Students learn Latino dance moves from professional

Factoid:The next salsa club meeting is Thursday at 7:30 in the Illinois Room of the Student Center.

When Shona Wilson moved to Southern Illinois, she expected her salsa dancing days to end. Then she met Julio Barrenzuela.

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Barrenzuela, president of the SIUC salsa club, is a long-time dancer and instructor of salsa lessons at local locations like the Longbranch Coffeehouse. He taught salsa lessons during his time in the Navy as well.

When Wilson moved from New Jersey to study zoology as a graduate student, their coincidental meetings led to a collaborative effort to bring salsa dancing to SIUC.

“He was always a teacher at salsa events I was at,” Wilson said. “It’s his dream, his passion, I support him.”

Friday at Sergio’s Mexican Restaurant in Murphysboro, the couple, along with a number of other club members, hired professional salsa dancers “Fuerza Salsera” of

St. Louis, to instruct a group of about 25 students and area residents for the first “Salsa at Sergio’s.”

The crowd lined up, divided by gender, while the two performers demonstrated basic steps and counting of salsa.

Friday’s event was the first sponsored by the club. To rent the restaurant, club members wore T-shirts with the Sergio’s emblem and were in turn able to throw the event free of charge.

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Daniel Lira met Barrenzuela in physics class and has attended all the organizational meetings since. Lira said the club started planning the event about two weeks ago.

Lira, a junior in automotive technology from Elgin, said growing up with a Mexican father exposed him to a lot of Hispanic culture.

“Whenever it was my Dad’s family, it would be all Mexican culture,” he said. “It’s as different as night and day.”

Noting the difference between his father’s heritage and that of his mother, who is white, he said salsa dancing does not have to be a strictly ethnic tradition.

“You don’t need to worry about not knowing how to dance,” he said. “It’s really personal, and it’s really easy to learn. For those who might be timid, it’s more of a fun experience than a scary experience.”

Barrenzuela decided, through his work as president of the Latin American Student Association, that SIUC was lacking a club focusing specifically on Latin American entertainment.

“My drive has always been entertainment,” he said. “It goes out of the Latino group, people from other races too. I wanted to create a group that specializes in Latin entertainment.

“The members of the salsa club should expect quality salsa lessons like you would receive in any metropolitan area. I’m raising the bar.”

Barrenzuela also said he wants to teach non-Latino students with PowerPoint presentations about the history of the dance and to teach the songs in Spanish to increase appreciation of the dance music.

“It’s not the country you come from, but the interest we have in salsa dance,” Barrenzuela said.