his hips.
    The dance instructor's undulations are so fluid, so smooth, it's hard not to stare at places one usually doesn't stare at.
    "Oonka-ha! Oonka-ha!" he chants. Nieves is limbering up to teach an advanced salsa class, a popular offering at the club's cayenne-hot Temporada Latin night on Thursdays.
    Nieves puts the needle to the record, and a calypso pulse of horns, bongos, congas, and timbales sends his pelvis into overdrive. He hops to the stage, smiles broadly, and trills, "Are you ready to Mambo?"
    Oonka-ha! His 20-odd students of all ages take to the small dance floor. They whirl and swivel, all the while watching the infallible metronome of their instructor's hips. "Yes!" Nieves cries.
    But what about those poor souls who think salsa's just something you dip your chips in? No problemo. Temporada Latina (smoke free, 21 plus, $10 cover) is not only for salsa aficionados. Following the advanced class which begins at 8:30, is a beginner class at 9.
    The beginner class is more this senorita's speed. As Nieves salsas with the experienced

dancers, instructor Suzanne Steele gathers us--about 50 students--for a crash course on the basics. First, we mimic Steele's sensual swivel. Then, we try with partners. "Oonka-ha," we murmur. "Oonka-ha."
    We add a step, practice, and then switch partners (a good girl-to-guy ratio lets friends go together without dates). Feminism flies out the window--I am quite happy to let my partners lead. As a result, I graze only three ankles and elbow two rib cages. I think I've got it!
    Steele explains salsa's crescendoing appeal. "People don't necessarily want to dance 10 feet away from their partner with 10 people in-between," she say, describing most clubgoers' typical night out. "With salsa, you have physical contact, but there's none of the stiffness of ballroom dancing."
    In fact, despite the pedagogical focus, Temporada Latino couldn't be any looser. At 10, the lessons halt and the house lights dim. It's open dance time. A DJ spins the beats, and a disco ball dapples the ceiling with scarlet. A steady crowd of regulars starts filing in, stomping snow from thier shoes or kicking off boots for sexy heels.
    An hour later, the room's packed shoulder to shoulder; couples spill off the dance floor. The more

experienced dancers like Bolivians William and Edith Mahin strut their stuff next to novices like Paolo Rocchietta, 25, and Rebecca William, 22, who at first do more talking than dancing but eventually find their groove. "It may be cold outside, but this generates some heat," Rocchietta tells me.
    Suddenly, I learn just how much. Nieves beckons me. I protest, "Oh no! I'm not ready for you yet!" But it is too late. His hips swaying almost to his elbows, he swings me, he twirls me, he whirls me across the room. "My hips hurt!" I shout above the beat as I try to keep up.
    "Relax, " he says. "your hips are the ocean; your ribs are the atmosphere." If this is true, I am an environmental disaster.
    Nieves presses his body to mine and growls, "I love the element of danger." He lets out a whoop. He spins me some more, and the crowd blurs around me. I almost--almost--let out a whoop myself but I am distracted by my shortsighted decision to eat black beans for dinner.
    The song stops. I am breathless, sweaty, dizzy. As I pant my thanks to Nieves, I can't help but realize that, in spite of my churning stomach, I also feel very, well, womanly.
    Steel was right. She had warned me that the magic of salsa in not what it brings out between partners, but what it brings out in a the individual. Never mind a beer, a rose between my teeth sounds perfect about now.