Taking a break to dance

by Maria Staiano-Daniels

Daily Lobo

Maybe you were planning to spend this Spring Break sleeping, watching TV and eating barbecue flavored potato chips on your couch.

You are a lazy bum and should be ashamed of yourself.

There are better ways to avoid writing that 10-page research paper than courting muscular atrophy. For example, the best of hobbies, a pastime that never goes out of style, and makes you so, so sexy - dance.

It may have been reckless of me, after just over a month of swing/Latin class, to go out and try my stuff on real dance floors. Fortune favors the bold, so I called up my boyfriend, Toby, put on my dancing shoes and hit the town.

First on the list was Jefferson Middle School's swing night on Tuesday from 7 to 10 p.m. Unfortunately, we got there late and missed the lesson, but we were in time for a good hour and a half of swing dancing sweetness.

Jefferson's swing night is held in the school's brightly lit, squeaky-clean gym, but it's nothing like those awkward, junior-high dances where everyone stands in a circle and sways, or attempts to breakdance. The people here are good - boys and girls - and have a palpable dedication to having as much fun on the dance floor as possible.

Other dancers there were only too willing to stop and talk to me about their love of the sport. James Dunn, a regular at Jefferson for about two years, said the atmosphere at Jefferson is relaxed.

"It's free-flowing. You kind of just create your own thing," he said. "You go with the flow."

Dunn said Jefferson swing night attracts a more diverse group than other dance spots.

"No one will feel out of place," he said.

That certainly seemed to be true. Everyone from high school kids and college undergrads to gray-haired soccer moms were there.

Now, on to the other half of my dance experience. The second member of the power twins of dance, Latin. Sadly, most of the Latin clubs are 21 and over, and as a victim of age discrimination, I am restricted from entry, so Toby and I had to drive all the way out to Selah Studios on Wyoming for a little salsa.

Selah Studios is a cozy building, almost entirely taken up by an enormous, gorgeous dance floor. At 9 p.m. the lights dimmed to a romantic, warm glow, and the music started. From then until when we finally dragged ourselves away, it kept going without a pause - a mix of predominantly salsa, with some Merengue and a few other varieties thrown in for spice.

The skill level at Selah was, in general, stellar. Toby and I would occasionally take breaks from dancing just to stare at the more impressive couples. But don't be intimidated - half of the room was taken up by a double line of young beginners getting a lesson in basic salsa moves.

Before I leapt out on to the floor, I managed to have a few words with Chris Allen, who has been dancing at Selah Studios since it opened about a year ago. Allen said he also danced at the Cooperage Restaurant, and Selah is definitely a different kind of place.

"They don't serve drinks here, but that's kind of cool, because it's real focused on the dancing," he said. "The dance floor is probably two to three times what the dance floor at the Cooperage is."

Allen highly recommended salsa dancing, which is his favorite style.

"The moves are graceful. It's very sensual. It's caliente," he said.

If you want to have some fun this Spring Break that doesn't involve sitting in a dark room and staring at a screen while feeling your brain cells slowly die, get out and shake your moneymaker. As everybody knows, dancing makes you sexy.