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11/28/2008 10:56:00 AM
A spicy dance that burns up the floor
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Written by Mary Kay Shanley - Photo by Eric Rowley
The couples move fluidly, each a visual reflection of spicy music that has wafted its way up from the Caribbean. Twirling, clinging, wrapping, breaking, they undulate one minute, stomp to an infectious African beat the next.
They have dressed for this occasion-to the nines, actually. The young and not-so-young, all made good-looking and whole. Music can do that to you. Their skin is real-world colorful, and they speak in many tongues. Factory workers, business persons, professional dancers, singles, marrieds-a not-quite-visible cross-section of Greater Des Moines, seeking the sounds of salsa, eager to dance until tomorrow.
Salsa, the dance, isn't as popular as the sauce of the same name, but in the last decade it has made major inroads in Iowa dance venues. Dances are held on a regular basis in the Des Moines area, and its advocates are hoping that more spots will be open to the popular music that wraps rhythm and blues, jazz and rock into one exciting exercise.
Three hot spots for salsa are the Warehouse, 3280 100th St. in Urbandale, the downtown Hotel Fort Des Moines and Dos Rios at 316 Court Ave. They draw crowds of advanced dancers, but also some who've never been on the hardwoods.
If you don't know salsa, you can take lessons early in the evening, before the veterans arrive. Or you can just come watch them. Real-time entertainment beats television hands down.
Salsa Man-although he would never refer to himself that way-is Ruben Zamudio III, a New Mexico native who now lives in West Des Moines. He first came to Iowa in 1996 to attend Drake University, but school didn't go "quite as planned." He returned two years later because, he says, "my first couple of adult steps were taken here. Some people wanted me to come back."
He went to work, first for a nonprofit organization active in the Latino community, then for Principal Financial Group, Inc. But Zamudio and a desk job are, at best, incompatible. He's landed now, right where he belongs: juggling a one-man endeavor that just might make Des Moines more fun, if not more cosmopolitan.
That would be Salsa Iowa, a creation of Pat Oswald's Coffeehouse Productions back in 1999. "I have a long history of being an eclectic music fan," says Oswald. "I played Latin music as early as the 1980s when I was with public radio in the Dakotas. In the late '90s, I was booking Latino talent for the Val Air Ballroom. Two friends, Marcia Lyon, an independent interior designer, and Alba Perez of the Greater Des Moines Partnership, kept encouraging me to find a place for people to dance salsa on a regular basis."
So when the Hotel Fort Des Moines approached Oswald about using its ballroom for anything his company might be producing, it was no surprise that he went with salsa. And Lyon just happened to have this friend named Ruben who could teach classes early in the evening, before those serious salsa people arrived.
The first Salsa Iowa night was in January, 2000. For the most part, there's been a salsa dance in Des Moines every month since then. "We became like Welcome Wagon for internationals," Oswald says. "People were coming from Africa, China, Central and South America and they all loved salsa. I met Russians who knew how to salsa because of Cuban influence by students attending Russian technical schools.
After six years with Coffeehouse Productions, Oswald is now in music education in Creston. "By that time," Oswald says, "Ruben had grown into the position of running Salsa Iowa. He could teach salsa and he was very good at getting like-minded people together."
Today, Zamudio owns Salsa Iowa, LLC. "I have the gene for teaching and the patience to do it," he says. "We offered lessons at Raccoon River Brewing Co. for three years; we're still at the Fort Des Moines, every Tuesday and Friday at the Warehouse and host the party at Dos Rios on Thursdays."
Lessons in merengue and salsa start at 9 p.m., give or take. People stand, side-by-side, in four or five lines stretching across the dance floor. Those familiar with Latin music and dance-mostly non-Des Moines natives-are rarin' to get started. The rest are, at the least, curious. Nobody's wearing a "How-the-hell-did-I-end-up-on-this-dance-floor?" look. And well they shouldn't.
"Salsa is a Latin Hokey Pokey," Zamudio says. "You put your left foot in and take your right foot out. That's where we start."
Then he flashes that Latin grin of his. "Contrary to popular belief, here in the Midwest you do have hips and you are allowed to use them. This is romantic music with a groove. People can do the merengue step the first night. Ballroom salsa is more challenging. Our older dancers remember Big Band days and link that swing with Latino music," he says.
In front of those lines of learners, Zamudio and Dawn Downing of West Des Moines demonstrate the 1-2-1-2 of merengue and the 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 of salsa. "In common terms, you would say this is bumping and grinding," says Downing. "Here, we say it is two people becoming one to the music and the flow of the room-or maybe the universe."
After an hour, or so, Zamudio announces: "Lesson's over. Now, use the dance floor wisely. Burn it up."
The first wave of Iowa Anglos will leave early. Not so the Latinos and the internationals, who Zamudio says come with an innate desire to dance.
"People applaud us as bringing a safe, fun connection to a culture that is not from here," he comments. "Unfortunately, other Latin venues were forced to close because of their tendency to be violent. That gives a poor light on the Latino community. But Salsa Iowa never had that issue. I mean, one of our locations is the Grand Ballroom of the Hotel Fort Des Moines. Latinos can't help but walk in, all dressed up, and hold themselves up a little taller."
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