Alisa Bowens, self-confessed salsa addict (the dance, not the dip), wants to bring her obsession to a dance studio near you. Bowens, a dancer since the age of three, discovered salsa seven years ago when she needed a “stress-reliever” and since then has opened Alisa’s House of Salsa in New Haven—and, when that wasn’t enough, two more houses of salsa (and other Latin dances) in Waterbury and Hartford. Last year Wesleyan seniors and this year incoming freshmen got a taste of salsa with one-time Bowens classes at Wesleyan. This Saturday her dance team Latin Heat will be back in Middletown for the festival Middletown Dances!
Between noon and 4 p.m. on Main Street, Latin Heat will perform and lead a workshop for wannabe salsa-philes of all ages. The group is just one of over forty participating in the festival. Others include the Kpanlogo Dancers, a West African dance troupe, the Venus Rising Belly Dance Troupe and the Connecticut Ballet. The performances and activities on Main Street will be followed by “The ‘Everybody’ Dance” on Wesleyan’s Andrus Field. As its name implies, “The ‘Everybody’ Dance” aims to include the entire Middletown community, from Wesleyan seniors to senior citizens.
“Salsa is a great way to learn the art form of Latin dance,” Bowens said. “The whole Latin scene and culture—there’s been an explosion. People are enjoying the music and wanting to get a piece of the culture, even if [they’re] not Latin.”
The craze has reached Connecticut, as well as far-away places like Italy, Canada and China, Bowens said. At Alisa’s House of Salsa, beginning and intermediate students can take classes, while advanced dancers perform with dance team Latin Heat. The group performs throughout Connecticut and New York, often opening for Latin music stalwarts like the Spanish Harlem Group. They dance at private parties and weddings, adding, as Bowens puts it, “a little spice to people’s events.”
But Latin Heat is not keeping their mad skillz all for themselves.
“You could hire them for, say, your sorority, and they’d entertain and teach,” Bowens said. “They do that at a lot of schools.”
Indeed, the team came to Wesleyan last year for a salsa class organized by Flavia de Souza ’05, and again this month for freshman orientation. De Souza and many other Wesleyan students have attended Bowens’ salsa classes at the Green Street Arts Center, Bowens said.
Even novices with two (or more) left feet are welcome at any of Bowens’ beginner’s classes. And, Bowens said, they will improve.
“If you come to an Alisa’s House of Salsa class, you will definitely learn how to dance,” she said. “Salsa is good for beginners. [By the end of a class], they’re moving, their hips are shaking. Their shoulders are swaying.”
Bowens also believes in the power of salsa to unite dancers of many backgrounds. She runs a program called Creating Diversity Through Latin Dance, which she takes to schools and universities in Connecticut, teaching students the history, theory, and practice of salsa.
“It’s an elegant, classy dance, with a lot of fun and flair and fire in it,” Bowens said. “People of all races come together for the love of dance.”
So what does a salsa nut do on vacation?
“I started going to Puerto Rico once on Spring Break, and never stopped going back,” Bowens said. “I go to the beach by day, and salsa by night.”
Leave a Reply