Friday, January 30, 2009
Students who attend Salsa Night tonight will experience two kinds of salsa: the Caribbean dance style and the spicy tomato dip.
Student Union Activities is sponsoring the event at 7 tonight in the Gridiron Room at the Burge Union. The event features salsa lessons by the KU Ballroom Dance Club and live music from Son Venezuela, a Kansas City-area Latin band.
Students practice their salsa dance moves in preparation for SUA's Salsa Night. The event starts tonight at 7 in the Burge Union.
“It’s a fun, free time to dance to live Latin music and shake it like Shakira,” said Kellen Voss, a Shawnee graduate student and president of the dance club.
Doug Brady, Topeka sophomore and SUA’s live music coordinator, said SUA sponsored Salsa Night last year and decided to bring it back because of its success. Brady said more than 300 students came last year.
To accompany the salsa theme, Brady said this year’s event would include a new feature: a chips and salsa competition.
He said that five local Mexican restaurants donated chips and salsa for the event and that students would be able to vote for the tastiest dip. SUA will give the winning restaurant a plaque to hang in the restaurant.
Members of the dance club will give free salsa dance lessons from 7 to 8 p.m. and Son Venezuela will play for the rest of the evening.
Jorge Ortiz, Lima, Peru, doctoral student, is the dance club’s salsa instructor for its weekly lessons on Fridays. He will be teaching the lessons at Salsa Night and said he hoped the lessons would help people be more comfortable on the dance floor.
“The lesson is good because they can learn the basic steps for salsa dance and then they can go out to any dance club in Lawrence,” Ortiz said.
Tom Johnson, trombone player for Son Venezuela, said the band consisted of 10 members who played instruments ranging from percussion to piano to horns.
“It’s always fun to get a taste of different cultures, and especially the music of different cultures,” Johnson said. “It’s even more fun when you can dance to it and meet people you share something in common with.”
Kelfel Aqui, a 1994 graduate, is one of the founding members of Son Venezuela. He and a group of friends started the band 15 years ago when they were attending the University.
The band primarily plays in the Kansas City and Lawrence area, although it has traveled to Oklahoma, Nebraska and as far as Boston, Mass.
Aqui, the drummer and a singer for the band, said the band had previously performed at the University and regularly appeared in clubs around Lawrence.
Aqui said Friday’s performance would feature many Caribbean rhythms to make people dance, including Cuban beats, Dominican Merengues and Colombian Cumbias.
“You can be somebody with two left feet or you can be a ballroom dancer and you’ll have fun no matter what,” Aqui said.
Brady said SUA plans to host another dance event on March 6. The Swing Soiree is expected to feature swing dancing with a live band. For more information about this event, go to www.suaevents.com.
— — Edited by Justin Leverett
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